Dinostar - Hull’s Dinosaur Experience
Dinostar is Hull’s Dinosaur Experience: an interactive, hands-on exhibition of dinosaurs and fossils from around the world.
The museum on Humber Street will reopen on Saturday, May 22, after an enforced closure of over six months.
The closure has been used to refresh and improve the dinosaur museum so that it is now better than ever. As well as making the museum Covid-secure – follow the dinosaur footprints for the one-way path around the galleries – all the exhibits have been reviewed, refurbished and enhanced as necessary.
New display cards have been produced to explain, educate and entertain guests. Several new exhibits have also been installed to make the museum even more exciting.
New exhibits include an exploration of feathers on dinosaurs – look out for the feathered Velociraptors stalking the upper floor.
Three large Velociraptor models overlook visitors from their perches. The famous dinosaurs, stars of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, are represented as feathered in line with the latest scientific research. And in a first for Dinostar, one of the Velociraptors moves!
The museum also allows visitors to experience dinosaurs in Virtual Reality on the VR Simulator installed last autumn. Visitors ride in large movable egg-chairs, wear VR headsets and are transported back to the time of the dinosaurs.
Background
After a soft opening in April 2004, the Dinostar museum was officially launched by Tony (now Sir Tony) Robinson (of Time Team and Blackadder fame) in June 2004.
Since then the museum has grown to include almost 30 dinosaurs from around the world. Highlights of the exhibition are full-size T. Rex and Triceratops skulls, dinosaur bones you can touch, and numerous interactive, child-friendly exhibits. One of the most popular exhibits is an interactive sandbox where children can make dinosaur landscapes and even build a volcano!
The museum is very much designed with children and families in mind. Exhibits can be touched, buttons can be pressed and young palaeontologists can dig for dinosaur bones in sand.
The museum is complemented by a gift shop offering dinosaur toys as well as genuine and replica fossils and mineral pieces.
Dinostar is on the corner of Humber Street and Queen Street in Hull’s revitalised Fruit Market creative quarter.
It is just two minutes' walk from The Deep, Victoria Pier, and Hull Marina. In recent years Dinostar has been joined in the Fruit Market by a range of restaurants, galleries and independent shops.
In addition to school visits to the museum, Dinostar offers Dinosaur Workshops in schools, featuring some of the more portable exhibits. Workshops have taken place as schools from Glasgow to Southampton and from Norwich to Cardiff.
Dinostar has taken part in the Edinburgh International Science Festival, Techfest Aberdeen and Dumfries & Galloway Science Festival.
Dinostar has also appeared at visitor attractions including Eureka! in Halifax and RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate, and even at Lingfield Park races.
Contacts
Tel: 01482 320424
Email: info@dinostar.co.uk
28-29 Humber Street
Fruit Market
Hull
HU1 1TH
Website: dinostar.co.uk