The Nature of Color

Two adults and a child stand with their arms outstretched in front of a colorful digital interactive wall which reactes to their movements.  Roderick Mickens/© AMNH 
Our world is awash with color. Explore the world of color in this immersive traveling exhibition.

The Nature of Color reveals the many roles of color in the natural world, across human cultures, and in our personal lives. 

Explore the science of color, how colors make us feel, the history of color production, and how plants and animals use color to help them survive and reproduce. 

Key Questions

  • What is color?
  • How do plants and animals use color? 
  • How do colors trigger emotions and ideas?
  • How is color produced?

Highlights

This fun, family-friendly exhibition includes models, cultural objects, and interactive exhibits that invite visitors to play and experiment with color. 

A child stands at a wall and uses a mirror to play with light on a series of colorful protruding semicircles emitting light.
Denis Finnin/© AMNH 
Two adults and a child stand at round digital interactives.
Roderick Mickens/© AMNH
A room filled with outfits on mannequins which all share the same color and at the center, a flowing gown inside of a glass display case.
 Denis Finnin/© AMNH 
An exhibit room with a large sculpture of leaves and insects with close-up images of leaves on the walls.
Roderick Mickens/© AMNH
An adult and two children stand with their arms up to create colorful shadows against a wall.
 Denis Finnin/© AMNH 
An adult and child stand in a room with a smiley face on the wall and play a game on two digital interactive screens.
 Denis Finnin/© AMNH 

Request More Information

Contact us to request availability for hosting this traveling exhibition. 

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Explore More

  Nature's Superheroes: Life at the Limits Explore the remarkable "superpowers" that organisms have evolved to survive and thrive, even under extreme conditions.   Giants, Dragons and Unicorns: The World of Mythic Creatures Created for smaller galleries. Discover how real animals inspired legends of mermaids, griffins, and other mythic creatures.    Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs For as long as dinosaurs walked the Earth, the skies were ruled by pterosaurs.

The Nature of Color is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org).