Next step for Natural History Museum: A new website

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In its ongoing quest to transform itself from a stodgy repository of scientific specimens and artifacts to a lively learning center about the mysteries of life on Earth, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County on Wednesday will launch a new website. The site, www.nhm.org, is intended to appeal to a broad audience with a fresh look that includes eye-catching images and multimedia content.

Part of an effort to re-brand the historic museum in Exposition Park as an institution devoted to ‘inspiring wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds,’ the site is designed to help visitors chart a course through the museum and teachers schedule field trips for their students, with lesson plans and activities. It also will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the museum’s collections and what’s going on in the curatorial departments and research laboratories.

The online update is one of several steps leading to the museum’s centennial celebration in 2013. Two sections of the refurbished Beaux-Arts 1913 building will open in summer 2010 with new exhibitions in the rotunda and Age of Mammals galleries. Another renovated hall, Dinosaur Mysteries, will be unveiled in summer 2011. ‘Under the Sun,’ an exhibition about Southern California’s environmental history, will follow in spring 2012.

-- Suzanne Muchnic

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