A FLOOD OF CREATIVITY NOAH'S FABULOUS ARK COMES TO LIFE.

Byline: Melissa Heckscher

Staff Writer

As far as Robert Kirschner is concerned, there doesn't need to be a biblical flood to build a giant ark and fill it to the brim, two-by-two, with animals.

There doesn't need to be actual rain to batten down the hatches and hurry inside.

There just has to be an ark's worth of children eager to climb aboard and play.

"This is not a biblical exhibit," says Kirschner, project manager for the eco-friendly "Noah's Ark" exhibit, opening June 26 at the Skirball Cultural Center.

"The Noah's Ark story is found in the Bible, but it's echoed in every culture around the world," he says.

With just weeks to go until opening day, the Los Angeles museum is still hammering out the kinks and smoothing out the rough spots so staff can get ready for the flood of visitors to arrive.

Part art exhibit, part playground, the 8,000-square-foot display will become a permanent installation here, letting kids climb onto camels' backs and plunk down into birds' nests as their parents marvel at the artistry behind each creature's composition.

"The response that we're getting from people is that it's going to be one of the most fantastic (exhibits) in the world," Kirschner says. "Not to be grandiose about it but ... there's really nothing like it."

The biblical tale of Noah's Ark is found in the Book of Genesis --a good fit for the Skirball Center which is, first and foremost, a Jewish cultural center.

But Kirschner stresses the religious aspects of the story aren't what's important here.

"We wanted to find something based on Jewish tradition, but we didn't want to interpret it religiously," he says, adding the exhibit also will feature stories of similar floods from around the world.

"We want them to learn values -- to appreciate diversity, to appreciate that if we don't work together, nothing works."

He should know: Building the ark -- a project six years in the making --was itself an exercise in teamwork with artists, architects and engineers collaborating to create sights, sounds and interactive layers of the installation.

The project itself cost $5 million, with funds from Wells Fargo and Skirball trustee Lloyd E. Cotsen. Cotsen, the former president of Neutrogena, is known for amassing textiles and children's books from different cultures.

Tony Palermo, a Hollywood sound engineer, designed the sound effects for the "conduct-a-

storm" display -- where howls of wind and crashes of thunder are created when children wind, pull or crank appropriate levers.

A rainbow mist installation developed in partnership with MacArthur prize-winning environmental artist Ned Kahn floats on the show's last wall.

Christopher Green, an experimental puppeteer who has worked on shows with the Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont and Basil Twist in New York, designed the kinetic (movable) animals, including a life-size giraffe that visitors can maneuver with a system of pulleys.

It's a menagerie made using a hodgepodge of "found" or discarded items. A crocodile's imposing jaws, for instance, were made with the top and bottom of a violin case; its back was made from two halves of a car tire.

Other creatures include a turtle made from a catcher's mask, an iguana made from a saw, and an anaconda made out of coiled bedsprings.

"We wanted kids to realize that things that might be considered junk can actually become beautiful and meaningful," Kirschner explains. "We could have taken the Toys 'R' Us approach of using plastic animals, but that's not what we wanted to do."

There are more than 300 animals representing some 186 different species on the second floor of the Skirball's south hall.

At 75 feet wide, 65 feet long and 17 feet tall, the wooden ark will accommodate up to 125 visitors at a time.

Artists and architects at Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects in Seattle, in consultation with Skirball architect Moshe Safdie, designed the 240 smaller animals, some of which kids can load onto a ramp to send into the ark.

Art director Alan Maskin of the architecture firm says that constructing the animals was a fun yet challenging experience.

"We just used our imagination," says Maskin, whose previous architectural work was in museum design. "We would look at images of animals and think of parts and pieces that look like them."

After deciding on the animals' various parts -- faucet heads for eyes, for example, or hair combs for feathered wings -- artists sent intricate sketches to fabricators, who in turn brought the drawings to life.

"Our concept was to convey this idea of transformation -- that you can make animals out of recycled items," Maskin says. "It's sort of like cooking -- you put all these ingredients together to make something."

But beyond the endless brainstorms, the building process brought with it other revelations.

"I think we came away with realizing how difficult it is to build an ark," says Maskin, who notes that's part of the message of the exhibition.

Or, as Green told The New York Times recently: "We're all Noah. We're all working together to save the planet."

NOAH'S ARK

Where: Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Exhibit opens June 26. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets: Advance tickets go on sale June 1. The price is $10 general admission, $7 seniors and full-time students, $5 for children 2 to 12. Free to members and children under 2. Tickets include admission to all other exhibitions.

Info: www.skirball.org or [phone].

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Eco-friendly Noah's Ark docking at the Skirball Center

(2 -- color) A wonderland of handcrafted animals awaits visitors past the entrance of Skirball Cultural Center's "Noah's Ark" exhibit. Project manager Robert Kirschner says, "There's really nothing like it." The exhibit opens on June 26.

(3 -- 5 -- color) A rope-inspired elephant, left, a wooden deer, above, and a ram, below left, are some of the animals that will greet children at Skirball's ark.

Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer