Exploration Place brings first-of-its-kind concert to Wichita this weekend

In the 3 ½ years since he became president of Exploration Place, Adam Smith has been exploring new ways to reach new audiences.

“My vision for Exploration Place is that we’re known as just a place for kids. We obviously are well-known for being a great place to bring kids and that’s a huge part of what we do, and we certainly don’t want to undermine that or diminish it,” Smith said. “But the founders of Exploration Place had a vision. There’s a reason they didn’t call it ‘Wichita Children’s Museum.’ They wanted it to be a place that people of all ages could explore and be intellectually curious. They certainly had a broad concept of what Exploration Place should be.”

Smith said he’s embracing that philosophy with a first-of-its-kind concert in Wichita, “Luminesce” in the Exploration Place dome theater this weekend. Two of the three performances are sold out, with tickets for Saturday night remaining.

“Programs like this are the kind of thing I’ve been wanting to do ever since I came here,” he said. “I’m personally as excited about this as I have been about anything in my time here. I think it’s going to be really special, and it’s right in the zone of a slightly different type of programming.”

A string quartet playing music from movies and television including “Star Trek,” “Star Wars,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Jurassic Park,” “Stranger Things,” “Mandalorian” and more will perform in front of a video created by Nate Jones, the museum’s multimedia coordinator.

Setting an ambiance will be 2,100 paraffin-based LED candles throughout the dome theater.

“It really creates a very, very interesting mood,” Smith said. “They look very realistic but they’re very safe.”

Smith said he wants Exploration Place to continue to embrace the dome theater.

“It’s a really great theater. There’s a bunch of other theaters in the city, but I haven’t seen a better one. It’s a great, awe-inspiring place,” said Smith, whose job interview included being asked whether the museum should continue having the theater.

Exploration Place was constructed in 2000, he said, at the height of the IMAX/large format theater boom for museums worldwide.

“I’ve got a hunch the big wheel is turning round again, and it’s going to be a really valuable space for us,” Smith said. “Everybody’s got a TV at home, a big TV that has infinite content on it, but nobody has a dome — this sort of very immersive chance to have a virtual reality experience in a community theater concept.”

In the last 18 months, Smith said, attendance at the theater has been triple pre-pandemic numbers.

“We’re starting to realize the kind of programming we put on in there influences that,” he said. “This is sort of the first big step we’re taking.”

Meeting John Harrison, who has degrees from Cleveland Institute of Technology and Cleveland Institute of Music, helped shape the night, Smith said.

“John is the perfect guy,” Smith said. “He is the nearest I’ve found in Wichita to a true Renaissance man. He’s got this huge talent as a musician of traditional orchestral music and he’s the leader of this very interesting collective called TechArt ICT. He’s at the intersection of a lot of things that really interest me.”

Harrison, a former concertmaster with the Wichita Symphony, plays first violin and recruited second violinist Timothy Jones, violist Elizabeth Wallace and cellist Leonid Shukaev as the quartet.

“Mostly I hope it’s a really wonderful experience for the audience,” Harrison said. “This is one of those concerts that has the potential of getting a lot of energy, not just for the performers and visuals but from the audience itself.”

The music chosen for the concert not only represents an array of science-fiction and fantasy media, he said, but stands on its own as good music regardless of the context.

“It’ll be more than the sum of the individual parts of the music and the video,” Harrison said. “It’s going to be quite an amazing journey for the audience.”

Harrison said Luminesce has the makings of becoming an annual event.

“Honestly I think that’s pretty likely,” he said.

LUMINESCE

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13

Where: Exploration Place, 300 N. McLean Blvd.

Tickets: $35 for ages 8 and older, from explorationplace.org