YAKIMA, Wash. — The Yakima Valley Museum is giving back to and raising awareness of more than 30 local charities through the 3rd Annual Holiday Lights Extravaganza.
Each of the charity organizations has a Christmas tree set up in the museum that showcases the work it does for the community, whether it’s caring for children, supporting the arts or helping the homeless.
Visitors pay $5 extra for admission during the event — a total of $12 for adults,$10 for seniors and $5 for kids — and get five scrip tickets to drop in the box of their favorite nonprofits. Each represents $1 that will be donated to support that charity’s mission.
Yakima Valley Museum director of development and board relations Susan Duffin said it’s a great way to give a little extra back to people making a difference, but it’s about more than the donations.
“[It] isn’t really a fundraising event; it’s a collaboration event, a way to share with the community all the wonderful nonprofits that are here, doing good for the community,” Duffin said.
Duffin said the event is a great way for families to get in the holiday spirit, but also to encourage them to come check out what the museum has to offer. She said it’s full of new exhibits and exciting changes they’ve made over the past couple of years.
The museum has shifted away from just having words or pictures on a wall and created dynamic displays, featuring backdrops, backlighting, less text and more interactive elements that appeal to different kinds of learners.
They’ve also increased accessibility for Spanish speakers, making use of limited space by using information panels that can be quickly flipped around from the English to the Spanish side and vice versa.
Duffin said they’ve also placed a significant emphasis on integrating technology into their displays, both to increase the amount of information they’re able to provide visitors and to appeal to a wider audience.
The Couture exhibit features award-winning and historically-inspired designs by 95-year-old Carolyn Schactler, a Yakima woman who was a professor of apparel design at Central Washington University for 28 years.
It also has a unique technological component designed to better showcase Schactler’s work. Many of the clothes are displayed on mannequins connected to a motion sensor that rotate them as visitors pass by, allowing them to see the whole design.
“We like to think of the museum as being a museum in motion, constantly moving and changing and adapting,” Duffin said.
The museum’s “Blue is the Clue” feature directs visitors to look for the color blue — whether it’s a rug, a sign or another feature — which identifies that part of the exhibit as being interactive.
One of the most interactive exhibits is also their newest, the mountaineering exhibit, which opened in April. Duffin said it’s been met with rave review from children and adults alike.
“It’s an exhibit unlike any other exhibit in the museum,” Duffin said. “It’s filled with technology and information that reaches you, in all different ways.”
It features an interactive map with aerial footage denoting the different peaks of Mt. Rainier, a space for people to try out different mountain climbing tools and lengths of rope for visitors to practice their knot-tying — and take the rope home as a memory of their visit.
People can also watch a first-person video of what it’s like to climb Mt. Stuart, which was taken by a local climber who wore a GoPro attached to a helmet while scaling the mountain.
“We’re taking you up the mountain, up close and personal,” Duffin said.
Duffin said her favorite part of the new exhibit is an augmented reality sandbox, where people can craft their own landscape and watch in real time how the lights change to reflect the changes in topography.
Visitors can see firsthand how the landscape changes depending on the height of a mountain, the depth of rivers and lakes or the way extreme events like a dam bursting might affect the area.
“We encourage people to dig in,” Duffin said.
Taller mountains appear white at the top to indicate snow and blue lights indicate deep pockets of water. The technology is also set up to create rainfall whenever someone holds their hand above a mountain with their fingers spread, indicating a cloud.
“Whether you’re interested in nature or science or arts, it’s all here,” Duffin said. “You just have to discover.”
Holiday Lights Extravaganza continues through Dec. 17 and the museum is open from 10a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Visitors can purchase extra tickets at $1 each if they want to donate more to any of the charities.
Participating organizations include:
- Childrens Village
- Childrens Wishes and Dreams
- Doxies of PNW Club
- Foundation for Vision Therapy Awareness
- Habitat for Humanity
- Heartlinks
- Homeless Network of Yakima County
- Junior League of Yakima
- La Casa Hogar
- Larson Gallery
- League of Women Voters of Yakima
- Life Choices Clinic and Care Center
- Lynchpin Foundation
- Memorial Foundation
- NAMI Yakima
- Peackeeper Society
- Rods House
- Tieton Arts and Humanities
- United Way of Central Washington
- Voices for Children
- Warehouse Theatre Company
- Wenas Mammoth Foundation
- Womans Century Club of Yakima
- Yakima & Selah Neighbors’ Network
- Yakima Asian Pacific Islander Coalition
- Yakima Coffeehouse Poets
- Yakima County VAS
- Yakima Master Gardeners
- Yakima Rotaract
- Yakima Symphony Orchestra
- Yakima Valley Museum
- Yakima Valley Trolleys
- Young Women’s Christian Association
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