Exploration Place hosts dinosaurs, circus

Wichita’s Exploration Place has turned back the clock 66 million years for Expedition: Dinosaur, which will invite visitors to walk among life-sized animatronic dinosaurs until May 7. A new live science show complements the exhibit. 

Circus! Science Under the Big Top will be in Wichita May 26-Sept. 4. The traveling exhibit reveals the science behind the circus through interactive exhibits, such as walking on a high wire. 

For hours and details, visit exploration.org.

Botanica hosts ocean-debris sculptures 

Fourteen oversized sculptures will be placed throughout Botanica’s gardens May 14-Oct. 23 for the traveling exhibition Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea.

Sculptures by Angela Pozzi and her team create giant sea life sculptures made entirely of marine debris collected from beaches. Their goal is to educate and illustrate what plastic pollution is doing to oceans and waterways. The exhibit is included with general admission. For details, visit botanica.org.

Medicine Lodge stages Peace Treaty Festival

The 27th incarnation of the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Pageant – a massive outdoor undertaking staged every three to five years since 1927 – is set for Sept. 24-26, 2021.

The pageant commemorates the Treaty of Medicine Lodge, a historic agreement signed in 1867 between the U.S. government and five tribes of Plains Indians. The festival includes an Intertribal Powwow, Kansas Championship Ranch Rodeo, parades, live music, children’s activities and a Bulls & Broncs event.

The pageant – which is performed each day of the festival — compresses 300 years of history into a two-hour tribute to the diverse cultures of the native peoples, discoverers, explorers and settlers. The panorama includes real-life cowboys driving a herd of cattle and a lengthy wagon train. 

For details and tickets, visit peacetreaty.org.

New edition leads way to exploring Kansas

The 2021 edition of Travel Kansas magazine is hot off the press and being distributed to travel centers and airports across the state, where it is free to pick up. It is also available online here. The magazine includes hundreds of places and events to visit this year. 

Last year’s magazine earned first-place awards from Kansas Professional Communicators and the National Federation of Press Women.