Place has raised more than $750,000 for the development and presentation of The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, which opens Feb. 17, 2006. That support which came from corporations, foundations and other major contributors, will pay a major portion of the $2 million staging the exhibition is expected to cost. Discovery Place has now launched a patron campaign to engage broader support from the community.

The patron campaign seeks corporate support beginning at the $2,500 level and individual sponsors at the $1,000 and $2,500 levels. The primary benefits for support include an invitation to the Feb. 16, 2006 Opening Gala, a non-ticketed, private event open only to exhibition patrons and sponsors. Benefits also include additional tickets to the exhibition and to the Distinguished Lecture Series as well as recognition on invitations and signage. At the $2,500 level, patrons also receive recognition in the exhibition and tickets to the large-format film Mystery of the Nile. Discovery Place distributed a solicitation for the patron campaign last week.

Sponsors of the exhibition, which have contributed a total of $765,000 include the presenting sponsor The Leon Levine Foundation, Sandra and Leon Levine and the following: Lori and Eric Sklut; The Gorelick and Luski Families; The Duke Energy Science Educational Fund of The Foundation for the Arts and Sciences; the State of North Carolina; Wachovia; the Dickson Foundation; Grant Thornton, LLP; Julie and Howard Levine; UVEST Financial Services; General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products; Anne and Carl Belk; Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated; EnPro Industries; Peggy and Jim Hynes Tobee and Leonard Kaplan; TOLEO Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Richardson; Greg and India Keith Foundation; Ann and Michael Tarwater; In Memory of Virginia Fincher; In Memory of John L. Mackay, Sr. Exhibition partners include the City of Charlotte, Centex, The Charlotte Observer, WSOC-TV Channel 9 and New Life 91.9.

More information is available by calling (704) 372-6261, ext. 513. For a complete list of sponsors visit www.discoverscrolls.org.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, open through May 29, 2006, will feature two scrolls never before seen outside Israel. Transcripts of Numbers and Isaiah, both found in Cave 4 off the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea between Jerusalem and Jericho in the 1950’s, will be at the center of the exhibition featuring a total of 10 original scrolls and three replicas. More information about the exhibit and the scrolls, which date back nearly 2,300 years, is included at www.discoverscrolls.org.

Discovery Place is developing this new exhibition on the scrolls in conjunction with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation and the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. It will include, in addition to the scrolls, other artifacts discovered at the ancient settlement of Qumran near the Dead Sea.

Regarded by many as one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th Century, the Dead Sea Scrolls pre-date Jesus of Nazareth and include the earliest written texts of the Bible. Until the Dead Sea Scrolls’ discovery, scientists could date no existing texts of the Bible before 895 CE. The Dead Sea Scrolls are more than 1,000 years older, having been transcribed and/or copied between 250 BCE and 68 CE, in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

Timed tickets which are required for admission can be purchased by call (877) TIX-4DSS, at www.discoverscrolls.org or through Ticketmaster.