Media Advisory
Media Preview: Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It
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Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum invites members of the news media to attend an exclusive, pre-opening, closed-door Media Preview of its newest original exhibition, Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It:
- Thursday, July 21, 2022
- 1-4 p.m.
- J. M. Long Gallery
- Please RSVP with Lance Aquino via the contact information above.
Interview opportunities:
- Bishop Museum Vice President of Public Programs and Interim Director of Education, Brandon Bunag, Ed.D.
- Exhibition Co-curator Neal Evenhuis, Ph.D., Bishop Museum senior curator of Entomology
- Exhibition Co-curator Richard Pyle, Ph.D., Bishop Museum senior curator of Ichthyology and director of XCoRE
- Exhibition Designer DeAnne Kennedy
Upon arrival at the Museum, please check in at the Security Desk to exchange a form of identification for a Bishop Museum Media Badge. The on-site Museum contact will be Ken Yatomi, Bishop Museum director of communications.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
WOW! Wall
A 30-foot wall filling an entire side of the exhibition space, displaying an incredible array of different plants and animals from Bishop Museum's natural science collections and their amazing diversity.
Timeline of Taxonomic History
Guests will walk through a brief history of taxonomy, from early explorations and the use of crude instruments, to later DNA analysis and even the tricorders from "Star Trek," showing the improvements scientists have made (and may soon make) to identify new species and explore remote and challenging environments.
Interviews with Bishop Museum Taxonomists
Short video interviews of Bishop Museum scientists sharing what inspired them to become taxonomists, and the interesting stories around the new species they have discovered over the years.
Names Wall
The names of the more than 10,000 new species that Bishop Museum has discovered thus far will be displayed on an 8' x 10' panel.
Cultural Connections
Guests will explore some of the ways in which Indigenous names for native plants and animals in Hawaiʻi are, at their core, tied to relationships between each other, their observable characteristics, and deep connections to Native Hawaiian people; how both older cultural names can be revived and new culturally founded names can still be adopted; and how these names and practices help to preserve the knowledge of Hawaiʻi's biodiversity.
Taxonomic Impacts
Guests will learn how taxonomy helped to conserve a rare coral, and how the work of Bishop Museum taxonomists helped conserve a culturally and biologically significant area in Papua New Guinea.
More information on Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It can be found at BishopMuseum.org/Taxonomy.
Bishop Museum Admission, Parking, and Hours
Timed General Admissions can be booked on the hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at BishopMuseum.org/Tickets. Tickets for Bishop Museum After Hours events can be purchased via this same webpage.
The safety and health of our visitors and employees remain our highest priorities. Face masks are optional but strongly encouraged. Learn more on our Health & Safety page.
General Admission
| | Weekdays | Weekends | |---------------------|----------|----------| | Adults: | $26.95 | $28.95 | | Seniors (65+): | $23.95 | $25.95 | | Youth (4–17): | $18.95 | $20.95 | | Children (3 and under): | Free | Free |
Hawaiʻi Residents, Hawaiʻi College Students, and Military with ID
| Adults: | $14.95 | | Seniors (65+): | $12.95 | | Youth (4-17): | $10.95 | | Children (3 and under): | Free |
Children age 16 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.
Bishop Museum Annual Membership levels include free general admission and parking for 12 months. Learn more at BishopMuseum.org/Membership.
J. Watumull Planetarium tickets can be purchased at the Box Office after admission to the Museum; shows are free for Bishop Museum Members, but must be obtained at the Box Office in person on a first-come, first-served basis.
Parking Rates
Daytime Rate: 6 a.m.–5 p.m. $5.00 Evening Rate: 5 p.m.–10 p.m. $3.00
Hours
Open every day from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed on Thanksgiving and on Christmas Day.
Bishop Museum Café by Highway Inn offers a limited menu of bowls, sandwiches, and snacks from 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m. daily. Bishop Museum Members receive a 10% discount with their membership card.
About Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Bishop Museum’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum thrives as an educational center for the community and is widely regarded as the world’s premier institution for Hawaiian and Pacific content.
Bishop Museum’s vast collections of more than 25 million objects and specimens represent nine disciplines and include more than 22 million biological specimens, over 2 million cultural objects, 115,000 historical publications, and 1 million photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings, and manuscripts. These collections tell the stories of the cultures and biodiversity of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as well as the proud legacy of scholarly research spanning 130 years.
Bishop Museum proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year, including 20,000 children on school visits. Guests are encouraged to pre-plan their trip to #HawaiisMuseum with its free digital guide, available through Bloomberg Connects.
To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit BishopMuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, visit Bishop Museum’s YouTube channel, or call (808) 847-3511. Bishop Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Bishop Museum is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and welcomes applicants from the military, veterans, and those with disabilities. Learn about careers at Bishop Museum at BishopMuseum.org/Careers and on its LinkedIn page.
Bishop Museum Press is Hawaiʻi’s oldest book publisher and one of the first scholarly publishers in the Western Hemisphere, and has published over 1,200 titles and distributed over 1 million books in 72 countries worldwide. Bishop Museum hosts a restaurant and gift shop on campus, Tūtū’s Place by Highway Inn and Shop Pacifica by Nā Mea Hawaiʻi.