Hayley Benton

hbenton@citizen-times.com

Those who have been counting the days for Asheville Museum of Science to open will have to wait just a bit longer.

The museum, a rebranding and relocation of Pack Square's Colburn Earth Science Museum, was slated for a summer opening at its new home on the corner of Patton Avenue and Church Street. But construction delays on the space have pushed the planned opening date to September.

"Summer ends on Sept. 21, so we're still trying to maintain that it's a summer opening," joked Anna Priest, executive director of the museum. "We’ll be open (in Pack Square) until the end of July, closing up shop and moving in August."

In its new home, an 8,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of the Wells Fargo building, AMOS is far more likely to attract street traffic than its location in the basement of Asheville Art Museum. This supports the museum's Spotlight Campaign, which intends to make science and science education more visible and attainable for local children.

Construction crews are finishing the framework of the new space, and "it’s almost complete," Priest said. Now, museum staff are working on developing interactive and fun exhibits for the first wave of patrons.

Under the new name, Asheville Museum of Science will expand its focus beyond earth sciences, though a tribute to its roots, a spruced up Colburn Hall of Minerals, will remain a constant exhibit at the new space.

Two of the three permanent exhibits will pay tribute to the natural beauty of Asheville. Though the scenery is no secret to anyone who's visited the area, the science between the trees might not be so apparent. A Southern Appalachian forestry exhibit will be built by a local carpenter, and an exhibit on the French Broad River will flow through the new space.

The third permanent exhibit will allow museum patrons to view and learn about dinosaurs and fossils — complete with a 12-foot-tall, 20-foot-long terataphoneus curriei skeleton, which Priest explained is "like a juvenile tyrannosaurus."

Colburn purchased the dinosaur in April, "so he's hanging out in the museum right now," Priest said.

On top of the exhibits, the Asheville Museum of Science will feature a STEM lab. With help from a $27,820 grant from Wells Fargo, AMOS' STEM lab will be filled with microscopes, a Van de Graaf generator, laptops and iPads, a 3-D printer and other technology to experiment with.

"We also did get a $75,000 robot donated to us, and it’s modeled after the Mars rover," Priest said.

The museum will celebrate the grant at a big check ceremony at 11 a.m. June 7 at its location in 2 S. Pack Square.

AMOS has raised $748,809 of its $1.3 million goal, the amount needed to move into the Wells Fargo building. And with the museum's annual fundraiser on the horizon, that gap will continue to close.

"Under the Stars is our annual benefit, and this is our third year hosting it," Priest said. "We have a silent auction, live music, local food and beer and wine donated by the community. We have 50 silent auction items at this point."

With Asheville's funk legend Lyric playing in the background, guests will bid on items like a weekend stay at a Banner Elk resort, two tours with Navitat, wine tastings with Metro Wine, among others.



"There will be dinner, games — we’re going to have a fire and some yard games and then a few announcements and then we’ll ... start awarding those prizes out," Priest explained. "Just a fun, social evening that will go toward our fund to help us move."

Under the Stars will be 6-9 p.m. June 9 at the Boathouse, 350 Riverside Drive. Tickets can be purchased at 3rdunderthestars.eventbrite.com.

AMOS is looking for a director of education. The director of education would plan and implement all educational programs, including school-year classroom field trips to the museum, weekend Super Science Saturday enrichment, summer camps, classroom outreach and participation in the annual North Carolina Science Festival. For more information, look under job opportunities at colburnmuseum.org.