Fernbank Fall Exhibits (Mondays)

From the venue:

Golden Opportunity

Aug. 31 – Jan. 1, 2025

Discover the world of yellow plants and pigments in this special artistic exhibit. Showcasing both the art and science found in yellow plants, Golden Opportunity: Botanical Illustration features pieces of art created by members of Denver Botanic Gardens’ School of Botanical Art & Illustration, as well as display cases highlighting dried plant materials used in creating yellow dye, from plants to pigment to colored textiles.

Exhibit Page

Armored Animals

Dive into the history of animals connected by their use of armor.

On view Oct. 5, 2024 - Jan. 5, 2025

Armored Animals invites guests to experience an immersive tour through the last 500 million years of armor evolution. Explore impressive artifacts, including evolutionary necessities like defensive plates and highly ornate spiny displays, casts from animals like fish and dinosaurs, giant insect sculptures, a 30-foot skeletal replica of the giant crocodilian Deinosuchus and more to illustrate the evolution of armor found in the animal kingdom. This exhibit also explores how humans have adapted the use of armor, including helmets and armored suits, to demonstrate the ways early warriors sought to capture the incredible defensive power that animals possess.

Exhibit Page

Cities of the Future

Playing Daily at Noon, 1:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m. Run time: 45 minutes

Cities of the Future explores a world where everything is possible and problems can be solved. From aerial highways and flying air taxis to cities powered entirely by solar energy, smart buildings designed to save electricity, and greener infrastructure, this family-friendly film offers an inspiring vision of how we will live 50 years from now. No, this isn’t science fiction — this is the world engineers are designing now!

Travel to Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Singapore and more, where profound change is already happening as you meet the engineers and visionaries whose human ingenuity is forging a brighter, more sustainable future that will change how we live forever.

Narrated by critically acclaimed actor John Krasinski, Cities of the Future is produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers, the same award-winning team that created the blockbuster film Dream Big: Engineering Our World. 

exhibit page here

Giants of the Mesozoic

 
Ongoing Exhibit

Stand beneath some of the world’s largest dinosaurs as you enter this snapshot of life in prehistoric Patagonia (145-165 million years ago). Take in a scene of an epic dinosaur battle between Giganotosaurus and Argentinosaurus with a flock of pterosaurs scattering away.

Play the role of a paleontologist as you examine the terrain to discover buried and trace fossils of other plant and animal species, such as dinosaur tracks, an Araucaria tree, a crocodile and a turtle shell.*

Exhibit Page

Star Gallery

 
Ongoing Exhibit

Each star was carefully plotted on the ceiling, forming an illuminated star chart. The fibers used to create the stars vary in diameter, allowing them to shine with 22 varying degrees of brightness. More than 6 miles of fiber optic wires accurately portray the 542 stars twinkling above.

SkyWatch screens provide daily programming about constellations, planets and astronomical events.

Visitors can find the stars in the Star Gallery using the following guide:

• Stand facing the doors to the Giant Screen Theater, which is toward the south, to recognize the constellations in the appropriate direction.
• Antares in Scorpius and Arcturus in Bootes are located near the World of Shells exhibition.
• By moving away from The World of Shells exhibit toward the Great Hall, which is eastward, visitors will pass under stars visible in the early evening in the spring, summer, autumn, winter and spring again.
• Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) is easily recognized over the double doors to the Great Hall.
• Andromeda is near the center of the room.
• Orion nebula (M-42) is just below the belt stars of Orion.
• Aldebaran (in the constellation Taurus) and Betelgeuse (in Orion) are found among the winter stars on the side near the Great Hall

Exhibit Page