Land of Illusions coming to Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum

Land of Illusions to replace Paleontology Park Discovery Museum will be changing perspectives in early January.

WINCHESTER — The Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum’s popular Paleontology Park will be transformed into a Land of Illusions featuring the science behind what we see and what we perceive, activities sure to confound, and a mindboggling Ames room.

Be sure to stop by for the exhibition’s grand opening
on January 14th starting at 9 AM!

An Ames room is a distorted, trapezoidal room that is used to create an optical illusion and was invented by American ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames, Jr. The Ames room is viewed with one eye through a pinhole, and it is constructed so that from the front it appears to be an ordinarily shaped room, with a back wall and two side walls parallel to each other. However, this is an optical illusion, and a person standing in one corner appears to the observer to be a giant, while a person standing in the other corner appears to be very small. The illusion is so convincing that a person walking back and forth from the left corner to the right corner is observed to grow or shrink.

Local artisan and builder, Chris Robare developed his own version of the Ames room several years ago and is assisting with its installation at the Discovery Museum. The existing exhibition of the replica Triceratops skeleton will be on loan to the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville for several years.

About The Discovery Museum: Our mission at the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum is to spark curiosity and inspire learning through exploration and creative play. Since opening its doors in April 1996, the children’s museum has received over a half million visitors. As one of only 7 children’s museums in the State of Virginia (and one of only 350 children’s museums known worldwide), the Discovery Museum is a unique asset to the city of Winchester and the region.

Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum, 19 W. Cork Street, Winchester, VA 22601 http://www.DiscoveryMuseum.net