Welcome back to WNIN Field Trip!

My name is Brody Atchley, and today we're heading to Downtown Evansville to explore our very own art history and science museum!

WNIN Field Trip is brought to you by Explore Evansville, highlighting what's happening across Vanderburgh County, from local events and attractions to places to stay.

Details at exploreevansville.com Along the riverfront in downtown Evansville is the Museum of Arts, History and Science.

And to take us along for this Field Trip is the Director of Marketing, Chelsea Walker.

We are a multidisciplinary institute.

We feature art history, science.

We have something for pretty much everybody, from young kids to adults.

We've got our hands on science center.

We have, of course, our train over at Amtrak, sort of famous around here.

Kids love it.

All of that kind of stuff.

We've got Picasso and sort of everything in between.

We love being something that anybody could walk through these doors and find something that they relate to in some way.

So this is one of our permanent collection galleries.

This is pieces that were purchased through our Mid States exhibitions, which is temporary rotating exhibitions.

These ceramic pieces over here, these are by Todd Madison, who's the chair of the art department at you.

This piece over here is by Kyle Darnell.

He teaches at Signature School as an art teacher.

What about this one?

Yeah.

So this is Helena Richardson.

This actually won one of our purchase awards.

So this will now become a permanent collection item in the museum.

It's kind of hard to pick just a couple of pieces, because we also have so many changing exhibitions that come through the space that always have a favorite or two of mine.

So it's always nice to come in every couple of months and see something brand new.

So this place is ever changing.

So when have you come here?

You're never going to see the same thing on display.

Pretty much.

Yeah.

Every couple of months we've got something changing, whether it's art, science, history, there's always going to be something different.

Going back to the Picasso, how do one of his works end up in Evansville?

So sacred?

Wang, one of our previous directors here at the museum, he came in and was heavily responsible for expanding the museum's collection over the years.

He had a lot of friends that he'd made from before he came here.

And with that, a lot of those friends were also art collectors.

So at different points in their lives, or maybe after they passed, they left a lot of pieces to us.

The Picasso is one of those pieces.

Here she is in all of her beautiful glory.

Oh, wow.

You just you can't experience it without seeing it in person.

And that feels very cliche coming from somebody who works at a museum.

A friend of Doctor Wang's donated it to the museum, and it was so unique that at the time, people weren't sure if it was an actual Picasso or not.

And that's sort of why it stayed off display for so long, because at the time, there wasn't any research into Picasso's glass work or anything like that, so it was really hard to authenticate.

The whole piece itself just feels very alive, which again, is a very unique experience.

Now let's discuss the planetarium.

Probably really basic to ask, but describe it like what is a planetarium for the few that don't know.

Yeah.

So we are technically a planetarium and immersive theater, so we have the ability to show both.

So full dome.

So 360 views all the way around you of the stars and the universe and planets and the Milky Way and all of that kind of stuff.

Whoa.

Yeah.

This is what it's like to literally walk into space.

I think whenever people hear the word planetarium, they have a very narrow minded view, like they think, oh, planets in the name.

So it must mean nothing but space.

Planetariums in and of themselves are very space beamed.

You know, you'd go as a kid, they'd either have that inflatable one, or if you had one nearby, you'd go and you'd watch a star show, and they tell you about where the constellations are and the zodiac signs and all that kind of stuff, which is stuff that we do here, but also the fact that we can do immersive films, one of which is our newest film, Ningaloo.

You basically dive into the coral reefs and you float around in a submarine and you learn all kinds of different things about sea life.

Art, history, science, and the train.

There's always something new to explore at the Evansville Museum.

For more information on the museum, you can visit their website.

Thanks for coming along with us on another WNIN Field Trip!

Thank you.

Explore Evansville for sponsoring WNIN Field Trip!