Noah's Ark Exhibit: Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles

We waited about five minutes to enter the Noah's Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles after arriving on a Thursday afternoon, when admission is free.

I was visiting with two family friends who made the necessary reservations ahead of time and our almost-3-year-old children. I tried to look through the glass doors but was unable to really see the display. There were some dark figures in the front.

Then the doors opened and a guide took us briefly on to the first landing, where she spun some wheels, patted drums and clanged the handle of a bucket and then left.

As I became oriented to what was around me, I saw an elephant with musical parts, a polar bear made partly with the bucket and handle and zebras that had the spinning, rattling sides.

On the wall behind me was an alligator made partly from a tire. I could see a giraffe's head through thick strands of taut, translucent fiber that rose from the main floor below and the Noah's Ark exhibit.

We made our way down a flight of stairs seeing a jungle mural on the wall. Immediately at the bottom there were wheels to turn and gears to watch as they churned into action: spinning a wheel at one station turned a gear and made a piece of plastic quickly flap against the fiber; lifting a handle in another tube created wind and rising leaves; while another device made "thunder" and a separate tube allowed explorers to generate electricity and mimic lightening.

A pump handle created pouring water inside a plexiglass wall that lifted a wooden ark above the waves.
I stood at a separate station and pushed against a light metal handle. As I did, I looked up and saw the giraffe's head turning.

This one wall itself caught my granddaughter's imagination and we spent about 20 minutes at these stations.
Across the room was the entrance to the ark with interactivity that included a ramp to put animals, turn a wheel and have a conveyor belt take them to an opening in the ark.

Wooden blocks cut in different shapes could be slipped into another section to build a wall of the ark.

Inside were more activities that included pulling ropes to open light displays and then there was a passageway to another part of the exhibit. A rope walkway led up one side of the wall to netting and a walkway above. Rope ladders let kids climb up and down.

A rope to pull caused an elephant to sound its trunk and echo through the exhibit.
Then there was a craft table and guides in the room banged a drum to gather everyone for a story time about the ark and how the animals couldn't wait to get on dry land.

We arrived just after 2:30 and then went outside for a short picnic before heading home around 4:40. The two hours spent just in the Noah's ark exhibit was fun and an enjoyable time for me, my granddaughter and our friends.
We exited past a display of water spraying through nozzles against a metal background that cast a rainbow.
The use of gears, pulleys, natural materials and attention to detail makes the exhibit as interesting for adults as it is for kids.

The Noah's Ark exhibit was first installed at the Skirball Cultural Center in June 2007. It's a permanent display.
Admission is free on Thursday afternoons from 2:30 to 4:30 but reservations must be made in advance. Summertime reservations fill up quickly.

Advance tickets can be purchased for admission to see any part of the Skirball Cultural Center.

It's located off the 405 freeway at Skirball Center Drive just south of the 101 freeway.

For details on exhibits and membership visit www.skirball.org or phone 310-440-4599.

I highly recommend the Skirball Cultural Center as a site to see when visiting the Los Angeles area.