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America’s Road: The Journey Of Route 66The now-legendary Ford Mustang has been a big seller since the original 1965 models rolled off the line in April 1964. LeMay-America’s Car Museum (Tacoma, Wash.) and Hagerty Insurance celebrated the Mustang’s 50th birthday with a gathering of over a hundred of the celebrated automobiles. The NRG! Exhibits silver blue 1965 pony was there for the event and photo opportunity. This was its last pit stop before starting the tour with America’s Road: The Journey of Route 66. The 1,500-square-foot exhibit debuts at Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, this summer. Tour openings are still available. For more information, contact chris@nrg-exhibits.com

Imagine That. Surprising Stories and Amazing Objects from the Burke Museum reveals the surprising stories, complex questions, and awe-inspiring answers hidden inside objects. Visitors see a new side of the Burke, and uncover some of the most fascinating, intriguing, and rare objects in its collection. The exhibit is open through October 26, 2014.

EXHIBIT Magazine

Seth! LearyEditor in Chief / Art Director

Christopher WirkkalaContributing Editor

Heather JohnsonGraphic Designer

Photo credits and copyright holders: mary.w.e on Flickr (this page, top); Dana Deskiewicz on Flickr (Seattle page 1); Burke Museum on Flickr (page 1); Hagerty Insurance (Mustangs page 1); Content+Design (Plymouth page 1); Ricardo Martins (EMP page 2); Frank Kehren on Flickr (TMOF page 3); Dave Nakayama on Flickr (Some/One page 3); Ham Hock on Flickr (page 4); Beth Jusino on Flickr (page 5); University of Washington Special Collections (Children at Science Exhibition, page 7); Museum of History & Industry (Luna 69, page 9)

Published by NRG! Exhibits, 10922 126th Place NE, Kirkland WA 98033 Copyright © 2014 NRG! Exhibits. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Printed in USA.

Above: Alexander Calder’s Eagle (1971) at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle with the Space Needle looming in the background.

Exhibit NewsNews and updates by and for exhibit folks

Seattle SceneOur corner of the world is more that just rain and fleece.

Love Of BoatsThe Center for Wooden Boatson Lake Union is a niche in a nautical niche

Pacific Science CenterA look at the past and future of Seattle’s Pacific Science Center

Seattle Museum MapA map of some of Seattle’scultural wonders to help you find your way

Welcome to the third edition of EXHIBIT magazine, produced by NRG! Exhibits. I also want to welcome you to Seattle. NRG! Exhibits is located just across the lake, in Kirkland, and I have to say the Puget Sound region is a great place to live and work. We’re excited to have the American Alliance of Museums annual meeting held here. I think you’ll find Seattle to be a fun destination and, since I suspect you’ll be busy with conference activities, I hope you’ll make a return trip. Please enjoy these articles that share a bit about our town and its museums. There’s a map on the last page that you may find helpful.

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EXHIBIT NEWS

CONTENTS | 2014 EDITION

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Imagine That

Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier viewed from Kerry Park

The Journey To PlymouthOne of our country’s most historic towns is turning 400. The landing of the Mayflower in 1620 at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, began a relationship between peoples and helped shape a nation. A new traveling exhibit that tells this story is being developed by Plymouth 400, Inc. and will be toured by NRG! Exhibits. The Journey to Plymouth: Legacy of a Nation is an interactive experience geared for a family audience and will debut in 2016. Contact seth@nrg-exhibits.com for more details.

NRG! Exhibits’ 1965 Mustang at the 50th birthday eventSeth! LearyPrincipal, NRG! Exhibits

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SEATTLE SCENE

SEATTLE SCENEWelcome to the Emerald City. Seattle boasts some of the most interesting and diverse neighborhoods you’ll find anywhere. You can see mountains and water from nearly everywhere—and don’t spread the word, but we do have sunshine.

Like Rome and San Francisco, the city is spread out across seven hills. You’ll see the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound if you look to the west. Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountain Range lies to the east. Evergreen trees are all around. There’s no question that you’re in a natural wonderland when you visit Seattle. But our fair city is so much more.

If you appreciate artwork, try the Frye Art Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, the Seattle Art Museum, or the Seattle Asian Art Museum. There are also over a hundred commercial galleries nearby. The original science center, Pacific Science Center, is located at the site of the 1962 World’s Fair. (See page six for more on that.)

There are plenty of opportunities to learn about our diverse ethnic heritage. The Daybreak Star Cultural Center in Discovery Park is operated by United Indians of All Tribes. The Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard honors Seattle’s Scandinavian immigrants and the Wing Luke Asian Museum in the International District focuses on the culture, art, and history of Asian Pacific Americans. One of our newer museums is the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) in the Central District which explores the art, history, and culture of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

If you can get out and about to the neighborhoods, be sure to explore Fremont, the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe. Down south near the Museum of Flight is the Georgetown neighborhood, replete with funky bars and microbrews. There are, of course, all sorts of fun places downtown like the Triple Door—a dinner theater, lounge, and music venue. Go explore!

A map of some of our museums is found at the end of this magazine.

SEATTLE SCENE

The Museum of Flight, pictured above, is one of the most remarkable aviation museums in the country. Key artifacts from its collection are displayed in the Great Gallery. Fasci-nating narratives and more artifacts can be found in the Personal Courage Wing (WWI and WWII history), the Red Barn (Boeing history), and the two space galleries that explore our journey beyond the atmosphere. The original Air Force One jet, a supersonic Concorde, the first 747, and a Constellation are some of the aircraft located in the air park. Check out www.museumofflight.org to learn more.

The Seattle Art Museum (we call it SAM) has a vast location downtown featuring perma-nent galleries (several global regions, mod-ern and contemporary art, Native American galleries, and decorative arts and design) and changing exhibits. MIRÓ: THE EXPE-RIENCE OF SEEING is on exhibit through May 26. SAM also operates the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront. Their web-site is www.seattleartmuseum.org.

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LOVE OF BOATS

We love planesbut we lovedBOATS FIRST A NICHE OF A LAKE

Tucked in the middle of Seattle and connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington, Lake Union is barely one square mile of water surface. Still, while small, it’s anything but insignificant. You saw it in Sleepless in Seattle. It was the home of William Boeing’s first airplane factory. It’s a bustling body of water with sea planes and boats of all sizes. The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) anchors its southern boundary and nestled beside that is the Center for Wooden Boats. Long before airplanes became part of Seattle and long before European settlers even arrived here, wooden boats were part of the Pacific Northwest.

A NICHE OF A MUSEUM

The Center for Wooden Boats is a museum dedicated to preserving and documenting the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest. It was founded by Dick Wagner in the 1970s and has grown to include two sites besides the one at South Lake Union: The Northlake Workshop & Warehouse at the north end of Lake Union, and the Center for Wooden Boats at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island.

The Center for Wooden Boats’ collection includes over 170 vessels, mostly small sailboats and rowboats. Visitors have the opportunity to rent boats including the 20-foot (6.1 m) Blanchard Junior. These boats were designed and built at the Blanchard Boat Company on Lake Union. Not looking to sail away just yet? You might be interested in the nearby model boat pond. It’s just two feet deep but a whopping 100 feet wide. This pond is one of only a handful in the country, and is open to the public year-round. You can bring your own little boat or borrow one from the Center.

There is no admission fee to walk the docks or enter the Center for Wooden Boats. It is open 10 AM until 8 PM. Visit www.cwb.org for more information.

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LOVE OF BOATS

The first Boeing airplane was built on the shores of Lake Union ninety-eight years ago and business took off. The Center for Wooden Boats would like to show you what else has been afloat here.

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The Pacific Science Center story begins at the 1962 World’s Fair. Community leaders in Seattle originally rallied around the idea of a fair to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1905. They decided instead to host a fair later (1962 instead of 1955) and have science, space, and the future as the fair’s theme. Dubbed the Century 21 Exposition, the World’s Fair brought 15 international government exhibitors, a host of industry exhibitors, and visitors to Seattle in record numbers—nearly 10 million people turned out to see what the space age future might hold.

Some companies had their own buildings. The Standard Oil Company envisioned a future of dome-covered farms and automated highways. It was imagined and advertised in the fair that by the 21st century, we would have flying cars, disposable dishes, and solar ovens. Men would fly to work in gyrocopters and come home to their wives who would presumably still be tending the home in the year 2000.

Although the Space Age would essentially come and go in a span of two decades, long before the 21st century even began, the futurists at the fair did get a few things right. Nobody spoke of the Information Age but there were predictions of office machines that could communicate with one another and telephones with pushbuttons instead of dials. The American Library Association had an exhibit featuring an enormous UNIVAC computer that could print out responses to visitor’s queries.

The jewel for the United States was the Science Pavilion, a six-acre facility with six buildings full of science marvels and activities. Congress appropriated $9.5 million to create the United States Science Exhibit to

“present the exciting story of science in a show unlike any ever seen before,” according to the fair’s official guide book. “It combines the techniques of a dozen graphic and theater arts, is part historical drama, part laboratory, part magic and all science.”

The pavilion itself was and is remarkable in appearance. The sugar-cube-like structures feature a treatment of Gothic arch tracery that makes the prestressed cast concrete look light and elegant. Tucked between the buildings is a courtyard featuring trees, water, and fountains. The science pavilion was the first internationally recognized design by Seattle-born architect Minoru Yamasaki. Yamasaki aimed to depart from the popular Modernist style but now it is impossible to escape its 1962 grooviness.

50 YEARS AN ICONPacific Science Center sits in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle, the icon of the city’s skyline. The science center itself has become iconic in both Seattle’s history and the field of interactive informal learning. Pacific Science Center celebrated its 50th birthday in 2012 so here is a look back at its impressive origins - a reprisal from our 2012 issue.

PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTERPACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER

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Children at the United States Science Exhibit Junior Laboratory

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The Joy of ScienceThe science exhibit featured six areas: The House of Science, The Development of Science, The Methods of Science, The Horizons of Science, the Junior Laboratory of Science, and the U.S.-Boeing Spacearium. The latter was an experience like no other. Similar to a planetarium, the all-encompassing domed screen showed “Journey to the Stars”, a painstakingly developed virtual trip from Earth to intergalactic space. Artists and engineers toiled to create the technology and content for the show all without the benefit of computer animation. Interestingly, computers were used to design the lenses for the projectors.

The four main buildings featured stunning and elegant exhibits in a more traditional, expository vein. Each was themed: fascination with phenomena, curiosity as the origin of science, questions lead to processes, and of course, the future. The Junior Laboratory of Science was the area that really behaved like a science center as we have come to know them. Each of the 26 exhibits was interactive and not just in a pushbutton way. Children could pump air out of a vacuum chamber, manipulate a gyroscope, view objects through microscopes, and simulate atomic particle bombardment.

This excitement ran for the duration of the fair, from April 21, 1962 until October 21 of that year when the last fair visitor went home. This was only the beginning; however, as the science pavilion was rededicated as Pacific Science Center in a ceremony the day after the exposition closed.

A New EraAfter several months of revolving leadership, Dixie Lee Ray, Ph.D. was appointed director of the new Science Center. Dr. Ray is credited with keeping the organization going once the momentum of the World’s Fair had diminished. Ray’s successor, Jim Backstrom, said of her, “It is hard to imagine anybody else who could persist under those conditions, the acute financial distress, the struggle to build reasons for the public to come. Her sheer stubborn persistence kept it alive until it could be rescued; she kept it from being squashed and washed away” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 3, 1994).

George Moynihan came on board as Executive Director in 1980 and ushered Pacific Science Center in the real 21st century during his impressive 23-year tenure. Leaders at Pacific Science Center have proven themselves in other roles as well. Dixie Lee Ray went on to

become Washington’s governor. Bryce Seidl, currently at the helm of the Center, is also the president of the Association of Science/Technology Centers (ASTC).

The Next FiftyPacific Science Center is gearing up for its next half century of science and technology education with new exhibits in development and facility upgrades. “As we approach our 50th Anniversary, Pacific Science Center is as committed as ever to serving our community and being an engine for creative and critical thinking from our region,” said Seidl. Pacific Science Center will be “a public forum for great conversations, inquiry and innovation, helping to drive creative and critical thinking in our region. We envision an expansive network of facilities and programs, enticing people of all ages to learn and explore. Under the arches, at our home in Seattle, we’ll continue to welcome more than one million visitors each year and be among the top attended science museums in the nation. We’ll expand our reach to hundreds of thousands more people with our provocative lectures, community discussions with scientists, and thrilling classroom programs in every county of the state,” reports their website. That’s a win for Seattle and the 21st century, even if we don’t get that gyrocopter.

The First Science Center?Perhaps some readers will question the “first” designation for Pacific Science Center. Here is the rationale: Pacific Science Center was the first to be founded as a science and technology center—and with science center in the name. Two of its notable predecessors are the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and the California Museum of Science and Industry (now California Science Center). Established in 1933 and 1951 respectively, these museums featured object displays, demonstrations, and interactive exhibits. Over the years, these venues have evolved with greater emphasis on hands-on experiences, the hallmark of science centers. We will profile those great organizations in future issues.

Above and at left: Images of the United States Science Exhibition

Today the same gallery hosts traveling exhibits.

Luna 69 exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, 1969.

PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTERPACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER

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