Museum Nights hosts Butterfly Rainforest and Cuban film

July 10, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Student Government will host Museum Nights featuring free admission to the award-winning Butterfly Rainforest and a provocative Cuban film from 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursday at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Harn Museum of Art in the UF Cultural Plaza.

Admission to the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History will be free to students with their Gator 1 cards from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with the last admission at 7:30 p.m. Visitors to the Florida Museum also will also enjoy indie rock band Thank You Kindly from 7:30 to 9 p.m. The Florida Museum is hosting the exhibition “Megalodon: Largest Shark that Ever Lived” that highlights the evolution, biology and misconceptions regarding giant prehistoric sharks.

Harn visitors will be able to watch “Great Day in Havana,”, a film that examines the everyday lives of artists and musicians in Cuba’s capital city and within the large exile community. Among the artists featured in the film by American filmmakers Laurie Ann Schag and Casey Stoll is performance artist Tania Bruguera, who is featured in the Harn exhibition “Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Farber Collection,” along with 39 other Cuban-born artists. Free refreshments will be provided by Classic Fare, and The Camellia Court Café will also be open late offering free wireless internet access.

The Museum Nights’ mission is to provide after-hours access to make available the rich artistic, scientific, and cultural heritage of the Harn and Florida Museum of Natural History at the UF Cultural Plaza. Dedicated to education and enhancing the visitor experience, Museum Nights provides programming to increase awareness and appreciation of the arts and natural sciences.

Student Government has allotted more than $50,000 to increasing student awareness and appreciation of the arts and natural sciences through the Museum Nights program.

For more information visit www.sg.ufl.edu, call 352-392-1665, ext. 415, or e-mail musumnights@sg.ufl.edu.