We are in the final days of our current permanent science gallery, Changes in Our Land.

On February 3, we’ll start dismantling Changes, and preparing to construct an exciting new exhibit, themed around how natural cycles shape our world. This completely re-imagined gallery will showcase the museum’s finest science specimens, many of which haven’t been displayed in years. It will be expanded in size from the previous gallery, more interactive, and with more themed learning goals for adults and children to explore.

With a planned grand reopening in spring of 2021, the new gallery will be here before we know it, and we are hard at work making sure everything is ready.

Sean Murtha is one of the exhibition preparers at the museum, and a very skilled artist. His paintings and models have been featured many times at the Bruce. Now, he puts his skills to use in creating giant models of insects, worms, and more of our assorted arthropod neighbors. These will appear in the Big Backyard Gallery, where visitors will be able to learn more about tiny environments from the world around them.

Elsewhere in the museum, Anne von Stuelpnagel and Dan Buckley have been working on creating bundles of Neocalamites plants, an ancient type of horsetail that could grow up to two meters high. These will go into the Triassic Connecticut diorama. Sean Murtha created a miniature of a second planned diorama, seen above, which will include a Dilophosaurus dinosaur leaving trackways across a mud flat.

During the month of December, you can learn more about the planned renovation of the permanent science gallery at our display case set up in Greenwich Town Hall. It includes a selection of objects related to the new exhibition, including some Neocalamites plants, two of the diorama miniatures, and the skull of Postosuchus, an ancient reptile that prowled Connecticut during the early days of the dinosaurs.

If you are curious about what’s coming up next for Science at the Bruce, make sure to swing by Town Hall over the next few weeks.

This painting of Postosuchus didn’t quite make it to Town Hall, and greets museum employees entering through the lower level. As the massive beast looks over its shoulder, it reminds us to remember the past, even as we move forward. It’s an exciting time to be involved in science at the Bruce!

- Kate Dzikiewicz, Science Curatorial Associate and Seaside Center Manager