(cheerful music) - The Natural History Museum of Utah is about to be invaded by bugs.

Don't worry, it's for one of Utah's most unique family-friendly events, BugFest.

Christy Bills is here now to share how the museum will transform for this interactive insect celebration, and you're already transforming our studio with what you brought here today, Christy.

(Liz and Christy laugh) Tell me about this.

- Yeah, so this is a drawer that we put together as a display.

At the museum in our collection, we have over 1,000 drawers of specimens.

- Wow.

- And at the event for BugFest, we'll have out a selection from our research collection that's not normally on display.

So we'll have out about, mm, 30 or 40 drawers so people can see what's normally kept behind the scenes because it's organized for research.

But we'll also have researchers, and research talks, and art, and face painting, and all kinds of workshops that people can get signed up for, face painting, all kinds of different ways to interact with insects.

- And probably typically people don't put art and insects together, but just looking at some of the insects that you have in this collection, there's really some beautiful insects here.

- [Christy] Yeah, well, I would argue that insects are beautiful (laughs) if we look up close at them.

- (laughs) Not all of them!

- [Christy] Yeah, they are, even the common ones that are around us all the time.

- Yeah.

- And I love this event because art and science aren't not, you know, they're not so separate.

And so this is one of those lovely events that gives us a chance to celebrate insects with watercolor or tote bag making, or learning more about the world around us, maybe by learning about the way worms eat garbage, if you wanna sign up for a workshop.

That's a really fun, cool one.

Or learning how to do butterfly pinning, if that's something you're interested in.

So there's a lot of different ways to be involved in entomology.

I often call it a people's science.

It's for everybody.

You don't have to quit your job to be an important contributor to insect science.

- And there are several that I'm usually terrified of, but in this display, like, there is a beauty to it.

How do events like this help people learn and not be so fearful of bugs?

- Yeah, yeah.

So I think we're always afraid of things that we don't understand, and it really helps to know that, like, what things we really should be afraid of.

And the more we learn about the natural world around us, the more we can just celebrate it and be a part of it.

- All right, well, thank you so much for being here and sharing this with us.

I'm excited for this event.

If you would like to check out BugFest 2026, it's gonna be at the Natural History Museum of Utah, August 8th and 9th from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM.

Just head to nmhu.utah.edu/bugfest for more details.

I'm Liz Adeola.

Thank you for watching "Contact."

(cheerful music) Philanthropy, Arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the host of Contact, a show that connects you with local events and organizations that serve your community.

If you work for a nonprofit and would like to be on Contact, please visit pbs.org/contact