St. Louis Garden Awaits Chinese Lantern Spectacle

Elaborate, illuminated works of art from China will take center stage this summer at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Lantern Festival: Art by Day, Magic by Night (May 26-Aug. 19) showcases Chinese culture through larger-than-life scenes crafted from colorful silks and molded steel. Ranging up to three stories tall, the sets will be lit for special evening viewing, giving visitors the opportunity to experience a cultural event that is rarely staged outside of Asia. The summer exhibitions highlights the garden’s “Year of China.”

The lantern festival will be among the first displays of its kind and size in the United States. A team of artisans from Zigong in the western province of Sichuan, the center of the lantern-making industry in China, will spend two months in residence at the Missouri Botanical Garden  to construct 26 lantern scenes from scratch. (www.mobot.org/lanternfestival)

Tour Program Expands at Historic Missouri Prison

Due to popular demand, the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2011 is expanding the tour program at Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) to include twilight, specialty history, photography and ghost tours, in addition to the two-hour historic tour and a four-hour in-depth tour.

Twilight history tours ($17 per person) will include the same information as the regular history tour, but will be given in the evening 6 to 11 p.m. Participants will be given a lantern in order to navigate the prison at night.

Dozens of infamous inmates spent time in the Missouri State Penitentiary and many historic events took place within the walls. Specialty history tours will focus specifically on these people and events, including the 1954 riot, Sonny Liston, MSP escape attempts, “Pretty Boy” Floyd and executions. Specialty tours will be offered on special occasions and will cost $17.

Twilight ghost tours will tell of the prison’s history and the strange and unusual occurrences that have taken place there. Guests will be guided through several housing units and will hear about some of the spirits that are said to still live at MSP. Tickets are $25 per person.

Those who want to do more than simply hear about ghost stories will have the opportunity to partake in the ghost hunt tour. For $25, guests will be given a brief history lesson of the facility and will then have time to use “activity finding” devices in two of the housing units and the gas chamber.

Organized, licensed paranormal groups will have the opportunity to spend the night in the prison and investigate the grounds of the Missouri State Penitentiary. Paranormal investigations are $1,600 for a group of up to 16 people.

Those interested in photographing the penitentiary can participate in photography tours. After a brief guided history tour of MSP, photographers will be allowed to set up their camera and lighting equipment to take professional photos.

A special “more talking, less walking” tour will still be offered to group tours.

The Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau began offering tours of the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary in May of 2009.  Before it closed, MSP was the oldest continually operating penitentiary west of the Mississippi. The prison was nearly 100 years old when Alcatraz began taking inmates. When MSP opened in 1836, the Battle of the Alamo was going on in Texas and Andrew Jackson was in his second term. The Missouri State Pen housed infamous inmates such as heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, who learned to box during his time in the big house, notorious gangster ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd and James Earl Ray.

Tours include the gas chamber where 40 men and women were executed, the buried cells, several housing units and the upper yard. In 1967 the Missouri State Penitentiary was infamously named the “bloodiest 47 acres in America” by Time magazine because of the incredibly high number of serious assaults on the grounds between 1963-1964.

(866-998-6998, missouripentours.com)

St. Louis to Unveil Chuck Berry Statue

The man known as the “Father of Rock ’n’ Roll” will soon hold court in St. Louis 24/7. In November an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of legendary rocker Chuck Berry will begin standing guard in Chuck Berry Plaza in the trend-setting Loop neighborhood.

Located at the intersection of Delmar Boulevard and the Centennial Greenway Bike Path in University City, the statue will show the ever-fluid Rock and Roll Hall of Famer in an old school tuxedo with his trademark Gibson guitar. It will stand across the street from Blueberry Hill, the iconic Loop neighborhood restaurant and music club where Berry still plays monthly concerts. Delmar Boulevard is known for its Walk of Fame sidewalk with stars celebrating famous St. Louisans like Berry, Ike and Tina Turner, Vincent Price, Betty Grable and St. Louis Cardinals greats. (www.visittheloop.com)

St. Louis Museum to Present Vatican Exhibit

The Missouri History Museum in St. Louis will host the only Midwest presentation of the exhibition Vatican Splendors: A Journey through Faith and Art from May 15-Sept. 12.

The 170 artworks and artifacts, some never before on public view, include works by such masters as Michelangelo, Bernini, Giotto and Guercino. From the venerated relics (bone fragments) of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to Michelangelo’s art and tools used in work on the Sistine Chapel, the exhibit comprises one of the largest Vatican collections ever to tour North America.

The exhibition is organized into 11 galleries that illustrate the evolution of the Catholic Church and its papacy beginning with Saint Peter through the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, with thematic areas highlighting important developments, moments, people and events tied to the history of the church and the Vatican. The objects are presented in galleries and recreated environments that enhance the visitor’s understanding of their historical and artistic significance.

Exhibition designers want visitors to feel transported to the Vatican, from the underground catacombs where the remains of Saint Peter were discovered to the magnificent papal chambers found above ground. From the sights and sounds of the grand Basilica to a touchable cast of John Paul II’s hand, the exhibition is a multi-sensory experience.

(877-282-8422, www.vaticansplendors.com or www.mohistory.org)