Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Mall hosts exhibit years ahead of permanent science center

PolarExhibit

Erin Dostal

Five-year-old Brandon Laderoot of Henderson plays with a display at the “Ends of the Earth: From Polar Bears to Penguins” exhibit Sunday at Galleria at Sunset mall. The exhibit, put on by the Henderson Space and Science Center board, comes about five years before a permanent museum likely will open.

Ends of the Earth: From Polar Bears to Peguins

A fake Arctic Snow Bunting is on display at the Launch slideshow »

Map of Galleria at Sunset

Galleria at Sunset

1300 West Sunset Road , Henderson

What is baleen? Where do icebergs originate? How many penguin species are found in the Northern Hemisphere?

Those are just a few of the questions posed at the Henderson Space and Science Center’s first exhibit, “Ends of the Earth: From Polar Bears to Penguins,” at the Galleria at Sunset mall.

The exhibit comes about five years before the planned Henderson Space and Science Center is scheduled to open at a permanent location nearby, project manager Ray Shubinski said.

“I think people really want something like this in the area,” he said. “We’re filling a need. There hasn’t been anything like this in the Henderson area before.”

Catharina Sharp, 31, of Henderson, attended the exhibit Sunday with her two children, Elyas, 6; Cordelia, 7; and her nephew, Christian Junkar, 13.

Cordelia, who was wearing a penguin-shaped apron to go down the penguin slide, said her favorite part of the exhibit was the whale video.

Sharp said Junkar probably learned the most since he’s old enough to read and understand all of the signs.

“I just think anything where they can learn something is good,” Sharp said. “It’s nice that it’s at the mall.”

Daniel Laderoot, of Henderson, brought his 5-year-old son, Brandon, to the exhibit after his wife read about it online, he said.

“I really think it’s good for the city to offer things like this,” Laderoot said as his son darted from display to display. “It could probably be bigger, or have more interactive elements, but I’m happy Henderson sees the goodness in doing this.”

Laderoot said he was excited to see what the final science center would look like when completed. He said he plans to bring his son there when the center opens.

Shubinski said his favorite parts of the exhibit were the light-up iceberg display and the faux-Antarctic camp that allowed visitors to see what it was like to explore the tundra.

The exhibit, curated by Canadian-based Science North, came to Henderson after it was supposed to go to a museum in Fresno, Calif., that has since closed, Shubinski said. With nowhere to put the exhibit for the time it was to be displayed in Fresno, the company rented “Ends of the Earth” to Henderson for $60,000, which is less than half the price it would normally charge for such an exhibit.

The exhibit cost an additional $26,000 to ship and assemble, Shubinski said.

The $86,000 came from $234,000 in start-up funds set aside by the city for the science center. That money comes from the interest Henderson collects on $25.3 million it has in its land fund, according to Rob Brisendine, operations manager for the city’s Cultural Arts and Tourism Department.

In December, the Henderson City Council voted unanimously to approve a 160-acre lot of city-owned land near the Galleria mall at U.S. 95 and Galleria Drive as the future site of the center.

The area is expected to be a “mixed-use” plot with the science center serving as the centerpiece. The center is estimated to cost $63 million.

“Ends of the Earth” opened May 22 and will leave Henderson on Sept. 12. After that, the Anchor Blue store plans to move back into the space, meaning the science center board will have to look elsewhere for its next exhibit.

“It might be at my house in the backyard,” Shubinski said, jokingly. “The biggest problem is just that we can’t keep this space.”

He said the mall has been a great place for the exhibit, simply because it already gets so much foot traffic.

Shubinski said he hopes to bring in another exhibit by October. This time, he said, the theme will be outer space.

He estimates that about 100 to 200 people have visited the polar exhibit each day since it opened. That’s right on target for what he wants.

More than 4,000 young students are already booked to see the exhibit, which is far more than Shubinski expected to sign up within the first week of operation.

“This will be a success,” he said. “I have no doubt about that.”

The exhibit is on the second floor of the mall, next to Kohl’s. Adult admission is $6, while it’s $4 for children ages 5-17, $4 for people older than 62, $2 per person for pre-scheduled groups of 15 or more people, and is free for children younger than 4.

As for how many penguin species live north of the equator?

Zero. It’s a trick question.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy