National Geographic opens its Museum of Exploration

The National Geographic Society will open its new Museum of Exploration on Friday, charging admission in a city where Smithsonian museums are free.

Adult tickets start at $29.99, with reduced rates of $25.99 for visitors 65 and older and $22.99 for children ages 5 to 17. Admission is free for children 4 and under.

The society said it expected to introduce dynamic pricing before the grand opening, a model that changes ticket prices based on demand. It is also partnering with the Museums for All program to offer $3 admission to visitors enrolled in federal nutrition-assistance programs.

The museum appeared to be opening while still staffing up. Early Friday morning, it was advertising full- and part-time positions, including visitor experience representatives and retail workers.

The new museum is the centerpiece of a $300 million overhaul of the society's downtown headquarters. It was expected to admit its first visitors at 9 a.m.

The project added more than 100,000 square feet of public space and expanded the institution's exhibition footprint about sixfold. It replaced an older, smaller gallery.

"The Museum of Exploration is where our legacy of storytelling meets the experiential technology of today, inviting everyone to step into the worlds of National Geographic Explorers," CEO Jill Tiefenthaler said in a statement.

Founded in 1888, the society is best known for the yellow-bordered magazine that carries its name.

The grand opening weekend runs Friday through Sunday as a three-day festival, featuring global music and dance performances, interactive workshops and live panels with active explorers.

The opening coincides with national commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To mark the milestone, the museum is showing "Red, White & Blue: Photographs of the United States," an exhibition centered on the colors of the American flag.

The show features photographers including Ronan Donovan, Katie Orlinsky and David Doubilet, and runs in the museum's Spotlight gallery through January 2027. A ticketed celebration marking its debut, featuring a commissioned live performance, is scheduled for July 10.

The museum's inaugural marquee exhibition, "Photo Ark: Animals of Earth," draws on the work of photographer Joel Sartore, whose long-running project aims to document every species in human care. He has photographed more than 17,000 so far.

And "In Focus," a permanent exhibition, draws on more than a century of the magazine's photography. One frame, by George Shiras, is credited as the first photograph of wild animals taken at night.

Another, by Ami Vitale, captured Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros, who died in 2018. A third documents a Bengal tigress and her cub in Bandhavgarh National Park, India — an image Steve Winter spent 24 days in the field to get.

Other spaces include the Rolex Explorers Landing exhibit, the publication's historical archives, and a rotating digital lineup inside the Geoverse theater.

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