Shell Museum Adds Great Hall Spotlights Tours To Experiential Programming

provided to the Santiva Chronicle

The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum has introduced a new daily exhibit tour to its experiential program lineup.

Great Hall Spotlights guided tours take place at 3pm on the second floor in the Great Hall of Shells, a gallery of over 35 exhibits of shells, mollusks, and ecosystems they inhabit. Through Great Hall Spotlights, visitors learn more about local shells of Southwest Florida and their habitats, shells from around the world, world record-breaking-sized shells, and little-recognized micromollusks. Tour content varies each day and guests are encouraged to visit frequently to enjoy them all.

Great Hall Spotlights tours complement other experiential programs including the Giant Pacific Octopus Keeper Chats (11am daily) and Queen of the Sea Keeper Chats (2pm daily) that take place in the Museum’s Beyond Shells Living Gallery and aquariums. Great Hall Spotlights and Keeper Chats are included in the cost of admission.

“Guide-led dialogues enable visitors to more deeply experience the Museum as they learn from our experts about the shells on display and animals in our care,” said Sam Ankerson, Executive Director of the National Shell Museum.

Learn more at ShellMuseum.org.

About the Museum: The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum is a Natural History Museum, and the only accredited museum in the United States with a primary focus on shells and mollusks. Its mission is to use exceptional collections, aquariums, programs, experiences, and science to be the nation’s leading museum in the conservation, preservation, interpretation, and celebration of shells, the mollusks that create them, and their ecosystems. Permanent exhibitions on view include the Great Hall of Shells which displays highlights of the Museum’s collection of some 550,000 shells, as well as the Beyond Shells living gallery of aquariums and over 50 species of marine life. For more information on the Museum, please visit ShellMuseum.org or call (239) 395-2233.