SAN ANTONIO — One of the world's most misunderstood creatures is the focus of the Witte Museum's newest interactive exhibit.
"Spiders - From Fear to Fascination" aims to helps guests better understand these animals.
“We have these sorts of preconceived notions about spiders being scary or creepy or ugly or dangerous and a lot of those things they’re kind of myths, they’re not really true," Jonas Hopper, Environmental Science Education Manager at the Witte said.
Spiders are commonly found at the center of many Halloween decorations but they're actually more important than most people think.
According to Hopper, spiders protect humans from various pests and have been around for a very long time, living almost everywhere on land and are extremely vital to the world's ecosystem.
“I think they’re so misunderstood because first of all they look different then we do. I mean they’ve got eight legs, they’ve got eight eyes, some of them. They move around and it looks a little strange. They have a tendency to hide and sometimes that leads to nasty surprises I think for people. And there are some spiders that have the potential to be dangerous," Hopper said.
“But I think it is also a cultural thing like we convince ourselves that spiders are something that is ugly, that is creepy. All of our movies kind of treat them as monsters rather than the amazing animals that they are. And so I think we’re taught from a very early age that people should be afraid of spiders when I don’t really think that’s the case. I think we should be treating them with respect and we should be treating them with fascination," he added.
The exhibit offers several interactive activities like using a virtual magnifying glass to find spiders in the "backyard," an augmented reality where visitors can hold digital spiders in their hands, and a "spider dance-off" where guests can copy the mating dance of the peacock spider.
“Here at the Witte we’re all about life-long learning and the exhibit is definitely a great one for families for children. There’s lots of things for children to touch and see and do and experience in there.”
Hopper also added that visitors will be able to learn about a spiders anatomy, behavior, diet and how they impact the world of medicine and adapt to various different environments in order to survive.
They also have several different types of live spiders and other creatures including scorpions and centipedes on display throughout the exhibit.
"My favorite part of the exhibit is definitely the live exhibits. These live animals they’re in some of the most beautiful exhibits I’ve ever seen and it’s really designed to highlight their natural environment, the ways that they would be living in the wilds. And it’s also designed to show them off in just as beautiful a way as possible," Hopper said.
The exhibit has been in the works for several months, taking only a few weeks to build. The Witte worked alongside experts and scientists like Dr. Linda Rayor, Arachnologist from Cornell University to install all of the live animal enclosures.
“We’re hoping that we can get people to not necessarily love spiders, right? I mean we’re not all going to be spider lovers, we’re not all going to want to keep tarantulas as pets or things like that but we are hoping that people can get to a place of appreciating spiders, acknowledging that they are incredibly important in their ecosystems to each of us.”
Hopper said the exhibit was chosen to inform people about the diversity of spiders and how important they are to our daily lives.
“We’re hoping that audiences can go from a place of fear to a place of fascination”
"Spiders- From Fear to Fascination" will be on display at the Witte Museum until January 5, 2025.
The exhibit costs $6 plus the price of general admission. You can purchase tickets by clicking here or by visiting the admissions desk at the front of the museum.
