NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAPS: TOOLS FOR ADVENTURE

September 27 - January 11

The Museum of Arts and Sciences will present National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure, developed by the world’s largest children’s museum, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis in partnership with the National Geographic Society, the world’s most recognized map experts. Traveling to venues in North and South America and Europe and reaching an estimated 4 million visitors, The Museum of Arts and Sciences is currently scheduled as the only venue in the Southeast for this significant exhibition.

The exhibition is filled with activities to help visitors navigate through new, interactive technologies and ancient mapping techniques. Dynamic elements within the exhibit are grouped by land, sea, air, and space exploration.

• Maneuver a robot through the Great Pyramid to search for Khufu’s tomb
  
• Sit in the simulated cockpit of Amelia Earhart’s plane and plot her journey
  
• Search for Blackbeard’s pirate ship off the coast of North Carolina with Phil Masters
  
• Steer a canoe using the North Star with Nainoa Thompson, who became the first Hawaiian in nearly seven centuries to practice wayfinding in a traditional canoe
  
• Track elephants in the jungles of Africa with wildlife biologist, Dr. Michael Fay
  
• Drive a rover on the surface of Mars in a computer generated activity
  
• See a real, life-size model of the Mars Rover on loan from National Geographic

Many special events, classes, and family days are planned in conjunction with the exhibition. One of the world’s most well-known archeologists, Dr. Zahi Hawass, who currently serves as the Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, will present a lecture in Macon on October 2.

National Geographic MAPS: Tools for Adventure was created by The Children's Museum of Indianapolis in cooperation with National Geographic Society and made possible through a lead gift from Lilly Endowment, Inc. with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!
The exhibition’s presentation in Middle Georgia is sponsored by the Dorothy V. and N. Logan Lewis Foundation, Dixie Stewart/Ship and Shore Travel Agency, the Medical Center of Central Georgia,  Butler Automotive, Cox Communications, Sara Beth Hertwig, Charles H. Jones Family Foundation, Security Bank, Tred and Nancy Shurling, The Virgil P. Warren Family Foundation, Beverly and Ed Olson, Bill and Fran Matthews, India Benton Lesser Foundation, Margret Ellis, Hal McSwain, 13 WMAZ, The Telegraph, Macon/Bibb Convention and Visitors Bureau, Barnes & Noble, and The Galleria at Centerville.

MERGE VISUAL

September 11-November 2

Merge Visual explores new territories opened up to artists by the convergence of technological innovations with the forces of creativity. Perhaps artists, using today’s technical innovations, are the ones opening new realities. The older traditions of art making could be facing an identity crisis, or a renaissance, or something all together new due to the burgeoning and accessible technologies available today. In the artist’s hand, pixels and projections can become brush marks. An audio/visual system can become a canvas. The merging of the new and the old sometimes leads to a synergy in the ‘latest’ technology. This exhibition will look at the changes and developments digital advancements have made to the visual arts and will attempt to address the following questions:

• How have artists integrated the computer into their chosen mediums/disciplines?
• In what ways has the computer helped artists to make works that were not possible before the invention of such technology?
• What new uses for computers have artists discovered?
• How has computer technology affected art made today?
• How has it affected our assumptions about art?
• How has the use of the computer affected our assumptions about art and ‘traditional’ mediums?

Silicone Valley converges with art history - appropriately enough - at your Museum of Arts and Sciences. Merge Visual’s gallery displays will be joined by an exciting and experimental component in the Mark Smith Planetarium.