If you love scales, spiders and sharks, good news: following a year of work and renovations, one of the biggest museums in western Massachusetts has reimagined and reopened its live animal center, complete with a new exhibition.
For years, the Springfield Museums has been home to paintings, fossils and exhibits across five museums, overlooking part of the city's downtown.
It's also played host to a live animal center that just wrapped up what museum officials are calling an "evolution," getting a facelift and displays with fauna from near and far.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, state lawmakers and museum staff marked the launch of the center's new permanent exhibition, "Living Waters: From Oceans to Valleys."
Found in the Springfield Science Museum, the year-and-a-half's worth of work features an array of new displays and animals - in addition to previous tenants.
The displays include Amazon River Terrariums housing colorful dart frogs, a red-tailed boa constrictor, and - for the non-arachnophobes in your life - a pink-toed tarantula named "Martha Graham."
There's also a shark tank, intended for epaulette sharks - little guys from Australia and southern New Zealand - and a Mangrove aquarium, loaded with cardinalfish.
Also on display - plenty of local aquatic life, as well as a replica of a familiar face that's greeted visitors over the years, says museum aquarium curator Daniel Augustino.
“Coming down on the bottom floor, you're greeted with Woody the Wood Turtle, one of our animal ambassadors, now represented with this replica,” he told WAMC, pointing to the almost three-foot-tall replica of the much smaller reptile. “He's been educating people for over 50 years in captivity. And you're also introduced by the Connecticut River Watershed and this beautiful, cascading aquarium where people can see juvenile sunfish - they're going to see those fish grow into adults. We have full-size brook trout, which are, really, one of the most beautiful fish throughout the world, crayfish, and we have an Eastern Box Turtle - another animal ambassador that's been educating people for probably about 40 years in captivity.”
He says things came together quickly after construction started in April.
The space features new tanks and life support systems installed for the resident species, an interactive, haptic map of the Connecticut River and the New England tributaries feeding it, and more, according to the Springfield Museums Director of Science Jenny Powers.
Renovations are underway #AtTheMuseums!
— Springfield Museums (@SpfldMuseums) September 12, 2024
A new look means a new start, say ‘Goodbye” to the Live Animal Center and “Hello” to Living Waters: From Oceans to Valleys! Look forward to new animals, new habitats, and more–including this interactive map of the Connecticut River! pic.twitter.com/7fmu8NX3lO
“There are so many wonderful animals, many of them are babies,” Powers said during the exhibition’s kickoff event Friday. “I'm excited as visitors walk through the door, seeing this for the first time - they have an absolute look of delight. They love to climb on the turtle. They love to run their finger down the Connecticut River on the map. We've added so much more accessibility in this exhibit. We want to serve all different kinds of people here in the [Springfield] Science Museum - science is for everyone. It makes everyone's life better.”
Powers notes that while the space has been a home to aquatic life and beyond in the past, the renovations allow for a more “cohesive story,” following a theme of what’s in your local watersheds, as well as some of the most diverse bodies of water in the world.
Springfield Museums CEO and President Kay Simpson says $500,000 in state and federal grants went toward the renovations, including a $465,000 federal earmark sponsored by Massachusetts U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.
Other sources included the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism and the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation.
Hampden State Senator Adam Gomez says the investments benefit the community. Touching on his own childhood visits to the museum, the Democrat added for many newcomers, it’s one of the first spots in the city they visit.
“This is a place where children and their families and individuals that come and make Springfield home – [the museums] are one of the first places that they come to, especially when they really don't have a lot of money to go to other, different places,” Gomez said, touching on the museum’s free admissions policy for Springfield residents who present proof of residency. “Because of the partnership that the city has created with the museums - if you're a resident of Springfield, we want to be able to encourage people to come to the museums, because it's free, and that's one of the biggest things.”
Also sharing childhood visits to the museum were Springfield State Representative Carlos Gonzalez, Hampden Hampshire and Worcester State Senator Jake Oliveira, and Mayor Sarno. Sarno says for local children who don’t have many means to get outside of the city, the museum plays a significant role in putting the outside world in front of them.
“I remember as a little kid, it was a big deal to come down to the museum,” the mayor recalled. “We used to do field trips from White Street School and it was a big deal … for a lot of the children in the Springfield area and surrounding areas,” Sarno recalled. “The planetarium, I remember that. I'd bring my daughters down here when they were younger, and my cousins or nephews, when they were younger … and just to be able to experience things that kids might not see - opening up their eyes, and I think that's important.”
The exhibition is now open.
For full disclosure: Springfield Museums has previously been an underwriter for WAMC.
