There’s some serious unpacking underway at the Saint Louis Science Center.
Experts are opening up crates holding vases, frescoes, and other artifacts as they set up Pompeii: The Exhibition, which returns to the Science Center on May 16. The exhibition, which is curated by NEON in partnership with the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Archeological Park of Pompeii, and the Science Center, last visited St. Louis in 2019, when organizers say it was a massive hit. The 2025 edition includes dozens of new items, as well as two new interactive elements.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
The busy port city of Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., but its destruction also caused its unmatched preservation. As ash covered the neighborhoods, businesses, and, ultimately, people of Pompeii, they were locked in time. Buildings, artworks, and everyday objects have been uncovered fully intact. Plaster casts of the impressions left by Pompeiians trapped under the ash illustrate the human impact in sobering detail.
“It is a perfect photograph of that last moment,” says Kaylia Eskew, manager of special exhibitions and featured experiences at the Saint Louis Science Center. “Because [the ash] buried everything, because it hardened around it, we get this really unique experience to walk in their shoes, and it’s something you don’t really see in other natural disasters.”
Visitors to Pompeii: The Exhibition will have the opportunity to step into the sandals of a resident of Pompeii. After entering through an archway welcoming folks into the ancient city, they are led through domestic spaces, including an atrium, dining area (triclinium), kitchen, and garden area. The exhibition then shifts to public areas such as the forum, market streets, and bathhouses.
READ MORE: A guide to visiting the Saint Louis Science Center
“This is what normal everyday people’s lives were like,” says SLSC collections and special projects manager Kristina Hampton. “I think that is so relatable for all of us. It’s amazing, because these people were living their lives, working, making food, just going about their lives, and then all of a sudden it was over.”
Around 150 artifacts—statues, vessels, weaponry, theatrical masks, and more—are spread throughout the spaces, including 61 that are new to the exhibit since its last visit to St. Louis. In fact, several have never been shown prior to the Pompeii: The Exhibition tour.
In addition to the objects on display, interactive experiences will allow visitors to dive deeper into certain areas of Pompeiian life and history. The Mount Vesuvius Eruption Interactive, new to the 2025 iteration of the exhibition, takes visitors through the stages of the volcanic eruption and the pyroclastic cloud that caused such different outcomes for the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Also new is a Gladiators 3D Holographic, which introduces viewers to different classes of gladiators, their weaponry, and their styles of combat.
The final stage of the exhibition is A 4D Eruption Experience, an immersive theater experience that replicates the eruption of Mount Vesuvius through sights, sounds, fog, and shaking. After getting a small taste of what Pompeiians experienced during those final moments, visitors move into the space which houses plaster casts of those caught in the eruption.
“I always say that the best way to describe it is horrifically beautiful,” Eskew says. ”It truly is. The accident, the people, the lives that were lost were horrifying, but this picture that we’ve got of them 2000 years later is truly incredible.”
Pompeii: The Exhibition opens May 16 at the Saint Louis Science Center. For tickets and more information, visit slcl.org.
