the Cento

“Give me back my celestial bodies,” says Galileo Galilei during one of the many features of the Danville Community Arts Center’s current exhibit Space… Imagine That! The exhibit is aimed at elementary to middle school students and seeks to create memories and inspire new ideas in the young people who will one day lead our communities, states and nations.

The first floor of the exhibit houses the Discovery Dome; leased from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, it shows 14 different educational videos in a planetarium / IMAX theater-type inflatable dome. The movies range in topics from the moon and its phases to Mayan prophecies and science. Each video corresponds to a Kentucky school CORE requirement, making a visit to the exhibit a great field trip.

Executive Director Mary Beth Touchstone said that the dome draws a lot of visitors, some from as far away as Canada and Florida, and thought that most visitors say their favorite feature is Galileo’s Dangerous Truths.

Brandon Long, the Arts Center Program Director, is the man behind the beard. He portrays Galileo in a skit that explains Galileo’s theories and his invention of the telescope. Long said that he “wanted to show visitors the great leaps that can be made from a simple invention, the telescope, and that Galileo’s studies in Renaissance art also helped him to discern the things he was seeing through his telescope.”

He elaborated, saying, “I had to connect the dots to where viewers would realize that art does play a role in space exploration.” This part of the exhibit is in the Arts Center basement, where it is dark enough to show the glow of the earth and the sun when audience members help demonstrate the heliocentric model.

Among the other exhibits in the basement is the Mars Rover exhibit. Visitors can experience what it’s like to drive a space rover over Mars’s rough terrain with the aid of a simulated control center and Martian field. They can then design their own space rover with Legos while watching Everyone’s Space, which details the many types of space vehicles.

“Each year, we like to take a non-art theme and challenge ourselves to build an art-related exhibit around it,” says Touchstone. Touchstone says that for her, the Imagination Room does this best. In this second floor gallery, there are painting reproductions of Buck Rogers comic books, ray gun models and a jet pack.

One of the coolest features is the theremin, an electric musical instrument played by holding ones’ hands closer or farther away from a rod. Visitors use this to create their own soundtrack to the black and white sci-fi film playing in the room. Touchstone and Long both commented that this is their favorite part of the exhibit.

Also on the second floor are another gallery and Lisa’s Art Studio. In the second gallery, there are dozens of photos of space shuttles and astronauts with informational captions. At the “What Would You Weigh?” station, one can see how much one weighs on Earth, the moon and Mars. In Lisa’s Art Studio, kids can build their own ray guns out of cardboard tubes and other craft supplies.

Sophomore Sarah Green, whose favorite feature was the theremin, recently visited the exhibit. She said the exhibit was “really neat, and I was impressed by all the things they had. There were really cool interactive things to do.” She recommended that other Centre students visit the Arts Center for a fun afternoon activity and a good break from classes.

The overall emphasis of the space exhibit is on imagination and creativity. Of the sci-fi comics, Touchstone said, “These times came from the imaginations of the artists. Now, we are going into space, astronauts do use propulsion devices and there are space helmets. What are we imagining today that will become a reality in the lives of the children who visit our Arts Center 70 years from now?”

On a similar note, Long said that the Arts Center wants “people to leave this exhibit with the awareness that every aspect of space exploration has been the product of someone’s imagination long before it was an actual possibility.”

The Space… Imagine That! exhibit is sponsored by Danville Pediatrics and Primary Care and in part by Women’s Care for the Commonwealth. It runs from Jan. 5 through Feb. 26. The Arts Center is open Wed. through Fri. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sat from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets prices are $6 for adults and $4 for children. Big Brothers and Sisters can receive free tickets to the exhibit through the program, and all students (even college students!) pay kid prices.