May 5, 2005

Special Exhibits Gallery renamed R.P. Simmons Family Gallery

Pittsburgh ... Beginning Monday, May 8, Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Special Exhibits Gallery will be known as the R.P. Simmons Family Gallery. The hall's new name recognizes the R.P. Simmons Family Foundation for its pledge of $5 million to endow the changing exhibits program.

The gift, announced in February, will help underwrite the cost for hosting special traveling natural history exhibits at the museum, as well as support the maintenance of the hall. A private reception will be held Sunday, May 7 to officially dedicate the new gallery.

The Special Exhibits Gallery opened in May 2003. Since then, the museum has brought a number of internationally recognized traveling exhibits to Pittsburgh, including Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas, The Sculptures of Allan Houser, and The Mysterious Bog People. Special exhibitions present the most current discoveries and interpretations of scientific and cultural issues in the world today. They are a natural complement to the museum's permanent exhibits and are an essential component of its educational mission. Currently on display is the exhibit, Wild at Heart: National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Located on the third floor of the museum, the 8,000-square-foot exhibit area meets the strict space and climate control requirements for the museum to bring in major traveling exhibits as well as smaller, environmentally and climate sensitive exhibits.

The gallery is equipped to handle robotic exhibits, and is wired to provide power for electronics such as computers and video equipment that often accompany traveling exhibits. It is also climate-controlled, a requirement for exhibits that contain artifacts that can be damaged when exposed to humidity and temperature fluctuations.

The next exhibit in the R.P. Simmons Family Gallery is Amazon Voyage: Vicious Fishes and Other Riches, which opens September 2.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, welcomes 350,000 visitors a year and reaches another 150,000 through educational outreach programs. It is the third largest repository of dinosaur fossils in the world, and its total collections exceed 21 million objects, specimens, and artifacts.

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