Akron Zoo announces $17 million expansion

Akron Zoo announces $17 million expansion

AKRON

The Akron Zoo has announced a $17 million expansion plan that includes a new exhibit featuring lions and tigers.

Zoo officials say the Pride of Africa area will open in May 2019, and the Wild Asia area will open in summer 2020.

The zoo will also expand its train ride and add a new splash pad.

The expansion is taking place on three undeveloped acres of land that the zoo acquired several years ago from the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Zoo President and CEO Doug Piekarz says the two wildlife areas will be the zoo’s “largest expansion to date.”

Zoo officials say they will pay for the project with $11 million raised from a tax levy. The rest of the project will be funded through donations.

Wright Brothers visitor center reopens after renovations

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C.

Fourth-graders were the first to experience the renovated Wright Brothers National Memorial visitor center when it reopened two years after it closed for renovations.

National Park Service officials said in a news release that the center in Kill Devil Hills reopened with speeches. After that, Dare County 4th-graders and their families were the first allowed in the renovated center to promote their study of Orville and Wilbur Wright as part of their school curriculum.

The building and exhibit updates cost a total of almost $7.5 million.

The new exhibits highlight why the brothers chose Kitty Hawk for their flight experiments from 1900 to 1903 and what their lives were like on the Outer Banks.

Washington’s hair, rib of woman killed in 1777 on exhibit

TICONDEROGA, N.Y.

A display of Benedict Arnold’s hair at Fort Ticonderoga this year proved so popular that curators dug into the museum’s vast collection to see what other 18th century curiosities they could find.

Among the items they turned up: locks of George Washington’s hair and a rib bone from a woman killed by British-allied American Indians during the Revolutionary War’s 1777 Saratoga campaign.

Those artifacts, Arnold’s hair and five other items make up “Pieces of Eight: Curiosities from the Collection,” a new exhibit that opened recently and runs through April at the tourist attraction in the southeastern Adirondacks.

Curators say the rib bone came from Jane McCrea, who was engaged to a loyalist officer when she was killed near Saratoga. It’s believed someone took the bone as a souvenir.

Museum exhibit features Balenciaga’s designs in black

FORT WORTH, Texas

More than 100 items including dresses, gowns, suits, jackets and accessories – all in black – designed by famed Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga will be showcased in an exhibit at a Texas museum.

“Balenciaga in Black,” which opened recently at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, focuses on the designer’s artistry in working with black fabrics, embroideries and lace. The items were created by the late designer in the prime of his career – from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Museum director Eric M. Lee says Balenciaga “is among the most influential fashion designers of modern times.”

The exhibit is on display until Jan. 6.

Associated Press