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Enjoy Ice Cream, New Exhibits, Activities on July 13, at Cultural Heritage Center

The Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society will offer a tasty way to cool off on Sunday, July 13, with an Ice Cream Social at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre from 1:30-3:30 p.m. CDT.

South Dakota State University Dairy Bar ice cream will be served, and visitors can enjoy free admission to the museum for all ages (17 and under are always free) during this special event.

On top of the free ice cream, museum staff members will provide visitors with insights into the two new exhibits that opened in April. The new exhibits are “Transformation and Continuity in Lakota Culture: The Collages of Arthur Amiotte, 1988-2014” and "South Dakota Environments: A Window to Past Times."

The career of Arthur Amiotte spans five decades as a contemporary Lakota artist, art historian, educator and lecturer on Plains Indian arts, beliefs, customs and culture. This exhibition features more than 50 pieces of art by Amiotte from his recent works. The exhibition will be on display in the Hogen Gallery through Aug. 24.

In "South Dakota Environments," in the Observation Gallery, visitors will recognize that our state’s environment has changed over time and that the grasslands familiar to us today have not always been here. “South Dakota Environments” discusses the geology of the state and current topography.

Four time periods are illustrated and discussed:
• Paleozoic Era South Dakota was an underwater world of jawless fish and sharks;
• In the Mesozoic Era, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops roamed the land while fierce mosasaurs swam the warm oceans;
• In Ice Age South Dakota, the Pleistocene Epoch, mammoths and giant short-faced bears made the state their home; and
• Today’s modern Holocene Epoch is one of crops, rangeland, mountain ranges and badlands.

Visitors can create their own environments using graphics and animals and plants from the four time periods. This exhibition will be up through 2015.

While enjoying the event, visitors can also enjoy a birds-eye view of the scenic wonders of the state in “Over South Dakota,” a high-definition DVD produced by South Dakota Public Broadcasting. The video will be shown continuously in the Education Room during the event.