Museum of Idaho announces new exhibits
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The Museum of Idaho (MOI) is bringing in multiple new exhibits during the next year, each offering new experiences to Eastern Idaho.
The museum’s large new exhibit hall will host Genghis Khan: Culture & Conquest from January to September 2022, then Toytopia from September 2022 to January 2023. MOI also opened a smaller exhibit, Layers of a Town: Works by Roy Reynolds, this past Friday.
Genghis Khan: Culture & Conquest immerses visitors in 13th-century Mongolia under the reign of a visionary, but brutal leader. Washington Post historians called Genghis Khan the single most influential person of the last millennium – both for his bloody establishment of history’s largest land empire, as well as the lasting cultural and scientific advances he and the empire spread. The exhibit offers opportunities to explore art, war, and domestic life in Genghis Khan’s empire through 300 original artifacts from ancient Mongolia and engaging interactive experiences. In addition to being the museum’s first-ever Asia-focused exhibit, Genghis Khan also brings another first to MOI: daily live musical performances. Genghis Khan: Culture and Conquest is produced by Dino Don, Inc., and will run at MOI from January 22 to September 5, 2022.
Toytopia brings visitors through the science and history of toys and games, from our ancient ancestors through each decade of the 20th century and on to today. This nostalgic and eye-opening exhibit uses toys and games to teach creative problem solving and design thinking, and shows how that creativity has been applied throughout history. Naturally, it also includes numerous interactive experiences for kids and kids at heart, such as an 8-foot-tall Etch-a-Sketch – the world’s largest – a life-size dollhouse, a “Big” piano, Lego wall, and numerous playable classic board games and video games. Toytopia is produced by Stage Nine Exhibitions and will run at MOI from September 30, 2022, to January 29, 2023.
In addition to the large showings, MOI has just opened a special pocket exhibit called Layers of a Town: Works by Roy Reynolds. This exhibit features 30 oil paintings showing perspectives of historic Idaho Falls through the eyes of Roy Reynolds, a prolific local artist who passed away in September. Layers of a Town is open now through February 13, 2022.
The museum’s current large special exhibit, Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out, remains open through December 5. The museum’s large new Idaho history exhibit, Way Out West, remains open for the foreseeable future.
