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PHOTOS: NATHAN SHAULIS
ABOUT TOWN
ADULT
PLAY
The young at heart get the run of
Carnegie Science Center on nights
designed just for them.
BY CRISTINA ROUVALIS
obert Seifried bounces high off the
trampoline, his pale blue eyes widening as he flipped backwards. To his
amazement, he lands the stunt on two feet
and in one piece.
Seifried, 76, would have never strapped
himself into a bungee harness at an exhibit
called Bounce at Carnegie Science Center’s
Highmark SportsWorks®had it been crawling
with kids the way it usually is. But this is a
21+Night, and Seifried and more than 250
other adults have the run of the place during
the no-kids evening, the first of 10 to be held
this year.
R
want to try things but they feel awkward pushing an 8-year-old out of the way to play with a
robot,” says Jessica Lausch, director of visitor experience. “There are lines, and adults
feel guilty making a kid wait longer to play.”
Following the lead of adults-only events at
the California Academy of Sciences in San
Francisco and the Oregon Museum of Science
and Industry in Portland, Science Center staff
piloted two adult-centered events last year.
They were so popular—one Friday evening
focused on the science of glass attracted
some 900 people—that the museum decided
to hold one a month in 2013, minus July and
of Beyonce and other music. “It’s cool,” says
Budai. “You see every kind of person—older
people, people our age, younger people who
were a little bit grungy, all with sparkly hula
hoops.” She notes that it’s a totally different
experience from when she brings her toddler
son to the Science Center and just watches
the kids play.
Inside Highmark SportsWorks, Budai
ascends the climbing wall and jumps on the
trampoline. Only the roller coaster simulator
makes her feel nauseated, a common reaction
from adults wobbling out of the exhibit. “It was
a little rougher than I’m used to,” she says.
“It’s an affordable way to get out and do something different and be a kid again.” - VISITOR LIZ BRINDAROVA
“This is great,” says Seifried, a McKees
Rocks resident, flashing a big grin. “There are
no kids around and you don’t embarrass yourself as much. We’re going to do everything.”
With Pittsburgh’s skyline and rivers flickering in the distance—and visitors hula hooping to music, screaming inside a roller coaster simulator, and sipping beers as they marvel at robots—Carnegie Science Center has
been transformed into an adults-only playground. This January event is centered
around the theme of sports, giving adults
free reign not just inside the main building,
but in Highmark SportsWorks, too.
“When adults come to the Science
Center, you hear so many times that they
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December. Each evening has a theme.
February 7 focused on the science of love
and candy. March 14—3.14—will celebrate
Pi Day. “It’s a good geek day,” Lausch says.
As part of the programming, staff will explain
the mathematics and probability behind gambling (not to mention guests also receive a
voucher for $15 in free slot and match play
at nearby Rivers Casino).
At the January event, Amanda Budai, a
34-year-old social worker from Whitehall, tries
something she hasn’t done since second
grade: hula hooping. On the fourth floor’s
Works Theater, she and others join the Steel
City Hoop Union in keeping sparkly hula
loops from falling as they swivel to the beat
Other exhibits are especially suited for
adult frames. In YouYo, a person pulls down
on a handle, which causes a wheel to roll,
the momentum pulling them back up in the
air. “People assume it’s for kids, but little kids
often can’t do it right,” explains Zach Weber,
a program presenter who helped plan the
evening. “You need upper body strength to
get to the top. It’s nice to see grownups take
advantage of the exhibits. They’re not just
for kids.”
Liz Brindarova, a 26-year-old from Carrick,
didn’t have much luck with YouYo. “I kind of
flopped,” she admits. But she loves the roller
coaster simulator, the climbing wall, and the
whole idea of exploring a place that she used
to come to as a kid. “This was the greatest
idea ever,” she says. “It’s an affordable way
to get out and do something different and be
a kid again. I’m going to do everything!”
People also sip drinks from the cash bar
as they listen to the band, Dan Getkin and
the Masters of American Music. Steely
McBeam makes an appearance and volunteers from Bike Pittsburgh help visitors make
buttons out of bike maps.
Adults even spill over into the part of the
Science Center usually filled with its youngest
visitors. Instead of toddlers and kindergartners splashing in the water table and loading
up the ball factory, grown men and women
roll up their sleeves and play with the same
sense of abandon. “They’re totally loving it,”
observes Seifried.
The cost for the evening, which runs from
6 to 10 p.m., is $10 or $15 at the door, and
guest get a $15 voucher to use at Rivers
Casino, a sponsor of the events.
As for Seifried: The day after his romp
through Highmark SportsWorks, his 76-yearold body ached. “I felt like I was in a fight,”
he says with a laugh. But like any banged-up
kid, he couldn’t wait to do it again, vowing to
be at a future 21+Night. “I enjoyed every
minute of it.” n
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