Take a tour of this SWEET exhibit at the museum in Sugar Land
SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) -- It might just be a sweet coincidence, but there's an exhibit that celebrates all things candy that is being held in Sugar Land.
Sweet: A Tasty Journey is a sugar-filled exhibit that you can find at the Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land, and Eyewitness News is giving you a tour into the world of candy.
Visitors will light up as they walk through the exhibit and see a variety of some of their favorite candies from now and back when they were a child.
Remember Pez? They have a display full of different Pez dispensers. Did you know that each design of a Pez dispenser was sculpted by hand in wax and casted into mold?
And Sweethearts candy is an iconic one that you will usually see around Valentine's Day. There's a photo booth shaped in a Sweethearts box that makes for the perfect pic.
An Easter favorite for some are jelly beans. The exhibit has a couple of framed art pieces made of thousands of jelly beans, one of which is what some refer as the "We Can Do It" woman.
PHOTOS: Take a tour of Sweet: A Tasty Journey in Sugar Land
The exhibit is full of nostalgic pieces, featuring a game we all know and loved as a child -- Candy Land.
"I think Candy Land is timeless. It's very fun to stand here and watch the board and see children come in and immediately, they light up and say Candy Land," Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land Director and Chief Development Officer Adrienne Barker said.
Reporter Foti Kallergis reports inside the candy exhibit
And you can't talk about candy without the candy man himself - Willy Wonka. Sweet has a display of Gene Wilder, the actor who plays Wonka, and clips of the movie. Part of it also includes Wonka chocolate bars and images from the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" where Johnny Depp played Wonka.
There's also a Gumdrop Mountain! And although it looks fun to climb, that is prohibited.
The kiddos can also enjoy the gumball machine where they can take giant gumballs and place them into the feeder.
While everything in the exhibit looks like a big candy playground, it is actually very educational.
"It tells a little bit about where sugar comes from and the different types of sugar and then a good bit about how candy developed throughout the years," Barker said.
Learn about the chocolate-making process, ingredients and how candy plays a role in celebrations and special occasions. It's a perfect example of how science can be sweet.
Tickets for the exhibit are $16 for adults, $13 for children and $3 for museum members.
Sweet: A Tasty Journey is only available at the Houston Natural Science Museum in Sugar Land and it is there for a limited time. You can visit it now through Aug. 20.
HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM
Did you know that the Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land was once a prison farm? According to the museum, the main unit of the Central State Prison Farm and three barns were built in 1939 to replace existing structures on the older Imperial Prison Farm.
"Between 1939 and 1968, the Main Unit housed mostly African-American inmates distributed among nine wards called "tanks," which were located on the first and second floors of the structure," according to the website.
You can learn more about the history behind the museum on the hmns.org website.
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