We've just had a cancellation for our traveling SPIDERS! exhibition,
developed by the National Museum of Natural History and circulated by
SITES.

The available dates are 2/1/97 - 7/27/97.  The exhibition is usually booked
in 12-week booking periods; however, the available time period is
several weeks longer, so we have quite a bit of flexibility in the dates.
Please call or e-mail to inquire (contact information below).
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EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION:

From fascination to phobia, spiders weave spells over all of us. They
figure in legend and lore the world over, yet their reality is as fantastic as
any fiction. SPIDERS! examines this incredible creature and traces its
roles in nature as well as its relationship with humanity.

What often intrigues us about the natural world is how other organisms
solve the fundamental problems that confront all living things#finding
food, finding a mate, producing healthy offspring, fending off danger.
The goal of this exhibition is to reinforce the idea that all living things
share common objectives in life. How better to make this point than with
spiders#considered creepy and strange by most people? All spiders
want to do is make a living, yet their ways are very different from ours.

Visitors will leave the exhibition SPIDERIZED#they#ll never look at spiders
in the same way again. These are the concepts they will take with them
from the exhibition:

1.  Spiders are incredibly diverse and beautiful.
2.  Spiders are found everywhere, in almost all habitats.
3.  The bites of very few spiders are deadly or dangerously poisonous
to humans.
4.  Because they eat insects, spiders help maintain ecosystem balance
and benefit humans.
5.  Spiders have the same problems we do#finding shelter, meeting a
mate, raising offspring, finding food.
6.  The diversity of web architecture is both beautiful and engineered to
catch different kinds of prey.
7.  Spiders are part of folklore, literature and legend.

Although the biology is serious and the subject matter scientific, curators
and arachnologists Jonathan Coddington and Petra Sierwald ensure that
visitors enjoy their SPIDERS! experience. Produced by the National
Museum of Natural History, the design of the exhibition is based on a
spider#s eye view, so like a spider's web, there are no right angles. The
design emphasizes moss greens and blacks since spiders are commonly
found in bushes and grasses and mainly come out at night. The design
also playfully employs reflections, transparencies and radical
perspectives. The text, too, will be playful, though factually accurate,
with headlines like #Scary?# #Hairy?# # EEEK!#

SPIDERS! won a 1995 Exhibit Award from the AAM Curators' Committee.
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EXHIBITION SPECIFICATIONS:

Size:
6,000-7,500 square feet (558-698 m2) required
(approx. 5,000 square feet (465 m2) for the exhibition and 2,500 square
feet (233 m2) for the Spider Lab)

Security:
High

Special requirements:
19 electrical outlets
10' 6" (3.2 m) ceiling clearance

Fee:
$65,000 for 12 weeks; can be prorated; please call to inquire.

Shipping:
Prorated, approximately $18,000, 5 trucks

Additional benefits:
Technical assistance provided for installation and takedown
Includes comprehensive educational, publicity, registrarial,
development/promotion, and merchandising materials.

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CONTACT:

Nicole M. Bouvier
Scheduling & Exhibitor Relations Director
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES)
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202.357.3168 x120  phone
202.357.4324  fax