For some, museums have been typecast as dust-filled domes of dry data from days gone by. In the past decade, however, digital exhibition tools have transformed the museum experience to create an interactive setting that lends itself to the kind of engaging, contemporary exhibits that can make enthusiastic museumgoers even out of group members who are typically resistant to four-walled experiences.
These pop-culture-focused exhibitions are set to make museum visits fun for everyone in 2015.
The 1968 Exhibit, History Colorado Center
Denver
Opening at the History Colorado Center on February 7, the 1968 Exhibit “presents a year of outsized impact on America,” as Deborah Radman, History Colorado’s director of public and media relations, explained. “You are really amazed by how much a country and a people can endure. It was the culmination of so many things happening in the 60s.”
The 7,000-square-foot exhibit puts visitors right in the middle of the action through interactive lounges that let you experience the first nationally broadcast images of war, the debut of Led Zeppelin, and Martin Luthur King Jr.’s assassination in your own 1968 living room.
After closing in Denver in May, the exhibit will move to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California.
NBC News Interactive Newsroom, Newseum
Washington, D.C.
We all know news anchors sit in front of a green screen — not the city skyline — and they read from a teleprompter rather than breaking news from memory. But what does it feel like to have an earpiece chirping at you, words scrolling by and an audience hanging on to your every word?
In the permanent NBC News Interactive Newsroom exhibit at the Newseum, “Be a TV Reporter” stations allow visitors to choose their background — the Capitol, the White House, even a sports game — and teleprompter script; record their own segment, complete with professional intro and outro; and post the final cut on YouTube, for a one-of-a-kind souvenir.
The museum also offers private one-hour tours before opening or after closing that allow groups completely private access to the exhibit.
Michael Jackson, Grammy Museum
Los Angeles
Since Michael Jackson’s passing, the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live has produced successful successive exhibits honoring the King of Pop. These include a memorial display, the February 2009 “Michael Jackson: HIStyle” and the October 2009 “Michael Jackson: A Musical Legacy.”
But as these exhibits have gone on to travel the country to bring the legacy to the wider audience, the Grammy Museum developed a separate, permanent display in 2011 to keep the King alive in perpetuity.
Some of the most characteristic elements of Jackson’s trend-setting wardrobe, including his sequined gloves and beaded jackets, complement original costume sketches and sheet music.
The museum offers group tours upon request tailored to the group’s interests and the current exhibits.
Sinatra: An American Icon,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
New York
To mark the occasion of 100 years since the birth of one of America’s greatest legends of jazz, music in general and pop culture on the whole, the official exhibit of the Sinatra centennial will tell the singer’s story for New York visitors from March 4 to September 4, 2015, at the Lincoln Center.
Thanks to the involvement of the Sinatra family, “Sinatra: An American Icon” will bring together an unprecedented collection of Sinatra’s personal effects, including private correspondence and photos, as well as awards, supplemented by archival documents and multimedia from the library.
Produced in collaboration with the Grammy Museum, the Performing Arts Library, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the exhibit will be the centerpiece of a calendar of film screenings and other programing in New York.
Rolling Stone the Early Years: A Backstage Pass With Baron Wolman
Arlington Museum of Art
Arlington, Texas
When you think of Rolling Stone, the music coverage and the excellent long-form journalism may come to mind. But the first thing many people picture is the magazine’s iconic cover shots.
In recent years, the magazine has made headlines for covers of newsmakers like Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. But in the early days, Rolling Stone made a name for itself by creating the image of the rock star as we know it through intimate, personality-driven photos by Baron Wolman, the magazine’s chief photographer in the 1960s and 1970s.
Through 35 photos, original magazine covers and exclusive papers from the magazine, the “Rolling Stone the Early Years” exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art will explore the process Rolling Stone used to create its immortal images.
After its time in Arlington from September 5 to October 18, the exhibit will travel to the Sordoni Art Gallery in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in January 2016.
