The Observer, March 28, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 22
Take advantage of Cleveland's culture with free museum-hopping tour
Unbeknownst to many students, there is so much to learn in Cleveland. The city offers a wide array of museums and cultural institutions unique to the Cleveland area. From the first day of orientation, the CaseOneCard, apart from simply acting as a student ID, provides Case students with access to Cleveland's top cultural institutions. From museums located on campus to ones that require a little travel, taking time to explore what a Case ID can access can turn into quite the adventure.
First stop on my museum-hopping tour was the Natural History museum, free with your Case ID. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is not only interactive and kid-friendly, but it also focuses heavily on local history, making it much more meaningful to members of the Case community. The museum is open until 10 p.m. on Wednesday nights, giving the museum a very different feel than a high school field trip. The dinosaurs are more realistic, the dioramas seem more vivid, and the stuffed wildlife appears alive. The halls are eerily empty at that hour of night, except for a small crowd gathered around the observatory and planetarium. The opportunity to look through the telescope at the stars, moon craters, and various planets is truly phenomenal.
Across Wade Oval from the Museum of Natural History is the Cleveland Botanical Garden. The two large greenhouses recreate the Cloud Forest of Costa Rica and the Spiny Desert of Madagascar. Unfortunately, a foot and a half of snow prevented the nine other outdoor gardens from being open to visitors, but the greenhouses provide hours of entertainment for nature-lovers and even those not so in love with nature. The most entertaining part of the Botanical Garden, however, may well be the butterflies roaming freely around the glasshouses. With surprisingly people-friendly butterflies, butterfly-chasing can take up several hours of fun for all ages at the Botanical Garden.
Still, to truly re-experience the joy of being a child, the Great Lakes Science Center is surprisingly fun, even as a college student. Although the Case ID does not provide free access to special exhibits, general admission is still worth the long Rapid ride down to the Science Center. The museum is full of interactive exhibits: on the first floor alone, you can land a fighter jet, hang-glide down a mountain, and play a laser beam harp. So many older students disregard the museum as geared toward younger children, but with three floors of interactive exhibits, a day at the Science Center as a 19-year-old student is just as rewarding. In addition to the chance to feel like a third grader again, the interactive exhibits seem much more meaningful when one actually understands the science behind them.
Only a few feet away, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame precariously leans over the Lake Erie shore. Cleveland's most popular attraction, the Rock Hall is either fascinating or wildly overrated, depending on individual taste and preferences. For music lovers, the Rock Hall is a unique opportunity to view artifacts of music legends. While the main attraction of the building only occupies the basement of the museum, the higher floors give visitors insight into the various styles and inspirations that shaped modern rock. Particularly poignant was the white wall constructed above the café, entitled the Mending Wall: written on the wall was a letter by Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett explaining the implications of fame and fandom.
For a great weekend adventure, convince a few friends to go museum hopping, and experience all the culture we have to miss out on due to our intense workload. In addition to these few museums, a Case ID can also get free admission to the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. The complete list is available at Access Services.
