The Illinois State Museum is launching a new exhibit featuring rare artifacts to celebrate the state's bicentennial.
The new exhibition called Bicentennial and Beyond! The Illinois Legacy Collection will open on Saturday. It'll showcase artifacts from the museum's 13.5-million-object Illinois Legacy Collection, including fine art, anthropological, botanical and zoological pieces.
Erika Holst is the museum's curator of decorative arts and history. She says the exhibit "highlights the best of the best of that collection."
Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration closed the museum in late 2015 as a cost-saving measure. It reopened July 2016, but has continued to struggle. Museum officials hope that the celebration marking Illinois' 200th year will lead to renewed public interest.
The exhibit will remain open through February 2019.
