Sept. 21, 2016
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The 12th annual Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day Live! will take place on Saturday, Sept. 24. Museums around the country are participating by mirroring the Smithsonian Institution’s DC-based facilities, which have free entry every day, and offering visitors free admission to their respective museums with a special Museum Day Live! ticket. The West Virginia Division of Culture and History’s (WVDCH) four sites, the West Virginia State Museum, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex, West Virginia Independence Hall and Museum in the Park, also will be participating while offering special activities for visitors to commemorate the day. All special activities will be free and open to the public. The hours for all four museums are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The State Museum at the Culture Center in Charleston will have two new exhibits on display and children’s activities available in the museum’s education room. The 2016 West Virginia Diversifying Perspectives juried art exhibition is located on the balcony gallery and celebrates the upcoming National Disability Employment Awareness Month in Oct., and the 2016 West Virginia Farm Bureau’s children’s art exhibit titled Agriculture in West Virginia is on display in the south corridor of the Great Hall.
Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville will be offering outdoor and family-friendly activities. Visitors can craft festive fall foliage using special color diffusing paper. Celebrate the harvest season with a “Garden Checklist,” where guests will be given a checklist of items to find in the interpretive garden. Finally, visitors to the museum can see the newest exhibit, The Buried Past: Artifacts from West Virginia’s Wild, Wonderful History, and stop by the Discovery Table to make a souvenir booklet to take home as a reminder of their visit.
Museum in the Park at Chief Logan State Park in Logan is hosting their annual Civil War Ladies Tea beginning at 11 a.m. Visitors also can view the permanent exhibits featured in the museum. Among those exhibits are The Buffalo Creek Disaster, Railroad and Coal in Southern West Virginia and West Virginia Quilts and Other Textiles.
Other museums around the state also are participating in Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day and accepting Museum Day Live! tickets for free entry. The list includes Arthurdale New Deal Homestead Museum in Arthurdale, Huntington Museum of Art and Heritage Farm Museum and Village in Huntington, and Jefferson County Museum in Charles Town. For more information about these museums and to download a ticket for Smithsonian magazine Museum Day, visit http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts with Kay Goodwin, cabinet secretary. The division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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