ROM goes wild with fun-filled programming and new A Slice of Life series for Nature Month
(Toronto, Ontario – March 31, 2010) – The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) joins forces with Mother Nature to celebrate Nature Month this April with an exciting line-up of programs for museum visitors of all ages. All month long, families can go wild at the ROM with hands-on workshops and green crafts, unforgettable lectures, and eco-friendly menus and shopping, while exploring the ROM’s feature Nature Month galleries. Special highlights include an earth-themed ROMkids Sleepover, a sold-out evening lecture with world-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, and a screening and discussion with Sharkwater filmmaker Rob Stewart. Mid-month, the ROM celebrates Earth Weekend on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18 with daily screenings of the Disneynature film earth and special environmental programming.
Museum visitors will also experience the start of the ROM’s new year-long A Slice of Life programs − a series of workshops, podcasts, lectures and teaching tools produced in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources to encourage the appreciation of Ontario’s diverse plant and animal life.
Family Programs
There’s always plenty to do at the ROM and, for Nature Month, special family programs have even more for museum visitors to enjoy and experience.
Wild Zone Hands-On Workshops
Sundays and Mondays in April; 10:30 am- 3:00 pm
These weekly drop-in workshops bring the biodiversity of Ontario to life. Each workshop is hands-on and interactive to engage guests in learning about Ontario’s four ecozones − the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canadian Shield, Mixedwood Plains, and the Great Lakes − as well as their unique characteristics, the risks faced by different species and habitats in each zone, and what can be or is being done to preserve this provincial biodiversity.
Friday Nights at the ROM’s Earth Rangers Studio
Friday, April 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30; 4:30- 9:30 pm
Every Friday throughout April, evenings in the Earth Rangers Studio in the Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of Biodiversity are filled with hands-on activities, curator lectures, and special guests discussing a range of biodiversity-related issues.
ROMkids Sleepover- Nature Theme
Friday, April 9- Saturday, April 10; 5:00 pm- 10:00 am; Public $75, Members $67.50, Groups of 10+ $67.50
Guests experience the ROM in the dark with Toronto’s ultimate backstage museum pass. Before bunking down, visitors enjoy a special movie screening and exclusive after-hours access to ROM galleries. Guests can also get up close to Museum artifacts, speak with ROM experts, and make their own take-home souvenir. This sleepover’s theme: NATURE! To learn more about ROM Sleepovers or to register, visit https://www.rom.on.ca/programs/rom_kids/sleepovers.php
Earth Weekend
Saturday, April 17- Sunday, April 18; 11:00 am- 4:00 pm; included with Museum admission
Earth Weekend at the ROM features fun family programs including green crafts and environmental activities. Children can bring in egg cartons, toilet rolls, and tissue boxes to help save the planet by turning trash into treasure while having fun!
Film Screening of Disneynature’s earth
Saturday, April 17- Sunday, April 18; 11:30 am- 1:00 pm & 2:00 pm- 3:30 pm; included with museum admission
Narrated by James Earl Jones, Disneynature’s 90-minute film earth is an epic adventure that follows three animal families − polar bears, elephants and humpback whales − on a remarkable journey across our planet. With stunning photography that captures rare footage of nature’s most elusive animals, families are invited to enjoy this story full of warmth, humour and pathos with four special ROM screenings.
Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth- Workshop with Rochelle Strauss
Saturday, April 17, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, included with museum admission
Rochelle Strauss, author of children’s book Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth, looks to her book in this interactive workshop to demonstrate how all living things, including ourselves, are linked to each other. If every known species on Earth were a leaf on a tree, that tree would have 1, 750, 000 leaves. Humans count for just one leaf, so we have lots to learn about the millions of other life forms with which we share the world. This workshop offers hope and vision for the future by empowering the audience to take action to protect the planet. A full-group activity provides audiences with a strong visual, proving that each one of them has the power to change the world.
A Slice of Life Programs
In celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity, the ROM has partnered with the Ministry of Natural Resources to offer A Slice of Life, a new year-long initiative. This program includes a series of workshops, podcasts, lectures, and teaching tools that encourage Ontarians to appreciate and protect the province’s rich diversity of plant and animal life from Polar Bear Provincial Park to Point Pelee.
Jane Goodall: 50 Years of Chimps and Change
Friday, April 9; 7:00 pm; SOLD OUT
World-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall reflects on the past five decades of her research in this compelling lecture. Dr. Goodall highlights the extraordinary change the world has seen since 1960 for people, animals, and the environment. Presented by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada in partnership with the ROM and Centre for Environment, University of Toronto, this lecture is part of the Museum’s Biodiversity: Slice of Life Lecture Series and is supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources. For more information, visit www.janegoodall.ca
Finding Your Inner Fish
Wednesday, April 7; 7:00 pm; FREE
Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago, and author of the book Your Inner Fish, tells the 3.5 billion-year-old history of the human body through the fossils and DNA of our cousins in the living world. This history is contained in every organ, cell, and tissue inside of us. The story of our body - why we look the way we do - can be found in other primates, worms, and even fish. Shubin reveals how fossils demonstrate the deep connections we have to the rest of life on our planet.
Sharkwater
Thursday, April 15; 7:00 pm; FREE
Filmmaker Rob Stewart joins the ROM for a special screening and exclusive discussion of his film Sharkwater (2007), winner of 34 international awards. This beautiful underwater film becomes a real life drama when Stewart uncovers the corruption and danger behind shark finning. His remarkable journey changes from a mission to save the world’s sharks to a fight for his life, and that of humankind. Stewart’s documentary exposed shark finning to global audiences and spawned a worldwide conservation movement. This discussion highlights the importance of sharks and oceans to our survival on earth.
The Cultural Life of Plants
Thursday, April 22; 7:00 pm; FREE
The Cultural Life of Plants lecture features Jane Ash Poitras, internationally acclaimed First Nations artist and lecturer, who demonstrates that plants are an integral part of cultures around the world, determining the nature of their social structures and focus of their activities, particularly as they relate to spiritual beliefs and ceremonies. Her fascination with this elemental aspect of cultural foundations and evolution inspired Poitras to study this phenomenon, participate in numerous ceremonies, and reflect the experience through her art and lectures such as these.
Contexts− Lectures at the ROM
On the last Wednesday of each month, the ROM hosts its Contexts lecture where experts share their newest discoveries in the fields of natural history, world cultures, the environment, anthropology and archaeology. In keeping with Nature Month, April’s lecture features Oliver Haddrath, ROM Ornithologist, who will discuss the Tree of Life.
The Branches of the Tree of Life
Wednesday, April 28; 11:00 am lecture in Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre; included with Museum admission
One of the great ambitions in science is to construct a tree that shows how all the planet’s organisms relate to one another. Realizing this “Tree of Life” is the first critical step in allowing us to fully reconstruct natural history and learn how life spread and diversified. This lecture discusses some of the new analytical tools and methods used today to help unlock the fundamental questions surrounding the origins and history of many groups of birds and mammals.
Shopping and Dining Specials
Guests can take a break from Museum exploration to treat themselves to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or something special from one of the ROM restaurants or retail locations. Each location offers something unique during Nature Month.
ROM Museum Store
Throughout Nature Month and beyond, the ROM Museum Store celebrates nature’s gifts by offering a range of Canadian and globally sourced earth-friendly products that include giftware, jewellery, apparel, books, and toys. This sustainable earth featured merchandise is highlighted throughout the store.
ROM Restaurants
The ROM’s family restaurant Food Studio Café offers locally-sourced menu specials while, at the ROM’s fine dining location c5 Restaurant Lounge, a scrumptious prix fixe locavore menu is also featured.
Green Gastronomy
Thursday, April 29; 6:30- 10:00 pm; $65 plus taxes and gratuities (includes dinner, beer and wine selections)
Returning to c5 Restaurant Lounge, the extremely popular Green Gastronomy program celebrates local food and wine with guest chefs, farmers, food activists, and beer and wine makers. This sustainable food and wine program features superlative dinner and wine menus that reflect a sensitivity towards local suppliers and to the land.
For more information on ROM Nature Month shopping and dining, visit https://www.rom.on.ca/dining_shopping/index.php
Feature Galleries
Collections and research are the basis of the ROM’s international reputation. With almost six million objects, the Museum's diverse collections of world cultures and natural history make it one of the largest museums in North America. Guests can explore the ROM’s array of themed galleries, and to celebrate Nature Month guests are encouraged to make a special visit to the Museum’s feature galleries.
Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of Biodiversity
Introducing children to key aspects of life on earth, the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity is an interactive space that explores our world’s biodiversity and the many factors affecting its conservation and survival. This gallery showcases 2,500 specimens including a colourful aquarium, home to live reef invertebrates and small fishes, and Bull, the famous White Rhino, one of the ROM’s Iconic Objects, who welcomes visitors entering the gallery’s Rotunda entrance.
Patrick and Barbara Keenan Family Gallery of Hands-on Biodiversity
Here, visitors can try on field gear used by ROM researchers, see live creatures in living displays, and more. This gallery introduces visitors of all ages to the complex relationships between all living things and features examples of flora and fauna from different ecological regions. Offering an excellent venue to handle hundreds of specimens, the Gallery of Hands-on Biodiversity includes interactive tabletop displays, wall activities, and many thematic specimen drawers.
Bat Cave
Bigger, better and scarier than ever, visitors must discover the new Bat Cave. With more bats, animatronics, and atmospheric sights and sounds, children love to discover the real stories behind bats. Highlights include an audio-visual show exploring cave formation, how bats use echolocation and more, and a dramatization of bats in flight during a nightly exodus for food.
Originally opened in 1988, the ROM’s Bat Cave is a realistic portrayal of the St. Clair Cave in Jamaica, based on ROM fieldwork at the site. The new cave draws on this original ROM research as well as recent findings from a return trip to Jamaica in February 2010.
Gallery of Birds
With hundreds of species of birds in flight − from a large albatross with a nine-foot wingspan to a tiny little hummingbird − the Gallery of Birds includes interactive pull-out drawers that contain real eggs, feathers, footprints, and nests. This gallery also showcases mini dioramas that demonstrate how environmental changes and habitat destruction have put different species in danger.
Other Information
Nature Month activities are included with general Museum admission: adults, $22; students and seniors with ID, $19; children (4 to 14 years), $15; children 3 and under are free. Half Price Friday Nights, presented by Sun Life Financial, take place from 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm. To book a group of ten or more, and for more information on private guided tours or group menus, please call ROM Group Sales at 416.586.5889 or email groupsales@rom.on.ca. Visit www.rom.on.ca for more information about what else you can find at the ROM.