Museum Experience Center

Step into the Museum Experience Center and you will discover six new indoor experiences, including displays of artifacts from our Collections, year-round food options, event hosting spaces, and a new way to enter our outdoor spaces.

These new indoor experience areas are designed to step into immersive moments that spark wonder, excitement, and curiosity, and bring you closer to the stories and communities that shaped this place.

Get a closer look at these experience areas that include Power of Place, Wellspring, and TORN: A Family Portrait.

Purchase General Admission Tickets

Power of place

Developed in partnership with Monadnock and Luci Creative

When you step into the Museum Experience Center, the first place you’ll visit is Power of Place—An educational foundation to the natural and cultural history of this place. Journey through time, exploring how the land and the people have come together to shape our community over the last 22,000 years.

You’ll dive into amazing multimedia displays that bring history to life, making it feel like you’re walking through time itself. You will be inspired by the stories of our natural land and the people that have shaped our shared history, all while learning about the special bond we share with it.

As you move through this space, you’ll follow the flow of the White River, connecting each section like a river connecting people and places. From our glacial beginnings to today's vibrant community, each area is full of captivating visuals and engaging stories from the formation of the White River and arrival of the first people groups to the natural oasis that is today’s landscape among the urban sprawl of Central Indiana.

Prepare to be drawn into the history and heart of Conner Prairie in a way you’ve never experienced before!

Wellspring

Developed in partnership with The Curious Life

Wellspring is playful yet meditative, outward yet inward, child-like yet wise. This new experience reflects a deep level of thoughtfulness and exploration. Nestled in the banks of the river, you twist and turn to find passageways and nooks that may lead you to the top of an sycamore tree or through a cavern only to find a visual journey in our 180-degree cinema. You may even find yourself taking a leap in our foam quarry.

While exploring Wellspring, you’ll decode a fictional language created by The Curious Life that uses 28 mythical letters. Plus, you’ll meet 13 characters representing different literary archetypes.

Conner Prairie has partnered with nationally recognized artist Wes Bruce and The Curious Life, his creative team of architects, filmmakers, and engineers to envision, research, and develop this experience. The Curious Life specializes in large-scale, site-specific art installations that engage guests in exploration, discovery, and play.

Torn: A Family Portrait

Developed by Conner Prairie’s internal exhibits and experience teams

Learn the story of the land and people Conner Prairie calls home. The intersectionality of the themes of the experience are woven together through storytelling, historical records, and the absence of records, and the “why” of it all. You’ll meet the Conner families: William Conner and his first wife, Mekinges, and John Conner and his first wife, Lënapèxkwe, and their respective children.

As you continue to explore, you’ll get a closer look at the complex and relentless system of westward expansion, the ways of the Lenape people, and the eventual removal of Indigenous peoples. You’ll be invited to reflect and consider the ways in which the Conner families impacted—and were impacted by—these systems and policies.

FOOD: Science, Culture, and Cuisine

Member Preview June 12
Open for General Admission June 13

FOOD: Science, Culture and Cuisine is a treat for all the senses, exploring the concept of food and feasting through sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. It highlights the many pleasures of gastronomy: creating, tasting, and sharing. It is a unique opportunity to learn science and team it with culture, arts, and society. FOOD: Science, Culture and Cuisine arouses curiosity about scientific subjects, such as the phenomena that occur when preparing food.

FOOD: Science, Culture and Cuisine is presented by:

Caring for Collections

Caring for Collections invites you to get up close to the material culture and digital assets we care for every day and to discover the many steps involved in protecting and preserving them. Through a window into our collections vault, you will be able to see artifacts from our collections and form a deeper bond between history and preservation.

A look into the open lab and you may see textiles being repaired, objects examined or archival materials being digitized. You may even have the chance to watch visiting conservators at work as they care for the wide variety of objects in our collection.

Learn more about our collections

Spark!Lab

In Spark!Lab, we believe everyone is inventive.

Every day we provide opportunities for children and families to explore their inventive creativity–to create, innovate, collaborate, and problem-solve– because these experiences empower kids to develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed today and in the future.

Spark!Lab was developed by the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

As part of the Spark!Lab experience, you will see, first-hand, important inventions from our extensive collection from early inventors. Learn how Indiana history plays an important role in the inventive process.