This last Saturday the Tampa Bay History Center opened its new exhibit, Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television. The opening event included an 'invasion' by brilliantly-costumed Star Wars re-enactors (...can you re-enact a war that didn't really happen?), a brave defense by the outnumbered Rebel forces, and some Ghostbusters thrown in for good measure. It was an unusual event for the History Center, but meant to bring in visitors who might not normally be interested in a regional history center. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to continue my ambassadorial project of bringing new people into museums. The History Center did okay, but I failed utterly. None of the friends I contacted about the parade and exhibit made an appearance.
Okay, so I only contacted three friends, it's not like I was abandoned by everyone I every met, but I was still sorry they didn't make it. And a big part of the reason I was sorry was that it was such a fun day. It was an amateur production, sure, but everyone was having a great time, and the exhibit has some great costumes that I think my friends--big Star Wars and sci-fi fans all-would have been really stoked to see. (Darth Vader's helmet! Indiana Jones's jacket! Burt Ward's Robin costume! Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West hat!) I had hoped--much like the History Center probably hopes--that these artifacts of pop culture would have lured in visitors who are less interested in the artifacts of Florida's early people, but apparently not even a real honest-to-goodness working life-sized R2D2 was enough to make it happen this time around.
Which sort of begs the question, what does it take to get these reluctant museum-goers in the door?
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