Wonderful Webs to Shimmer as ‘Spider Pavilion' Weaves Its Magic

"This exhibition includes live animals" isn't something you often see included on a listing for a Natural History Museum event.

For the Exposition Park destination is extremely and famously and utterly dino'd-out, with dinosaur bones serving as some of the best-known artifacts in the science-and-culture-and-everything institution.

And dinosaurs? These obsessed-over beasties definitely do not qualify in the "live animals" category.

So when the museum presents something full of living critters, the earthlings that are co-existing with us right now, on this place and in this time? It's something rather exciting.

Also quite exciting? In a word: spiders. They thrill us, sometimes startle us, and completely fascinate us, season after season.

The spideriest season is now upon us, and Spider Pavilion, a pop-up that is most certainly full of live animals, will return to delight humans who feel enthusiastic about eight-legged wonders and the shimmering webs they spin.

Those webs will begin to shimmer on Sunday, Sept. 18, and shimmer on, they shall, through the Sunday following Thanksgiving.

Several varieties of arachnids, from jumping spiders to tarantulas, will be on view at the open-air pavilion. The stars of this show are, of course, orb weavers, those incredible artisans of the animal kingdom.

Time your visit just right and you may find sunlight shining through the silken threads at just the optimal angle, creating a feast for the eyes and nature-loving senses.

Of course, every visit is timed just right to this popular seasonal event. Adding to the hairy-of-leg, eye-plentiful power of Spider Pavilion? Museum staffers and docents will be present to help us "unspin" the mysteries of the spidery universe in which we humans most definitely, and delightfully, live.