World-Class Museums
Ann Arbor is a destination for arts and culture going back decades, exemplified by the host of award-winning museums in the area. Visual art enthusiasts will fall in love with the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), a meeting place for the arts located in the heart of U-M’s campus. As one of the finest university art museums in the country, UMMA is home to collections representing 150 years of art collecting. UMMA is a must-see for everyone visiting Ann Arbor, connecting the University and city to broad regional and national community audiences.
Ann Arbor is also home to the the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, newly remodeled and re-imagined in a brand-new location that preserves the past, shows off the latest in scientific research, and offers interactive exhibits and a state-of-the-art planetarium especially great for the whole family. The mastodon power couple is back and better than ever, and this is the only place in the whole world where you can see a female and male mastodon skeleton side-by-side. Dinosaurs, people, there are AWESOME, enormous dinosaur skeletons here! Check out the University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, featuring collections from civilizations of the Mediterranean and home to more than 100,000 artifacts, even two human mummies! The Kelsey Museum is also home to the only sarcophagus that is known to have an active Twitter account, which is pretty darn cool as well.
If you’re looking to inspire creativity in the next generation, the Hands-On Museum is the place to go. Even for patrons a little too big for the child-sized exhibits, this is a fantastic place to explore all the senses, with four floors of science, nature and social exhibits complete with interactive and splashy models. It’s perfect for opening new eyes to unique experiences and sparking a creative streak.