Origami Tree
November 23, 2009—January 3, 2010
Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, first floor
An annual Museum tradition, the delightfully decorated Origami Holiday Tree and two merrily lit 19-foot Holiday Barosaurs welcome visitors to the Museum throughout the holiday season.
The Origami Holiday Tree has marked the start of the holiday season at the Museum for more than 30 years. The theme of this year's tree is Origami, A to Z, featuring a colorful paper-shaped alphabet soup. The 13-foot tree will be covered with letters and a corresponding object: an A and an Apatosaurus, a B and a butterfly, a C and a chimpanzee, an F and a frog, an M and a mastodon, an S and a sabertooth tiger, and a T and a Tyrannosaurus rex. Volunteers began folding in July to complete the 500 creations displayed on the tree. During the holiday season, volunteers will be on hand to teach visitors of all ages the art of origami folding. Past themes have included "Folding the Museum;" "Fantastic Creatures: Mythic and Real;" "Origami in Flight;" "Under the Sea;" "Pocket Posy;" and "Origami Safari."
The two Holiday Barosaurs, which greet visitors to the Museum on the front steps throughout the holiday season, are made of openwork stainless steel and festooned with pine boughs and lights. Illuminated at night, the whimsical dinosaurs flank the John Russell Pope Central Park West staircase and echo the Barosaurus mount in the Roosevelt Rotunda.
