Visitor Center improvements begin this winter
November 30, 2012
Plans are underway in the Visitor Center for new display cases, a reading area, and and interactive technologies to be installed over the winter. According to Manager of Visitor Education Julie Warsowe, “our goal is for you to experience enhanced learning opportunities in the renewed space, and to give you new reasons to come back again and again—whether it’s to see a new exhibit with treasures from the Arboretum’s archives, browse new books on rotation from our library, or talk to a knowledgeable, friendly Arboretum representative.”
Also as part of these changes, the Visitor Center hours will be shifting. Beginning January 2, we will move to a seasonal schedule to better match visitation patterns. From November through March, the Visitor Center will be open from noon to 4:00pm every day except Wednesday. During these hours, the public areas of the Hunnewell Building will be open as usual—the Visitor Center, art exhibitions in the Lecture Hall (unless a class is in session), and restrooms. Before noon on weekdays, the Hunnewell Building will be open for restrooms and access for business guests. Library hours will remain the same.
This new schedule will provide our dedicated staff additional time outside the Visitor Center, developing more dynamic ways to share our seasonal highlights in the landscape, communicate the breadth and research use of the living collection, and make the rich resources of the Arboretum more accessible to visitors. In this new model, visitors will have more opportunities to engage directly with our staff, whether inside the Visitor Center or in its surrounding landscape.
This spring, the Visitor Center hours will increase as we head into our peak period of visitation. From April through October we plan for the Visitor Center to be open from 11:00am to 6:00pm every day except Wednesday, with weekday use of the restrooms and access for business guests beginning at 9:00am. Please stop by to see the work in progress this winter, and stay tuned for a celebration of the improved Visitor Center this spring.