Backyard Monsters!

The new exhibit is up! Backyard Monsters opened last Saturday, and even though it was a whirlwind installation, everything found a place and was up and operational in time. Getting the dragonfly hung in place was a particular challenge, but it was worth the effort and looks great, hovering over the entrance to the exhibit with its 10 foot wingspan.

The exhibit really fills in the gallery with a lot of information and entertainment. The giant robot insects are impressive, of course - when we first turned them on, I was impressed by how nuanced and complex their movement was. They definitely are more than just bugs on a stick!

I was equally impressed by the diversity of the specimen collection. There are dozens of very impressive specimens of insects from all over the world. Beautiful, iridescent Morpho butterflies, spiny walking sticks almost as long as your arm, giant bees, and even bigger tropical beetles...the exhibit has just about every cool bug you can think of. It'll make you glad you live in Southern California, and dont ever have to worry about finding one on your pillow in the morning!

The interactive exhibits have a lot of good information and really make it easy to understand how these bugs are put together and what makes them work. The robobugs are lots of fun to play with, too!

I think this exhibit is going to be a tremendous success here at the Western Center. The schoolkids that have been through the exhibit love it right away, and they're learning a lot as they go through. If you're close enough to make the drive to Hemet, we really hope you'll come out and visit, you cant really appreciate how impressive it is until you see it for yourself!

DJ