Minnetrista Museum & Gardens — Attraction in Muncie

Not great, coming from Indianapolis the admission was $30 for 2 adults. The general exhibits were not impressive. I had previously seen the opioid exhibit in it's entirety when it was at the State Museum, which was much more impressive. The gardens around the Balls' homes need a lot of attention. We arrived at 2:30 and was told the next admission to the Bob Ross exhibit would be at 4 pm. We toured the main building, the downstairs rooms of the Oakhurst building, and wandered around the gardens. When we arrived at the Bob Ross experience at 3:40 we were told we would have to wait outside in 90 degree heat even though nobody else was touring the building. We waited until 4 came and went in to see the 2 small rooms they had set up.. I need to mention, we weren't the only ones scheduled at 4, there were 9 other people (3 other groups) at least.. so much for social distancing! One room is setup to look like a living room from the late 80's - early 90's... This room has nothing to do with Bob Ross himself. The studio room has very few of his original works, and really doesn't give you much of a glimpse as to who he was. It took all of 10 minutes to tour, and I read every single plaque. If you are "local"; meaning you live in an adjoining county; the admission is $8. Eight dollars is a reasonable, perhaps even slightly high, amount for all visitors. Please do not make a special trip here...

Usually I’m a big fan of Minnetrista. However, today we were so mistreated that I’m not sure if I’ll return. I was gifted a family day pass in mid-2020, which expired at the end of that year. Because of COVID, we were not able to use the pass before its expiration. I took my three small children to the museum today (something we don’t ordinarily do because of the price) and I was told they would they would not honor the pass. I fully expected them to honor it without a problem, due to the circumstances (the pandemic). When I pushed back, I was made to wait in the lobby for 45 minutes with three small children, having to go through some mysterious “chain of command,” over the phone while “higher ups” considered whether or not to grant us access. Very disappointing and a bummer for my kids. It definitely put a cloud over this experience for us. Would you rather your museum sit empty than honor an expired pass? This kind of logic makes no...

We went for the Bob Ross experience. It was nice and showed many pieces from Bob Ross's art and life. It was much smaller than we expected and really needed an hour or less. But then we went next door to the Oakhurst Mansion which is was built by one of the Ball brothers. It is a beautiful place and we enjoyed touring the inside. One of the cool things about Minnetrista is that you are encouraged to touch and handle anything. You can open drawers and doors and cabinets and pull out the books and look at things. We especially enjoyed the kitchen where the Ball Blue Book was created. If you know how to can then you will appreciate this. I thoroughly geeked out over it. But the best part were the beautiful walking paths through the woods and along the White River. We didn't even make it to the main building at Minnetrista but we really...