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      In-person event

      Hang Out on the Closing Weekend of Bats!

      Know before you go

      In-person event
      Location: Main Atrium and Bats! exhibition gallery

      Included with admission

      Come join us for the grand finale of Bats! For the exhibition’s closing weekend, enjoy live art demonstrations and hands-on activities. Bring your bat questions for our exhibition veterinarian and bid farewell to our beloved colony of bat ambassadors!


      Origami Demonstration: Michael LaFosse

      10:30 am, 11:30 am, 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm | Main Atrium

      Witness the magic of paper folding with this origami virtuoso whose work is featured in the exhibition.


      Meet the Artists: Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander

      11 am–3 pm | Bats! exhibition gallery

      Meet the origami artists and ask them your questions!


      Live Bat Chat With Exhibition Curator Jane Winchell and Veterinarian Alex Becket

      11 am, 12 pm and 1 pm | Bats! exhibition gallery

      Ask two experts about their favorite parts of caring for PEM’s visiting Egyptian fruit bat colony.


      Interactive Activity Cart: Bats, Real and Imagined

      11:30 am–1:30 pm | Bats! exhibition gallery

      Stop by to explore some bat-related objects hands-on and examine bat poop under a microscope!


      Drop-in Art Making: Bat Mobiles
      11 am-3 pm | Create Space Studios

      There are more than 1,400 bat species in the world, including around 45 in the United States alone. Get inspired by the wide variety of bats’ shapes and facial features and make your own flying mobile!

      About our collaborators
      Richard L. Alexander
      Richard L. Alexander

      Richard L. Alexander, co-founder of Origamido Studio, specializes in origami papermaking. He grew up on a dairy farm, where bats would chase moths into the barn. A Systems Ecology major at Cornell University, he worked with little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) as an undergraduate.

      Michael LaFosse
      Michael LaFosse

      Michael LaFosse has worked as an origami artist, papermaker and author for over 40 years. Trained as a biologist, he finds his strongest inspiration in the natural world. His works have been exhibited in art and science museums worldwide and are currently part of the traveling exhibit Origami in the Garden. He made his first attempt at a realistic-looking origami big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) at age 12!

      Alex Becket
      Alex Becket

      Alex Becket started working at a vet clinic cleaning cages at age 15 and has been in the veterinary field ever since. He graduated from Ohio State University in 2009 and interned at the Akron Zoo, Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital and Barberton Vet Clinic studying zoo, wildlife and exotic animal medicine. After moving to the East Coast, Becket worked at several private practices and was an Associate Veterinarian at Zoo New England. He has also consulted with the Museum of Science, Boston. He is currently the Director of Shelter Medicine at Cape Ann Animal Aid, a nonprofit no-kill shelter in Gloucester, MA.

      Jane Winchell
      Jane Winchell

      Jane Winchell curated the Bats! exhibition and has served as the director of PEM's Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center (ANC) since its founding in 2003. Starting as curator of Natural History, she led the envisioning and development of the museum’s previous Art & Nature Center, the redesign and expansion of the ANC in 2013 and the installation of The Pod in March 2019. During her tenure, Winchell has directed PEM’s ANC programming and curated more than 25 interdisciplinary exhibitions focused on our evolving relationship with the more-than-human world. Since 2021, she has also been spearheading the museum’s Climate + Environment Initiative and its series of exhibitions, programs, and institutional undertakings to help address the planetary crisis. She studied bats in graduate school at Boston University.

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