UO museums offer free admission Saturday.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will offer free admission Saturday as part of Smithsonian magazine's national "Museum Day."

More than 500 museums across the country are participating in the one-day free-admission event.

The two UO museums will be open Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The current exhibits at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History include "The Northern Lights - Luminous Emissaries from the Arctic Skies," "Sharing Traditions, Preserving Culture: Contemporary Native American Weaving in Oregon," and the state-of-the-art exhibit "Oregon Where Past is Present," which re-creates the sights, sounds, and landscapes of four geographic regions of Oregon.

Currently on exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art are "To See Big Within Small: Microcarvings by Chen Zhongsen" and "Faux or For Real: The Art of Researching Art."

"The "Faux or For Real" exhibit examines how the scholarship of art history and the application of scientific research can determine the authenticity of a work of art, answering the question, "Is that a priceless painting by Goya or a copy painted by his studio assist- ant?"

Works included in the exhibition are ones attributed to Gerhard ter Borch, Auguste Rodin, Francisco Goya and Edward Weston.

For more information about Museum Day and other participating institutions, visit the Web at www.smithsonian magazine.com/museumday.