Events and Activities

Satisfy your science curiosity in a safe environment during our SCFD Free Days and Free Nights. Explore exhibitions, catch a Planetarium show or see a special performance or activity.

Museum Admission is free Sunday, Oct. 20, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Join us for a day of science fun and inclusivity at OUT! at the Museum. As one of our SCFD Free Days, we invite the community to take part in shared discovery, learning and celebration designed for the LGBTQ+ community, allies and all science enthusiasts. Come as you are, ready to enjoy exciting performances by local artists, family-friendly activities and full access to our incredible exhibits. Don't miss this unique opportunity to explore, learn and be inspired in this festive, inclusive atmosphere that embraces our entire community. 

The Scientific & Cultural Facilities District is a voter-approved special district in the seven-county metro area that provides a stable source of supplemental funding to more than 300 scientific and cultural organizations inside the district's boundaries. The SCFD collects a one-tenth of 1 percent sales-and-use tax (or one penny on every $10 spent), providing approximately $40 million each year to area cultural attractions both small and large. 

Viernes 16 de agosto
Viernes 20 de septiembre

5-9 p.m.

Gratis con la entrada al Museo

¡Atención a todos los hablantes de español! Prepárate para “Noches en Español" en el Museo en donde puedes explorar los misterios de los agujeros negros en el Planetario Gates, mirar asombrosos documentales en la pantalla gigante del Teatro Infinity y conocer los secretos de las antiguas momias egipcias en un recorrido autoguiado. Y no solo eso, también tendremos anfitriones, guías de orientación y presentaciones especiales para mostrar objetos fascinantes de nuestras colecciones, ¡todo disponible en español! Reúne a tus amigos y familiares para una noche de descubrimiento y diversión en un entorno inmersivo en español que no querrás perderte. 

Compra tus boletos en línea o en la taquilla el mismo día.  También tenemos descuentos a través de tu biblioteca o presentando tu tarjeta SNAP, identificación de estudiante, educador o militar. 

Friday, Aug. 16
Friday, Sept. 20

5-9 p.m.

Free with Museum general admission

Join us for "Noches en Español" at the Museum! In addition to our everyday offerings in English, you will have a chance to embark on a journey to unravel the mysteries of black holes in the state-of-the-art Gates Planetarium, marvel at awe-inspiring documentaries on the giant screen Infinity Theater and uncover the secrets of ancient Egyptian mummies through a self-directed guide — all presented in Spanish. Not only that, but we’ll also have Spanish-speaking staff and a showcase of fascinating objects from our collections. Round up your Spanish-speaking friends and family and come to the Museum for an action-packed adventure you do not want to miss.

You can acquire your tickets online or at the Museum on the day of the event. Remember that we have discounts available through your library or presenting your SNAP card, student, educator or military id.

Museum open until 9 on most Fridays

Can't make it to the Museum during the day? Come for an evening visit during Friday Evening Hours! The Museum is open until 9 p.m. and admission prices remain the same. As always, admission is free for our members. We look forward to kicking off the weekend with you.

Thursday, Oct. 10
9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Free for Members

Members experience it first!

Step into the rainforest and meet fascinating live animals who call this magical place home. "Animals of the Rainforest" invites you to explore the wonders of ecology and conservation through expert animal care demonstrations and stunning displays. This exhibition features live animal species, including a sloth, reptiles, amphibians, tortoises and more, bringing you face-to-face with these extraordinary creatures. You'll gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of these ecological marvels. For those with energy to burn, enjoy clambering around fun animal replicas and tree sculptures throughout the exhibition — perfect for photos! Don’t miss Denver’s unique chance to experience the rainforest’s unmatched biodiversity and have a blast while doing it.

Little Ray’s Exhibitions and FARE - Foundation for Animal Rescue and Education.

Please note that your Preview Day ticket also serves as your Museum admission ticket for the day. You do not need to register for a separate admission time slot.

Wednesday, Oct. 16
6 - 9 p.m.
Free for Adult Members | Senior Members

Looking to experience “Animals of the Rainforest” in a quieter setting? Explore the Museum’s newest temporary exhibition during our 18+ members-only evening hours. You’ll meet face-to-face with live “Animals of the Rainforest” and leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation for ecology and conservation. 

Only “Animals of the Rainforest” will be open; the rest of the Museum will be closed. A timed ticket is required.

Little Ray’s Exhibitions and FARE - Foundation for Animal Rescue and Education.

2025 Registration: Opening January 2025
         Scholarship Registration is open by phone, all others listed online.
         Scholarship spots are set aside ahead of time from general camp registration spots.

Summer Day Camps get brains and bodies moving! Learn and play as we experiment, create, build, ask questions, and develop a knowledge of and passion for science. Our camps are led by experienced educators offering the best opportunity for fun and learning. 
For full day camps, children must be at least 5 years of age on or before their first day of camp.

Fall Science Camps
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., daily
Grades K–1, Grades 2–3, & Grades 4–5

3-day Camps
November 25th to 27th

Looking for something amazing for your kids to do during school breaks? At the Museum, your child will experience fun and wonder, see Infinity theater shows, and explore the marvels of our temporary exhibitions. Each day will be something new as we bring together our favorite camp themes and activities for 2024 Fall Science Camps! 

Online enrollment for Fall Science Camps opens in October! Scholarship registration is by phone only, call Guest Services at 303.370.6000, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Winter Science Camp 
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., daily
Grades K–1, Grades 2–3, & Grades 4–5  

4-day Camps
December 30th to January 3rd (No Camp January 1st)

Looking for something amazing for your kids to do during school breaks? At the Museum, your child will experience fun and wonder, see Infinity Theater and planetarium shows, and explore the marvels of our temporary exhibitions. Each day will be something new as we bring together our favorite camp themes and activities for 2024 Winter Science Camp! Camps offered for grades K – 1, 2 – 3, and 4 – 5.

Online enrollment for Winter Science Camps opens in October. Scholarship registration is by phone only, call Guest Services at 303.370.6000, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Spring Science Camp
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., daily
Grades K–1, Grades 2–3, & Grades 4–5  

5-day Camps
March 24th to 28th

Looking for something amazing for your kids to do during school breaks? At the Museum, your child will experience fun and wonder, see Infinity Theater and planetarium shows, and explore the marvels of our temporary exhibitions. Each day will be something new as we bring together our favorite camp themes and activities for 2025 Spring Science Camp! Camps offered for grades K – 1, 2 – 3, and 4 – 5.

Online enrollment for Spring Science Camps opens in October! Scholarship registration is by phone only, call Guest Services at 303.370.6000, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Wednesday, October 30

7 p.m.

Ricketson Auditorium

FREE 

No reservations required. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Explore breaking space news with space scientists and hear the latest updates on missions exploring the solar system, rocket launches, cutting edge astronomy, and more. 

This evening's presentation is by Curator of Space Sciences Dr. Ka Chun Yu.

Please use the West Entrance of the Museum. 

Wednesday, October 9th

Ricketson Theater

6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Free

No Reservations needed. Seating is based on a first come, first served basis.

Tentsitewahkwe, director Katsitsionni Fox (Mohawk).  As a young girl, Jessica Shenandoah (Wolf Clan, Akwesasne Mohawk Nation) learned about harvesting medicine and food plants alongside her mother and grandmother. In this documentary she embarks on a journey across all four seasons and multiple native territories to connect with other knowledge keepers reviving the land-based knowledge of their ancestral grandmothers, returning to time-honored practices of pottery making, mat weaving, hide tanning, medicine making, food gathering, and more. (Nia Tero, 2024, 17 min.). Image courtesy of Nia Tero.

Eagle Vision: Taking Native Business to New Heights, director Bryan Tucker.  Before Louie Gong (Nooksack) became known as the highly influential Coast Salish artist, activist and social entrepreneur he is today, with a knack for bringing people together, he was a young man with a dream. In this intimate account, Louie tells the story of how he launched the iconic lifestyle brand Eighth Generation, the first Native-owned company to produce wool blankets, triggering a movement that has diverted millions of dollars from non-Native corporations to a new generation of Native-owned businesses and artists. Louie rejected the notion of “Native Inspired” and created a company to showcase “Inspired Natives.” You’ll follow Louie as he raises seed money by conducting over 100 custom shoe workshops, and travels to culture-rich Metlakatla in rural Alaska to do one final custom shoe workshop and visit with Tsimsian artist David Robert Boxley, winner of Eighth Generation’s first Wool Blanket Design Contest. (2019, 13 min.).

With Louie Gong appearing in person for audience discussion/Q&A.
Louie will tell us about the next chapter of his story: after successfully disrupting a colonial system and then selling Eighth Generation to the Snoqualmie Tribe, he completed the blueprint for how to merge values and business, something he refers to as the “Native American Dream.”

Additional titles to be announced.

Sunday, October 13th

Ricketson Theater

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The Salmon Forest Project, director Bill Heath.  This compelling documentary paints a vivid picture of a threatened ecosystem and those who care for it. In the vast rainforest homelands of the Heiltsuk, known as the Great Bear Rainforest, extractive industries have exploited the land, breaking the fragile links that connect thousands of species. The salmon, which create a cycle that sustains a diverse array of plant and animal life, are now in peril. The film explores the intersection between traditional knowledge systems and western science, and offers a profound meditation on what the Salmon Nations of the Pacific Northwest have known for millennia – that everything in this world is connected, and those connections are essential to life. (Bill Heath Films, 2024, 27 min.).

Entropy, director Inuk Jørgensen (Greenlandic Inuit). What happens when the ice disappears? The vast Greenlandic ice sheet has been created over thousands of years, but today climate change is threatening the close and sacred connection between the land molded by ice and the Inuit who live there. Told from an indigenous perspective, the film celebrates Greenlandic mythology as much as it laments the nature we are all losing. In English and Kalaallisut (Greenlandic), with English subtitles. (Inuks.dk, 2024, 10 min.).

Ola Ka Honua (director Jilli Rose). This visually stunning animation recounts the tragic loss of native forests in Hawai’i and the tireless efforts of The Auwahi Restoration Project to restore one of these precious watershed forests. At one time, the Hawaiian Islands were covered with diverse, watershed forests, from Mauka to Makai, that housed a kingdom of plants and birds found nowhere else on the planet. Stressed to their limits from human impacts and invasive species, Hawaiian forest faded and wavered at the edge of existence. Ola Ka Honua tells the story of the rebirthing of the Auwahi watershed forest by a human community that cared and a landowner, ‘Ulupalakua Ranch, that took an uncommon stand. (Jilli Rose, 2022, 22 min.).

With Auwahi Restoration Project Director Art Medeiros for Q&A (via Zoom).

Tuesday, October 22th

Ricketson Theater

6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

February Sixteenth Nineteen Forty-Seven, director Jessica  ᒦᖒᐊᖅᑏ Miinguuaqtii (Inuk). Inuk Elder Levinia Brown shares the oral history of how she was born on February 16, 1947 while her family was travelling by dog team across the open tundra. Her story is illustrated by cutout stop motion animation of hand sewn Inuit wall hanging designs in the style of her own artwork. (Jessica ᒦᖒᐊᖅᑏ Miinguuaqtii, 2024, 4 min.).

At Roanhorse Camp, director Keli Mashburn (Osage). Muffled voices and ethereal landscapes take the viewer to a place of mystery and memory: Roanhorse Camp, an isolated location deep in the Osage Reservation that was one extended family’s ceremonial center and heart. The film presents a personal meditation on twilight, both dusk and dawn, and evokes the sights and sounds of ceremony, exploring the liminal space between dreams, memory and reality. Shot on location at Roanhorse Camp, the original allotment of Keli’s great, great, great grandfather, some of the few remaining native grasslands at Osage. (Keli Mashburn, 2022, 3 min.).

Our Father, director Clément Lagourde (Natchitoches).  A brother and sister pay tribute to their father, all three expatriates living in France, reconnecting with their indigenous roots through ceremony. The film reflects Clément’s own family history; his great-grandfather left Natchitoches to serve in World War I and remained in France, where Clément was born and currently resides. (Clément Lagourde, 2024, 4 min.).

The Bull of Cold, director Alexander Moruo. In this delightful animation, a little boy named Ayaal cajoles his grumpy neighbor, Old Buokke who is an expert ice carver, to teach him the art of ice sculpture. A charming lesson on persistence, forgiveness, and the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next.  (TUNDRA Animation, 2023, 8 min.).   Image courtesy of TUNDRA Animation.

Additional titles to be announced.