NCMC Events From Around the State… October 7, 2013

1). Hands On! the children’s museum in downtown Hendersonville, invites you to Mad Scientists Lab:  Glow in the Dark Putty on October 22nd from 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Join Dr. Bunson & Dr. Beaker in the Mad Scientist Lab as they make crazy concoctions. $6 non-members (includes admission for child participating in class); free for members.  Limited spaces. Ages 3 yrs & up. Please call to 697-8333 register.

2). Historic Edenton State Historic Site invites you to Pirate Family Fun Day on Saturday, October 12th from 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse. Dress in your best pirate costume, tour the Queen Anne’s Revenge Traveling Exhibit, learn to fire a cannon, make pirate crafts, play colonial games and more!  Admission is $1 for adults and 25¢ for school age children.  Email Edenton@ncdcr.gov for more information.

3). Cape Fear Museum has an artifact looking for new home.  Due to storage and gallery space constraints, Cape Fear Museum has deaccessioned from its collections a Victorian-era freight elevator.  It was removed from the George R. French & Sons building at 30 North Front Street, Wilmington, when the building was being renovated.  Although patented in 1871 by James Bates of Baltimore, this particular elevator was installed in the French Building around 1898.  Platform, fly wheel, gears, frame, cable and weights are complete and all included. If you are interested in this object for your museum collection, please contact Barbara Rowe, Curator, Cape Fear Museum, at browe@nhcgov.com

4). Battleship North Carolina invites you to “Hidden Battleship” on Saturday, October 12th.  For the explorer at heart, bring a friend and join us for a unique, behind-the-scenes tour of un-restored areas of the Battleship. The four-hour tour consists of small groups with guides. Guests explore the bow (officers' country and boatswain locker), third deck (Radio II, brig, after gyro, storage rooms, ammunition handling, Engineer's office, torpedo area), Engine room #1, and climb inside the fire control tower to the top of the ship. The Azalea Coast Radio Club will be in Radio II to explain their work on the ship's radio transmitters. It’s the tour that brings out the “Indiana Jones” in all of us, without the snakes!  The tour is limited to ages 12 and older and limited to 40 participants per time slot. It is not appropriate for those who have difficulty climbing narrow ladders or over knee-high hatches. Wear warm, comfortable, washable clothing, sturdy, rubber-soled shoes and bring a camera! Choose between a morning (8:30 – 12:30) or afternoon (1:30 – 5:30) tour. Registration and payment are due by Thursday, October 10th. Tour is $50/$45for Friends of the Battleship or active military. Call 910-251-5797 for reservations.

5). Cameron Art Museum is providing an opportunity for local area educators in New Hanover and surrounding counties to learn about programs designed to support educators with their instructional requirements, museum educational initiatives, Museum School and the ways the museum works with educators to meet their school's focus and goals. During this free event, educators have an opportunity to explore engaging options open to them through the museum, whether the class they teach is math, science or even art. Learn what the museum has to offer while enjoying an evening among colleagues. Informational handouts and free passes will be given to educators.  The free Free Educator’s Night will take place on Wednesday, October 16th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

6). Country Doctor Museum brings “History Alive!” on Saturday, October 12th from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Free activities will include museum tours and horse drawn carriage rides from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Traditional and popular music from the mid-19th century will be performed by The Huckleberry Brothers Band.  Civil War re-enactors from the 1st North Carolina Field Hospital will have a replica medical tent and ambulance on display. Braxton Overby, a historical interpreter from Mordecai Historic Park, will demonstrate hearth cooking.  Vendors including Ward’s Steak and Cheese of Wilson will be selling a variety of food including barbecue, turkey legs, hot dogs, funnel cakes, fried Oreos and more. The Aurora Fossil Museum, Bentonville Battlefield, Historic Yates Mill County Park, Imagination Station Science and History Museum, Joel Lane House, Pope House Museum, Rocky Mount Children's Museum and Science Center, Roma’s Clydesdale Farm and Sylvan Heights Bird Park will offer free activities and demonstrations for visitors.

7). Waterworks Visual Arts Center invites you to register for a unique 2-day workshop with an award-winning fiber artist.  Acclaimed textile and book artist, Peg Gignoux, will visit from Raleigh for this special 2-day workshop.  Students will create one-of-a-kind sculptural handmade books from start to finish using the Coptic stitch binding method.  On Friday, students will create a variety of handmade papers to use in their book.  On Saturday, students will construct the cover, create the sections of their book using the handmade papers, and learn the Coptic stitching process.  This is a unique opportunity to learn these techniques to make more books at home to use personally or give as gifts!  Workshop is on Friday, October 25, 6-8pm and Saturday, October 26, 10am-4pm (bring a bag lunch!). Participants must attend both days. Tuition is $200.

8). North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the North Carolina section of the American Chemical Society have teamed up once again to present Chemistry Day on Saturday, October 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Museum. At Chemistry Day, kids and adults discover that there is more to chemistry than just protons and neutrons as they participate in hands-on chemical experiments, and enjoy exhibits and special presentations. Some of those experiments include testing the density of liquids with water and recyclable plastics, identifying plastics that shrink in the oven, and using iodine and starch to test for Vitamin C.  All of the Chemistry Day activities will take place in the Main Museum. Free. This year’s theme is “Energy: Now and Forever.” 

9). N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher invites you to carve out a win at the aquarium. Pumpkin? Check. Creativity? Check. Looks like you've got what it takes to enter the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher's inaugural Trick or Treat Under the Sea Pumpkin Carving Contest.  Get crafty this Halloween season and sculpt your best aquatic–themed jack-o-lantern to win!  Pumpkin entries will be judged based on originality, theme and craftsmanship. Winning entries receive scary good prizes including a $50 gift card and four tickets to Trick or Treat Under the Sea for the first place pumpkin.  All pumpkins will be displayed at the Aquarium’s annual pre-Halloween festival 5 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24 and Friday, Oct. 25. Thousands of children and adults enjoy dressing up and prowling the Aquarium galleries for spooky good times each year. Besides collecting treats and looking at cool pumpkin carvings, this year’s guests can enjoy roving performers, magic shows, games, spooky divers and, of course, wild critters. The pumpkin carving contest is free to enter. Trick or Treat Under the Sea tickets are $8, children 2 and younger are free. Entry forms, contest rules and advance tickets are available online and at the Aquarium.

10). Reynolda House Museum of American Art invites you to a new exhibition that will explore art as form of protest against social injustice. “Partisans: Social Realism in American Art” will be on view Oct. 5, 2013 - March 16, 2014 in the museum’s west bedroom gallery in the historic house.  “Partisans” is one of several small exhibitions of the museum’s collections that rotate periodically in the museum’s historic house galleries. These exhibitions are included in the cost of admission to Reynolda House. Information on current and upcoming exhibitions and works of art currently on view is available at reynoldahouse.org. 

11). Historic Wilmington Foundation’s ‘Vintage’ event returns on Friday, October 25th at 6:30 p.m.  The ‘Vintage’ Event will be held again at the elegantly restored Brooklyn Arts Center.  Our live and silent auctions will feature vacation packages and amazing experience packages, vintage finds and wine.  Guests will enjoy signature items from the area’s finest restaurants and caterers and live music.  This year we will again have the option of smartphone bidding for the silent auction.  Tickets are $100 per person, $175 per couple or special $50 pricing for those under 35. Tables of 8 are available for $640.  To purchase tickets or for additional information call 762-2511 or e-mail trivett@historicwilmington.org.  All proceeds go towards our mission at HWF to protect and preserve the irreplaceable resources in Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear region.