Surviving: The Body of Evidence

The University of Pennsylvania Museum received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop, install, and evaluate an exhibition on human evolution. The exhibition, entitled Surviving: The Body of Evidence, opened in May, 2008. It was produced and first exhibited in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology and will travel to other venues across the United States. Surviving is a ground-breaking exhibition which looks at contemporary human beings in the context of their evolutionary history. Containing approximately 4,000 square feet of artifacts, interactives and multimedia presentations, Surviving is targeted towards visitors ages 10 and up. Surviving shows visitors the connections between the process of evolution and their own abilities, limitations, and cultural experiences. They discover how our evolutionary past defines our bodies, our minds, our culture, and our possible destiny. Goals of the exhibit are for visitors to discover that: All life forms, including humans, are linked. Human beings are the product of an evolutionary process. Scientists are constantly searching for, finding, and interpreting evidence of that process. The evolutionary process and its outcomes have a profound impact on every aspect of our daily lives. Human beings, as they appear today, are not an end product - nor are they perfect.