DANCING WINGS BUTTERFLY GARDEN™

For more information: Susan Trien, 585-410-6359, strien@strongmuseum.org

Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden™ Overview
The first and only butterfly garden in Upstate New York. Guests will enjoy a variety of educational interactives about butterflies prior to entering a lush rain forest environment where they encounter approximately 800 brilliantly-colored, free-flying tropical and native butterflies that flutter about (and may even land on shoulders). A paved path leads guests around tropical foliage and two water features, including a cascading waterfall. Guests can visit the chrysalis case and see emerging butterflies. An adjacent support greenhouse contains plants to help keep nectar sources for the butterflies replenished.

Architecture

Designed by award-winning architectural firm Chaintreuil Jensen Stark, the graceful glass-enclosed structure resembles a giant butterfly in flight. At night, the structural wings appear “luminescent.” Here are some building statistics:
• The “wings” of the building are 30 feet high at the tips and 50 feet in diameter and are composed of steel rings welded together to create the appearance of a butterfly in flight. The membrane roof is essentially a woven fabric of fiberglass coated in Teflon®.
• More than 600 cubic yards of concrete have been poured down to bedrock to support the structure.
• Large underground duct work has been installed to handle heating and cooling needs that maintain a proper environment for butterflies.
• Surrounding the structure is a glass and stainless steel cladding system developed in Europe and new to the United States.
• More than 130 custom-designed stainless-steel glass frames make up the exterior with no two being identical.

Educational Activities

Just outside the butterfly garden, guests can enjoy a variety of educational and craft activities that teach about the behavior and life cycle of butterflies including:
• Shadow Wings: An interactive electronic shadow screen gives the illusion that butterflies emerge from hanging chrysalides and land on guests’ shoulders. Stillness of the participant triggers the butterflies to land. (This helps to teach children to stand still and quietly in the butterfly garden.)
• Magic Metamorphosis: Interactive puzzles teach children about the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly stages of the butterfly life cycle.
• Wings of the World: A world map highlights where butterflies live around the world.
• Migration Mania: An interactive touch screen prompts guests to help “Marti the Monarch” find her way from Rochester to Mexico before winter arrives. The interactive explores different obstacles a monarch butterfly must face in finding its winter home.
• Now Performing in the Butterfly Garden: Images of butterflies flying inside the garden that day.
• Butterfly Collecting, Then and Now: A history of butterfly collecting including a specimen case and other objects related to collecting.

Butterfly Facts:

• The butterfly garden is home to about 800 butterflies—and a few moths—that come from Africa, Central and South America, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the United States.
• Nectar plants provide food for butterflies. A tray of sliced bananas and other ripe fruit attracts butterflies as well.
• Butterflies have six legs and use their antennae to smell, their feet to taste, and their long tongue-like proboscis to draw nectar from flowers.
• The colors of flowers are important in attracting butterflies. They see a wider range of colors than humans do.
• Only bees pollinate more plants than butterflies.
• The butterflies’ color comes from tiny scales that cover their wings.
• Most butterflies live from two to four weeks. One of the longest living butterflies is the migrating monarch. It can live up to 9 months.
• Moths have scaled wings, just like butterflies. But moths typically fly at night while butterflies are active in the daytime.

Admission Fees as of July 14, 2006

General Museum Admission (does not include admission to Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden™): Adults $9.00; Seniors $8.00; Children (2–17) $7.00; Children younger than two free; Strong members free.

Admission to Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden™:
General Admission fee plus $3.00 per person for members and nonmembers; Children younger than two free. Due to limited capacity, entry to Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden™ is by timed ticket only. Advance purchase is recommended. To assure your admission into the butterfly garden during your visit, please call 585-263-2700 to purchase timed tickets.