Currier Museum of Art expanded in renovation

Currier Museum of Art expanded in renovation

MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Currier Museum of Art has reopened in Manchester, N.H., after a $21 million expansion and renovation.

Changes include a new spacious, glass-enclosed entryway, a soaring three-story lobby, a winter garden and five new galleries, along with moving doorways to allow a clearer view through the galleries.

The expansion allows the museum to exhibit 50 percent more of its collection, which amounts to about 11,000 objects.

Museum director Susan Strickler said she expects the new museum will attract double its usual 50,000 visitors a year.

For more information, visit www.currier.org.

Mount Rushmore tour wins excellence award

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. — The National Park Service is recognizing a self-guided audio tour of Mount Rushmore National Memorial that can be heard in English, Spanish, German or Lakota.

The Black Hills tourist attraction received the Director’s Award for Excellence in Interpretive Media during an Association for Partners for Public Lands awards banquet in Denver.

For $5, visitors can rent an audio wand and embark on the 29-station walking tour, which features narration, music, interviews, sound effects and historic recordings of sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his children.

It also includes interviews with original workers on the mountain and perspectives from members of local American Indian tribes.

For more information, visit www.nps.gov/moru.

Road through Laos links Singapore and Beijing

BANGKOK, Thailand — The landlocked country of Laos has inaugurated a new highway that will allow a north-south land route connecting Southeast Asia and China to operate year-round, the Asian Development Bank said.

The opening of Route 3 fills in the last stretch of road for what is supposed to be an all-weather route that at its full length connects Singapore to Beijing, the bank said in a news release.

The highway links China’s Yunnan province with northern Thailand via Laos.

The project to modernize the road network from the Thai capital Bangkok to Kunming, in Yunnan, was under development for more than a decade, the bank said.

Houston CityPass to be available May 13

HOUSTON — CityPass, the discount attraction booklet, is launching May 13 in Houston.

It will be the first CityPass in Texas and the only CityPass in the Southwest.

The Houston CityPass costs $34 for adults and $24 for ages 4-11. The price of the booklet typically works out to about half that of individually purchased tickets, and it also includes transportation directions, a map, hours and information compiled by National Geographic Traveler magazine about dining, shopping, neighborhoods and nightlife.

You can buy the Houston CityPass from www.citypass.com, at any of the participating attractions, or from the Greater Houston Visitor Center at City Hall, 901 Bagby St.; call (800) 446-8786.

Associated Press