Even though I’ve got a holiday to-do list a mile long…plus work that continues to pile up…not to mention a desperate need to vacuum and mop…I’m going to treat myself this weekend. I’m going to see the Titanic Artifact Exhibition at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

One of the reasons I was amenable to moving to Denver from New York was that I knew Denver had a great cultural presence. From the Art Museum to the Buell Theater, from the Children’s Museum to the Museum of Nature and Science, from the Zoo to the Botanic Gardens - I could always find something to do. Better yet, Denver is metropolitan enough that traveling exhibits and theater productions almost always include a stop here.

For example, Spamalot was on Broadway just as we were leaving New York. With a newborn and an impending move, we simply couldn’t manage to squeeze it in - not even a matinee. But we were patient, and we got to see the show here in Denver at the Buell Theater in September. Well worth the wait.

Likewise, I read about the Body Worlds exhibit several years ago in a book about cadavers. The plastinated, posed human bodies had been shown in Europe, but not yet in the US. In mid-2006, we went to see Body Worlds 2 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science - and none of the Body Worlds exhibits have yet made it to New York.

And now I’m going to see the Titanic Artifact Exhibition. I thought the movie was surprisingly powerful, but I expect to be even more impressed by the exhibition - the actual artifacts collected from the wreckage, the re-creations of parts of the ship, the descriptions of the mechanics of how the ship sank and the logistics of the artifact recovery missions. The movie was wonderfully romantic, but from the exhibition I hope to learn more about the science and history behind this tragedy.

The Titanic Artifact Exhibition closes in January, but if you’re in Denver for the holidays, you can still catch it! Check out the details at the exhibition web page on the Denver Museum of Nature and Science web site.