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Forest comes to life with dazzling lights, music, animations at Fernbank Museum’s Wildwoods: AGLOW

ATLANTA — Experience a mushroom choir, captivating illumination and nocturnal animals roaming the woods. Journey into the magnificent, sometimes hidden worlds of nature at Fernbank Museum’s newest exhibit, Wildwoods AGLOW.

“Wildwoods: AGLOW (is) our new nighttime, multisensory experience that highlights native plants and animals, or iconic species that can be found here (in Georgia), maybe even some reclusive species that you may not get to see because they are nocturnal or they don’t like a lot of human activity,” Sarah Arnold told WSBTV.com’s Nelson Hicks. “So, (it features) all sorts of really fun things to explore and discover.”

Highlighting the complex, connected and sometimes-hidden stories that flourish in the surrounding forest, this innovative experience brings together the vast, natural environment with the latest innovations in immersive design and technology. Transformative illuminations, large-scale projections and original music compositions beckon guests into a nighttime wonderland of biodiversity.

Inspired by native flora and fauna – and unlike anything else in Atlanta – this multi-sensory experience reveals the wonder of nature through a range of glowing, interactive and panoramic scenes across five distinct zones.

“We are always exploring exciting ways to engage audiences with science and nature while tickling the imagination through innovative and fun programming,” said Fernbank president and CEO, Jennifer Grant Warner. “WildWoods: AGLOW is an exciting experience that will reveal nature’s magnificent wonders through beautiful, artistic and intentional uses of projection that enhance our understanding of the ecosystem that connects us all.”

As guests enter the experience, they first discover oversized seeds glowing with interactive light, signaling the origin of forest growth and inspiring a deeper connection with nature. Throughout the experience, guests will encounter nocturnal animals, forest projections and interactive lighting, integrated with the surrounding plants and woodland environment. Another zone features larger-than-life incandescent mushrooms that can respond to guest movement with a musical symphony of illuminated communication.

Developed in partnership with Thinkwell, a leading design and production agency creating immersive, content-driven experiences for brands and companies worldwide, “WildWoods: AGLOW” is the third endeavor between the two organizations, following the opening of the award-winning children’s exhibit NatureQuest in 2011 and the creation of a series of outdoor exhibits in WildWoods, which expanded Fernbank’s experiences into the outdoors in 2016. Thinkwell has also previously designed and opened outdoor, nighttime experiences, including Omega a la Nuit and Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience.

“WildWoods: AGLOW” is a limited-run nighttime experience for visitors of all ages and abilities, offered on select evenings from now through early March.

“This is an all ages experience,” Arnold said. “It’s wonderful for date night and wonderful for families.”

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This story is sponsored by the Fernbank Museum.