Museums & Galleries in Reynoldsburg

The Columbus Museum of Art dazzles eyes and tickles imaginations with a broad collection of 19th- and early-20th-century American and European artwork, as well as a cavalcade of traveling exhibits. Wear a realistic beast-man costume to the current exhibition Fur, Fins, and Feathers, which spotlights animal motifs within the museum's collections, from Inuit carvings to live armadillos posing as statues (runs through June 5). The permanent exhibit Old Masters captures subtleties of shadow, 19th-century American works encompass vast landscapes, and the extensive Late Modernism and Contemporary assemblage implodes luminous colors in twisting, spiraling transformations. Meanwhile, the museum’s 18,000-square-foot Center for Creativity includes a technology lab and hands-on, kid-centered artistic projects to get children interested in fine art at an impressionable age, keeping them from becoming work-a-day doctors and lawyers.

The headquarters of the nonprofit Ohio Historical Society, the Ohio Historical Center abounds with exhibits and activities that showcase the state's diverse social, natural, and archeological history. Built in 1970, the museum's towering Brutalist edifice is a piece of history itself, lauded as "bold" and "imaginative” by the American Institute of Architects. Inside, a 15,000-square-foot gallery explores pivotal moments in the Buckeye State’s past, examining everything from Ohio’s role in the Civil War to Boomer Esiason’s stint as Secretary of State. A natural-history exhibit regales guests with interactive displays of animals, plants, and geography. In addition to its permanent exhibits, the center hosts an ever-changing selection of featured exhibits and special events.

Outside the museum sits Ohio Village, a re-creation of a Civil War–era town. Costumed villagers bustle about the square, performing chores and activities of the era, such as churning butter and checking wooden PalmPilots. The town's 15 buildings showcase the height of 19th-century architecture and include a Gothic-revival church, a large town hall, and an open market. The village is also the home of the renowned Ohio Village Muffins, who regularly compete in games of baseball played by 19th-century rules.

Resting in shallow waters, the faithful wooden re-creation of Columbus’s flagship Santa Maria puts into perspective the lives of sailors as they crossed the Atlantic in cramped quarters, wholly beholden to wind and weather. On board, guides and crewmembers reenact daily life as it must have been for the legendary explorer and his crew, conveniently providing English subtitles for each boisterous Spanish sea shanty. Apart from regular daily tours, themed events such as Talk Like a Pirate Weekend or the Gospel Sail-A-Bration showcase the talents of pirate impersonators and area gospel performers, respectively.

Stretched across 77 acres, the Waco airfield launched in 1997 on the wings of the Waco Historical Society, a nonprofit organization on a mission to tote the Golden Age of Flight safely into the future. Today, continual upgrades and improvements, plus countless hours from volunteers, have packed the site with more information than ever before. Vintage Waco aircraft, displays, and the history of the Waco company pilot museum visitors through time inside the museum hangar, which joins forces with other buildings—such as a 150-year-old barn¬—to bridge the past and the present. An onsite gift shop stocked with mementos helps soup up memorabilia collections, and, instead of trying to squeeze information from the museum's tightlipped biplanes, visitors can attend the historical society's lectures and workshops throughout the year for extra doses of education.