Part One: Blue Water Green Spaces exhibit to open April 4

Port Huron Carnegie Museum teams up with Friends of St. Clair River

By Barb Pert Templeton

A new exhibit that will debut at the Carnegie Museum in Port Huron in early April promises to ignite the imagination of visitors of all ages while sharing an appreciation for nature.

In a joint venture between the museum and the group, Friends of the St. Clair River, an opening reception for the Blue Water Green Spaces program will take place on Friday, April 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Carnegie Museum. It will be a free event with a suggested donation of $3/person.

“This will be a super fun event where guests can get a first look at the exhibit, enjoy some mocktails and hors d’oeuvres from Dot’s Candy Bar, and shop our store for themed souvenirs,” Emily Reitzel, curator of collections and exhibits for the Port Huron Museum said.

After the grand opening the exhibit will remain in place at the museum until Sept. 28.

Blue Water Healthy Living caught up with Reitzel to pose some specific questions about the new exhibit and what’s planned.

Blue Water Healthy Living: How long has this nature exhibit been in the works with the Friends of the St. Clair River?

Emily Reitzel, curator of collections & exhibits for the Port Huron Museum: The exhibit has been in the works for quite some time, at least a year, which is a typical timeline for planning our major exhibits here at the Port Huron Museums. We had a lot of meetings, brainstorms, and many months of fundraising and developing the exhibit as a team and are now in the process of actually building everything out.

BWHL: Did the museum staff/Friends group design the program? Come up with the interactive exhibits or is there a company that provides the setups?

Reitzel: Yes. The entire exhibit was created in-house in close partnership with the Friends of the St. Clair River. So, everything you see has been written, created, and designed by all of us. The Friends produced the majority of the textual content and our team at the museum headed up the interactive aspects and filled out the physical space.

BWHL: How will the exhibits be displayed – all at once or a new one every few weeks or?

Reitzel: The exhibit will open on April 4th and will be displayed all at once in our main 1st floor gallery. It will run through September 28th, 2025.

BWHL: Do you have a ballpark number for how long it might take a family or small group to go through and enjoy the exhibit?

Reitzel: I would say it depends on how hands-on a group would want to get. If you take your time to read all of the panels and interact with all of the activities, you could easily spend an hour in the exhibit. There are a ton of different topics covered and we tried to include some sort of interactive piece for each topic so there will be a lot to do and learn for all ages.

BWHL: Does the museum anticipate school or scouting groups booking time to come to the museum for the exhibits? Do you plan to accommodate larger groups?

Reitzel: Yes. We already have some groups that have shown interest in coming mainly to check out the new exhibit. We tend to have a great number of field trips coming through in May & June before the schools let out so we expect a lot of students/scouts coming through the doors and experiencing Blue Water, Green Spaces. We can absolutely accommodate larger groups,

BWHL: Will there be any handouts with information about the exhibits for young visitors to take home?

Reitzel: Yes. We are planning to have a large table set up with a ton of literature, resources, maps, brochures, handouts, and more available for guests to peruse and take home with them. These will largely be provided by the Friends of the St. Clair River but one can also expect to see some from other local organizations like the YMCA of the Blue Water Area, St. Clair County Parks, etc.

BWHL: What will the hours be for the exhibit?

Reitzel: At the time of exhibit opening, the Carnegie Museum hours will be Wednesday through Sunday from 10am-5pm. We will be switching to our summer hours the week of Memorial Day when we will be open 7 days a week from 10am-5pm.

BWHL: What is the cost for entry if not a museum member?

Reitzel: There will be a small fee for entrance to the Blue Water, Green Spaces exhibit. While the Carnegie Museum currently has free admission, there will be a $5 charge for admittance specifically for the entrance to this special exhibit. This additional fee will be waived for museum members.

BWHL: Will the museum host any special events tied to the nature theme throughout the summer?

Reitzel: We are working on creating the lineup for more programming throughout the run of the exhibit both hosted by the museum and the Friends of the St. Clair River. This is still ongoing but I would say to be sure to follow both of us on social media or checkout our websites to stay up to date with all of the goings on in tandem with the exhibit. Right now. we have a few in-house PHM programs that are loosely based around the exhibit, such as our upcoming Recycled Fabrics Rug Workshop on April 27. We also plan to be out and about this summer at different events like Earth Fair held at Goodells County Park.

BWHL: Did this new exhibit replace one that had been in place at the museum?

Reitzel: The most recent exhibit that was in our main gallery was A Seat at the Table II: Dreams Do Come True which was the return of our successful Black History Month exhibit hosted in February of this year. The last major exhibit hosted in this space was Barbie: What Was I Made For? which took place in the summer of 2024.

The museum is located at 1115 6th Street in Port Huron. For more information go to phmuseum.org. or for a group visit to the exhibit contact the Visitor Services Coordinator at sdavid@phmuseum.org.