Backyard Monsters: The World of Insects
March 9 - September 2
Giant bugs are invading the museum! Backyard Monsters: The World of Insects features giant robotic insects along with interactive learning displays and one of the world’s largest private specimen collections.
The exhibit of Texas-sized bugs is so realistic and true to life that it has been endorsed by the Entomological Society of America. The colossal moving creatures that make up Backyard Monsters include an enormous praying mantis and a monarch butterfly with a 19-foot wingspan. Experience them all in natural settings under a gossamer dragonfly with a 10-foot wingspan hanging overhead. Each figure contains a system of animated robotics that enables it to demonstrate lifelike movements.
There are also hands-on educational-play stations in Backyard Monsters. “Bug’s Eye View” allows a visitor to view their friends and family through an insect’s compound eyes. At “Robo-Bugs,” visitors can control six-legged robotic creatures with a remote control and at “First Flyers,” they can learn the methods of insect flight.
Specimen cases containing exotic insects and arachnids from around the world make up the third major component of the exhibit. Visitors can see the world’s largest beetles and bugs with unusual features such as walking sticks. Insect preservation, camouflage and insect anatomy are also included in the displays.
Backyard Monsters was created by Garner Holt Productions, Inc. Download our exhibit discount!
Explore the world of bugs up close and personal with The Houston Arboretum and Nature Center
Saturday, March 30, 11 a.m. - The Health Museum Grand Hall
Find out more about insects when The Houston Arboretum joins us at the museum for a presentation all about bugs. Real live bugs and fun activities! Included with your general admission ticket.
Voyage
January 18 – September 2
Hundreds of artists and thousands of hours over several years has resulted in the first ever art exhibit featuring the work of young patients and their families from the MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital Arts in Medicine Program. The exhibit, Voyage, features three large-scale art projects along with a photo series of patients working on additional projects. The larger art pieces were created over the past few years. The mural, which is part of the exhibit, is an original work designed by creative pediatric cancer patients specifically for The Health Museum.
Patients worked in collaborative groups and in one-on-one art sessions using print and digital media to create the projects while undergoing treatment. The art projects were produced through the Arts in Medicine Program at MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital, led by director Ian Cion. Sessions with patients are designed to foster creativity, distract them from their time in the hospital, set goals that parallel their treatment plans and also to encourage collaboration among patients on larger projects. The results are the works of art in this exhibit on display at the museum.
