Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The 500,000-square-foot (46,452 m2) building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources. The museum encloses the gates Planetarium which presents a view of the universe, using technology to tell science stories and help visitors experience the universe, and the Phipps IMAX Theater located on the second floor of the museum. It was built as the Phipps Auditorium in 1940, and was used for lectures, concerts, and films until 1980. Renovated and reopened in 1983 as the Phipps IMAX Theater, it seats 440 people and now shows large-format IMAX films daily.