Press Release

Today marks the opening of the Field Museum Dig Site, a pop-up experience at 333 N. Michigan Avenue. The storefront has been transformed into a replica dig site, complete with casts of real dinosaur bones and the actual tools that Field Museum scientists use in their fieldwork.

“Since we can’t bring everybody in Chicago to a dinosaur dig site, we wanted to bring a dig site to them,” says Stacy Dilling, the museum’s Marketing and Advertising Director. “With this pop-up, we’re having a little fun and giving people a glimpse into the world of our scientists.”

Since the pop-up opened on April 1, the Field first announced it on Twitter as a real paleontological site; the first letter of each word in the press release spelled out “April Fools’ Day.” But while the bones aren’t real, Dilling notes that the pop-up’s message is.

“This is a great opportunity for us to share a little bit of the Field Museum’s mission with people walking down Michigan Avenue,” says Dilling. “We want to let people know that the Field is more than a place to see cool stuff—it’s a place where cool stuff happens. Our scientists explore all seven continents to learn more about life on Earth and work to save it. The Dig Site helps share that story.”

The pop-up is free and open to the public every day from April 1 through June 30, from 11am to 7pm Monday-Saturday and 11am–6pm on Sundays. On weekends, Field Museum volunteers will be on hand to show visitors specimens from behind the scenes in the museum’s collections.