The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. with dinner from Little Caesar’s Pizza. Everyone will receive one large slice of cheese, hamburger or pepperoni pizza and a choice of Kool-Aid, iced tea or water to drink. Additional slices of pizza are available. Families are also welcome to explore the museum exhibits. “Beauty and the Beast 3D” will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Digital 3D Theatre.

Admission is only $8 for Hastings Museum and Stuhr Museum members, $10 for Non-member Adults, and $9 for Non-member Children.

Reservations are required by March 1. Reserve your spot by calling the Hastings Museum at 402-461-4629 or 800-508-4629, option zero, or send an email including the number in your family and your choice of pizza to VisitorServices@HastingsMuseum.org.

Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room… until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large – Professor Moriarty – and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective.

Holmes’ investigation into Moriarty’s plot becomes ever more dangerous as it leads him and Watson out of London and across Europe, to France, Germany and finally to Switzerland.

But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead as he spins a web of death and destruction – all part of a greater plan that, if he succeeds, will change the course of history.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Jared Harris, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” is rated PG-13 for for intense sequences of violence and action, and some drug material.

Admission to Hollywood 2D movies is $4.50 per person plus tax. For more information or to purchase advanced tickets, please call the Hastings Museum at 402-461-4629 or 800-508-4629, option zero.

This fulldome program explores the relationship between the Earth, Moon and Sun with the help of Coyote, a fun character adapted from Native American oral traditions.

Coyote has many misconceptions about our home planet and its most familiar neighbors, but his confusion about the universe helps you think about how the Earth, Moon and Sun work together as a system. Native American stories sprinkled throughout help distinguish between myths and science.

Why does the Sun rise and set? What’s fusion and solar energy? Examine the Moon’s orbit, craters, phases and eclipses, and take a look at space travel to the Moon—and beyond.

“Earth, Moon and Sun” debuts to all Hastings Museum members during the Winter
Celebration on Saturday, February 4. Bringing February 5, it will show at it’s regular time Tuesday through Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

Shake the Winter Blues with Hastings Museum’s Winter Celebration

It’s time to shake the winter blues with the Hastings Museum’s Winter Celebration on Saturday, February 4 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. It will transport you to the Cretaceous sea to meet the new resident in the Museum’s lightwell, the Xiphactinus (pronounced zi-fac-tin-us).

Created by Hastings College graduate, Grand Island native and award-winning paleo-artist Gary Staab, the Xiphactinus at the Hastings Museum is a 17-foot re-creation of this prehistoric fish with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. While the Xiphactinus looks rather tough with all its teeth, in the exhibit it will be placed tantalizingly close to the Tylosaurus’s mouth! This is appropriate since the Tylosaurus was at the top of the food chain in the Cretaceous sea and enjoyed a Xiphactinus for lunch from time to time.

Click here to see pictures of the installation of the Xiphactinus.

At 2:00 p.m., Mike Everhart, an expert on the Cretaceous sea, will speak on the relationship between the Xiphactinus and Tylosaurus in a program called “Xtreme Predator: Xiphactinus audax” in the Abbott Room.

Also showing at 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. is a new digital 3D film from Hastings Museum and 3D Entertainment Distribution. Take an incredible voyage, 200 million years back in time, for a face-to-face encounter with the T-Rex of the seas in Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World. The film gives Museum visitors a spectacular 3D view of the underwater world known to the Tylosaurus and Xiphactinus.

You’ll travel across the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods to discover a little-known universe populated by amazing animals: the powerful Liopleurodon, the long-necked Elasmosaurus, the “eye-lizard” Ophthalmosaurus, the ferocious Prognathodon, and the gigantic 75-foot Shonisaurus.

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World is rated “Universal” by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the equivalent of a “General Audience” or “G” rating from the MPAA. According to the BBFC, films classified as “Universal” are suitable for audiences aged 4 years and over.

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World is sponsored locally by NTV and 107.7 The Island.

Also at 2:00 p.m., you’ll also have a chance to blast into space and learn how the Earth, Moon and Sun work together in the planetarium’s new fulldome show with the help of Coyote, a fun character adapted from Native American oral traditions. While especially designed for children in grades 2-5, it’s really fun for everyone! Earth, Moon & Sun plays on Tuesday-Sunday at 2:00 p.m. through June 5.

While here, attend the opening of the Life Up Close Photography Exhibit and Sale including 77 photographs from 26 photographers that match the theme of the Museum’s new tagline “Life up close.” The selected artists stretch across the state from Sidney to Ralson. Subject matter includes the rich natural and cultural history of Nebraska and varies widely from architecture, animals, people and the natural Nebraska landscape. Meet several of the photographers plus you can be a judge and help decide which artist is worthy of the popular People’s Choice Award. The exhibit will be on display through March 25.

So turn off the T.V. and gather the family — Winter Celebration will warm your heart and expand your mind! Plus free fish-shaped cookies can’t hurt either!

Gary installed the 30-foot Tylosaurus sculpture in the Museum’s lightwell back in January 2010. Click here to see photos and to learn more about the Tylosaurus.

Gary is a world-renowned and award-winning paleo-artist. While he was a student at Hastings College, Staab interned at the Hastings Museum helping design and build exhibits and has “had a soft spot for the museum” ever since. In September 2009, Staab installed a Pteranodon longicps – a flying reptile believed to have lived 82 million to 87 million years ago – at the new Morrison-Reeves Science Center at Hastings College. Staab currently has his own studio in Kearney, Missouri. You can find more on Gary at his website http://www.staabstudios.com.

Gary will be installing the sculpture Friday morning after 10:00 a.m. He and Museum director Becky Matticks will be available for interviews.

Family Friday is a fun monthly event offering visitors the enjoyment of pizza, a drink, and a family-friendly movie for one low price. The event is sponsored by Little Caesars Pizza.

Join your friends and start your weekend early on Friday, February 3.  Admission is $8 for members, $10 for Non-members, and $9 for Non-member Children. Reservations are required by February 2. Please call the Hastings Museum at 402-461-4629 or 800-508-4629, option zero.

If you miss the Family Friday showing of Arthur Christmas 3D, you can catch it later. It plays again Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday at 5:00 p.m. on February 4-5 and again on February 9-11. The movie is rated PG for some mild rude humor. Admission is just $6.50 person plus tax.

Starring the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie and Bill Nighy, Arthur Christmas 3D is rated PG for for some mild rude humor.

Admission to Hollywood movies is $6.50 per person plus tax. For more information or to purchase advanced tickets, please call the Hastings Museum at 402-461-4629 or 800-508-4629, option zero.

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary and Mary from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds. To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.

Starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, “The Muppets” is rated PG for some mild rude humor.

Admission to Hollywood 2D movies is $4.50 per person plus tax. For more information or to purchase advanced tickets, please call the Hastings Museum at 402-461-4629 or 800-508-4629, option zero.

The Hastings Museum and 3D Entertainment Distribution invites you on an incredible voyage, 200 million years back in time, for a face-to-face encounter with the T-Rex of the seas in a new 3D movie, Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World, premiering this Saturday, February 4 at the Hastings Museum Digital 3D Theatre.

The film sheds light on the extraordinary prehistoric underwater world and its larger-than-life creatures, which with their daunting size and natural ability for predation, were ruling the seas 20 million years before dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

“The Earth’s history, scientifically speaking, is a remarkable one, full of incredible creatures and stories,” said Becky Matticks, Museum Director at the Hastings Museum. “It’s exciting to be able to tell the story that relates some much to Nebraska’s natural history as fossils of many of the creatures featured in the film can be found here.”

You’ll meet, in a modern-day aquarium, Julie, an imaginative young woman, and travel across the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods to discover a little-known universe populated by amazing animals: the powerful Liopleurodon, the long-necked Elasmosaurus, the “eye-lizard” Ophthalmosaurus, the ferocious Prognathodon, and the gigantic 75-foot Shonisaurus.

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World is rated “Universal” by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the equivalent of a “General Audience” rating from the MPAA. According to the BBFC, films classified as “Universal” are suitable for audiences aged 4 years and over.

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World is sponsored locally by NTV and 107.7 The Island.

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World is showing at Hastings Museum through Sept. 11, 2012.