Party in the Panorama set for Oct. 18

LAWRENCE — With everything from microbial art to fluorescent geysers, a science festival atmosphere will permeate the galleries for this year’s Party in the Panorama at the KU Natural History Museum.

The museum will offer Party in the Panorama: a Science Soiree for Grown-ups from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. The fundraising event includes science demonstrations and hands-on activities, food and drink, music, as well as opportunities to support museum outreach programs for schools, children and families.

Tickets are $40 each or two for $75 and available through the KU Alumni Association, at kualumni.org/panoramaparty.

With jazz playing in the Panorama gallery, home to the iconic exhibit that dates to the 1893 World’s Fair, attendees can try their skill at the museum’s life-size version of the game Operation, Anatomy Alex. They can practice their creative skills by making art with microbes or fish prints through the ancient technique of gyotaku. Museum staff will offer science demonstrations with ingredients found in any bar or saloon: the science of solvents, burning money and how light reflects, absorbs or transmits in alcohol. 

Attendees can “shop” in the galleries for projects that they want to help the museum achieve in the coming year. Using special markers to draw on exhibit glass, visitors vote with their support for items that will improve museum exhibits and programs, from restoration of the Panorama prairie dog to summer camp scholarships.

There also will be a photobooth where attendees can take their photo with the horse Comanche and Panorama creator Lewis Lindsay Dyche.

All proceeds from the event will benefit museum exhibits and children’s programs.