Oh, if these museum exhibits could talk ... and walk

, Star Tribune

The iguana sculpture outside the Science Museum of Minnesota has been around for three decades.

Local curators would like to spend a night at their museums watching these objects come to life.

By BILL WARD, Star Tribune

Last update: May 21, 2009 - 5:36 AM

Like the original, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" finds stuffed animals, stiff statues and dusty dioramas springing to life. Major chaos and minor hilarity ensue.

Could it happen here? Uh, probably not, but we asked officials at Twin Cities museums which object(s) at their facilities they would like to see come alive, and why.

Naturally, animals -- small, larger and in between -- dominated this informal survey. But some curators cited inanimate objects, generally in the "if this thing could talk" vein.

"We've got a duster [coat] from the Northfield raid. I would love for that to come to life so it could tell me who wore it," said Matt Anderson, curator of three-dimensional objects at the Minnesota History Center. "We know it was worn by one of the James-Younger gang, but we don't know who. So that would be a terrific mystery to be solved."

Bakken Museum curator Juliet Burba offered up a similar wish involving an early-19th-century toy powered by static electricity. When "charged," the tightrope-walking doll teeters back and forth, and her pole touches brass rods that are alternately attracted and repelled by the electrostatic charge.

But Burba wants more. "I would like to hear the stories from the doll," she said, "to learn what it was like from the people who were engaged with electricity back in its early days."

Elsewhere, animals rule the roost. That's hardly a surprise at the Bell Museum of Natural History, where Katie Speckman settled on beavers, even though wolves are her personal favorites.

"Beavers are something that children love," said Speckman, the museum's coordinator of youth and family programs. "They're not scary, they're not huge, they're kind of goofy-looking.

"We have a beaver skeleton, and it would be hilarious if that started moving around."

At the Minnesota Children's Museum, exhibit developer Mary Weiland would like to see large versions of a small animal take on lives of their own.

"We have fiberglass-sculpted ants in our giant anthill, and the kids don ant suits and work their way through there," said Weiland. "If they could go in and see what ants do all day, that would be amazing. Ants are one of the first animals kids are aware of."

One caveat, though: The queen, which is about 4 feet long, "probably would need to shrink down a little bit. She's rather formidable."

No such qualifier holds at the nearby Science Museum of Minnesota, where a super-sized resident was the staff's consensus come-to-life pick: Iggy, the 2-ton iguana that for three decades has loomed outside the museum's entrance.

"It's about time we thanked him for his loyal service to the museum and encouraged him to take some well-earned vacation time, perhaps in the Arizona desert," said Kim Ramsden, director of public relations. "After all, he's weathered more than 30 Minnesota winters and has never once asked for a raise."

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643

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