All Things Dinosaur At GRPM

'Expedition: Dinosaur' Opening Party Takes Over the Grand Rapids Public Museum This October Including Special Appearance by Dinosaur Train’s Buddy the Dinosaur

Grand Rapids -The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is excited to be hosting a special Expedition: Dinosaur Opening Party to welcome the newest traveling exhibit on Saturday, October 13! Expedition: Dinosaur lets visitors become paleontologists as they explore the Mesozoic-era dinosaurs and see and control life-sized animatronic dinosaurs!

Expedition: Dinosaur will open on Saturday, October 13 with a special Opening Party fundraiser from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. benefiting the GRPM. Visitors of all ages will have first access to the exhibit at this party to explore the fascinating world of dinosaurs and the hunt for their fossils.

The Opening Party will be first access to Expedition: Dinosaur and take over all three floors of the GRPM with live dinosaurs roaming and additional dinosaur hands-on activities. Activities include cracking geodes with Dr. Diggs, going on a fossil dig, seeing and touching fossil artifacts from the GRPM Collections, and a special photo opportunity where visitors become dinosaur in special face morphing technology!

Community partners will also be hosting special dinosaur themed activities throughout the Museum as well, including making dinosaur buttons out of retired dinosaur books with Kent District Library, DIY geological dig with 4-H Tech Wizards, live birds, reptiles and amphibians with Blandford Nature Center, a raptor vehicle outside the Museum from Keller Ford, and special appearance of Buddy the Dinosaur from PBS Kids’ popular Dinosaur Train program.
 
Thanks to sponsorship from WGVU Public Museum, Buddy the Dinosaur will be at the Museum from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 13. Buddy the Dinosaur is a curious, funny, and intelligent T-Rex and the star of PBS Kids show Dinosaur Train. He is cautious, but always ready to jump into action and start asking questions. While on the Dinosaur Train, Buddy makes a hypothesis and begins searching for the answers to his questions with the help of his Mom, the Conductor, and the new dinosaurs he meets on the train.

The Expedition: Dinosaur Opening Party will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults, $13 for children, $10 for member adults and $5 for member children. The Opening Party has limited capacity. Special meal deals will be available throughout the day.

For tickets and more information on the Expedition: Dinosaur Opening Party visit grpm.org/DinoParty.

Before the Opening Party, visitors can join the Museum for an exclusive Breakfast with the Dinos on Saturday, October 13 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Breakfast with the Dinos includes access to Expedition: Dinosaur, special hands-on activities, breakfast and make and take your own fossil! Breakfast with the Dinos is open to only 200 visitors. Breakfast includes pancakes, eggs, sausage, fruit, donuts, juice and coffee. Breakfast with Dino ticket holders are invited to stay for the Opening Party.

For tickets and more information on Breakfast with the Dinos, visit grpm.org/DinoBreakfast.

Breakfast with the Dinos and Expedition: Dinosaur Opening Party are sponsored by Arnie’s Bakery & Restaurant, Aunt Millie’s Bakeries, Kaat’s Culligan of Grand Rapids, Old Orchard Juices, Tyson Foods, Pepsi and Van Eerden Foodservice.

Expedition: Dinosaur
Expedition: Dinosaur taps into our fascination with these incredible creatures. It is perhaps the closest experience to what it would have been like to be in the presence of a living, breathing Mesozoic-era dinosaur.
This exhibit has something for every age and interest, from life-sized and lifelike animatronic dinosaurs to mechanical and electronic learning stations. Visitors can learn about modern imaging techniques like high-energy neutron beams that reveal the inside of a T. Rex skull in microscopic detail never seen before. The exhibit includes a number of hands-on interactives that explain dinosaur movement, digestion, and evolution, and show the life and methods of dinosaur hunters from the 1800s to today.
Exhibition: Dinosaur comes to the GRPM from Stage Nine Exhibitions and is on display from October 13, 2018 through Spring 2019.
This exhibit focuses on the science of paleontology. Exhibit developer Stage Nine Exhibitions engaged renowned paleontologist Dr. Thomas Williamson to consult and inform the exhibit. Dr. Williamson, Curator of Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, was featured in the PBS documentary "The Day The Dinosaurs Died."