Well, all good things must come to an end, as they say. But this really isn't the end, it's just the beginning.

On behalf of the staff and all the volunteers with The Leonardo who helped us make this event successful, I want to say thank you. We had a spectacular time hosting this world-class exhibit. Altogether we had more than 290,000 people see the exhibit over the four months before we closed on January 11th. This job required a lot of hours every day, especially over the final weekends when we had huge crowds of thousands of people coming through from early in the morning to late at night. We owe a lot to all the volunteers who opted to show up and help us, because we were strapped for help at times. (this partially explains why activity on this blog diminished in the final weeks... sorry about that). Definitely we reached a climax over the last three days when we were open for 72 hours straight. Even in the middle of the night we had visitors turning up wanting to buy tickets to get in. It was an incredibly fun and festive atmosphere to be a part of.

The Leonardo has recently presented new plans to the City for renovation of the old Salt Lake City library, along with plans for future exhbits for the space. Those plans are being evaluated now and we hope to reach a decision soon. Given we can move forward The Leonardo is ready to be a permanent museum offering great programming to the Utah public. .

So please stay tuned. And thank you again.

The Leonardo was a happening place tonight, on the last night of 2008. We had lots of silly hat-making with Youth City Artways, who also set-up computers in the lobby where folks to learn to make stop-motion" movies on computers. We also were selling delicious cookies, hot cocoa and coffee just inside the front doorway. Some comic relief was also on hand, with a gag toting chef who made balloon animals for all the kids.

Our friends from Movement Forum were here delivering their always amazing improv dancing. Around the corner on the same level we had kids doing ink and paper art, which was immediately plastered to the inner-walls by artist Libby Blake. And nearby from there Mr. Anatomy decided to make another appearance, where he was surrounded by curious BODY WORLDS visitors. And last but not least, storyteller Carol Esterreicher entertained folks in our sofa corner.

The Leo was definitely the place to be to bring in the new year.

Some of our in-house Utah Science Center members have set up an exercise bike in The Leonardo lobby where visitors can power up the lights to a couple Christmas trees with their legs. It's a great example of the pure energy in the human body and what we can accomplish by harnessing it. Just think of the possibilities for the future!

Today in The Leo Zone I met Dr. Joe Eyring, a colorectal surgeon, who was with a group of other physicians helping to promote Colorectal Cancer awareness.

Something Dr. Eyring said that stuck with me is, "I don't like to lose, and this is really the only kind of cancer you can win." What he meant was that Colon cancer, if detected early, is about 95% curable. He says Colorectal cancer is most often found in people older than 50. Dr. Eyring certainly knows his stuff. Here are a few more facts off the top of his head.

There are roughly 147,000 Americans suffering from Colon cancer.

It is the second leading "cancer killer" in the U.S.

There are typically no early warning signs for Colon cancer.

If you are obese, you have a 30% greater likelihood of getting Colon cancer.

There is also a higher rate of Colon cancer rates for African Americans.

Tonight the physicians were also promoting the State organization UCAN, which stands for Utah Cancer Action Network. It's basically a coalition of different local cancer advocacy groups working together, instead of ordinarily competing against each other for research funding. Take-home "Coloscreen" test kits were made available to visitors, which you can mail in a for a free colorectal test.

Finally, something Dr. Eyring also said was that the average American over age 65 is on 14 medical prescriptions a day. I thought that was a pretty amazing statistic.

Presentations from the very first Ignite Salt Lake event, hosted by The Leonardo, are now viewable online.

Some of the better presentations that I recommend you watch were Xmission CEO Pete Ashdown's dazzling, yet impossible proposal for global MagLev train travel around the World. Another hilarious talk was given by Josh Coates of Mozy.com, whose presentation was titled, "Effective Tactical Responses in a Post-Apocalyptic Environment or Zombie Defense for N00bs." You should definitely watch this one. Some more highlights were Jeremy Grimshaw, a BYU music professor, who demonstrated why Balinese music is better than any of the crap we listen to. And Adam Price spoke about his famed 337 Project.

Anyway, check out some of these presentations online here.

Tonight The Leonardo hosted an integrated blend of simultaneous programming.

Members of The University of Utah College of Humanities School enjoyed a catered dinner with live music, and danced the night away in the 3rd floor Terzo atrium. Meanwhile in the theater across the way, the Salt Lake Film Center screened a controversial film about Lyme Disease. More than 70 people turned out to watch the film and participate in the discussion afterward. And around the corner from that Youth City Artways held their weekly class teaching kids stop motion computer art in the Leonardo classroom.

Downstairs on the first floor, The Leo along with KSL Broadcasting, hosted an "Athlete's Night," where players of local sports teams hung out to sign autographs and talk with visitors. Cheerleaders for the Utah Blaze along with some of their players, Utah's pro indoor football team, greeted people at the door.

All of these layered events hinted at a brand of 'art-culture-and-science' The Leonardo hopes to make a permanent fixture in the old Salt Lake library building. And indeed tonight The Leonardo showed that beyond BODY WORLDS, The Leonardo is functioning as a dynamic venue - a living organism you could say.

Recently KUED's Utah NOW program produced a beautiful show about BODY WORLDS 3 at The Leonardo. KUED producers spent several weeks filming at The Leonardo and preparing the program.

The program originally aired on November 21. You can watch it on their website here.