Layers of Life
To support its vision of becoming a premier educational center for lifelong learning about the natural history of the Cayuga Lake Basin and the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, the Cayuga Nature Center is looking to build a permanent exhibit on the layers of life in Northeastern forests.
Visitors to this exhibit will walk away with a better understanding of how each part of the environment, including humans, is connected with every other part through the various layers of life on Earth, especially the layers of forests in central New York State. The exhibit will emphasize positive changes that individuals can make in their own communities after they leave the Nature Center. In addition, the indoor exhibit will connect and serve as a gateway to the outdoor exhibits and trails at the Nature Center, including our popular six-story tree-house, and to nearby Smith Woods, our 32-acre old growth forest with trees over 250 years old. With this variety of habitats -- including meadows, streams, gorges, and different forest stands -- we are able to illustrate and provide examples of human impact and how human actions in the past have influenced our present forest ecosystems and future ones.
Exhibit Overview:
This 2000 sq. ft. immersive, hands-on exhibit will guide visitors through the forests of the Cayuga Lake Basin by breaking down the layers of the critical zone, exploring where life lives on our planet, and seeing where we fit into Earth systems and how we can help support healthy environments. Topics like biodiversity and climate change will play central roles in the exhibit content and design.
This new exhibit will introduce visitors to their outdoor adventure at the Nature Center. Instead of dividing our story by topic or science, our story will be told as the complex, interconnected tale of life in our forest. With this interdisciplinary content, visitors will observe the world around them and then discover for themselves why it is the way it is.
The exhibit will engage the senses; with elements to touch and sounds to hear, visitors will use their senses to see the big picture–the web of life. Layers of Life is designed to be an experience that uses scale to create interest, from larger than life mushrooms to tiny specimens on view under a microscope. The exhibit will be enriched with taxidermy from the Nature Center’s extensive collection, in addition to insect specimens, a collection of animal skulls, and a large topographic map that allows visitors to explore the property. A number of interactive exhibit elements throughout the exhibit expose visitors to the surprising life around them. We plan to create an engaging space from the floor to ceiling, including murals and custom flooring to help visitors distinguish different layers of life within the space.
In addition to the physical exhibit, an online exhibit will make accessible all exhibit content and graphics to broader audiences who aren’t able to visit the physical exhibit and for those who did visit and want to explore more deeply from home.
EXHIBIT AT A GLANCE:
• AUDIENCE: The primary audience for this exhibit is families and children, many from surrounding rural areas that do not have as much access to cultural institutions and non-formal education venues as residents of the City of Ithaca and surrounding suburbs.
• EXHIBIT OPENS TO THE PUBLIC: Anticipated Spring 2024 opening.