New Exploration Place president is an evangelist for the museum — and Wichita

England native Adam Smith took a circuitous route to become president of Exploration Place.

His stops included a museum in a small city in Scotland, aviation museums in Oshkosh and Dallas, a brief stint outside the museum world at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in Maryland and, most recently, San Diego, where he helped start the Comic-Con Museum.

Smith says in the short time he’s lived in Wichita, he’s quickly become a fan, and not only because he’s a pilot.

“There’s a lot more going on here than I think I would have thought just looking at it on the map,” he said. “I am very quickly becoming an evangelist for Wichita. . . . This is a great place.”

The personable Smith sat down for a Q&A with The Eagle.

Where are you from originally?

My hometown is Burnley. . . . It’s in the north of England. . . . Burnley (isn’t) just my hometown, it’s my soccer team. . . . And I am I’m delighted to announce that I have got the “Burnley” license plate for Kansas.

Did you really think someone else might have it?

This is big deal to me. I had it in Wisconsin, and I had it in Texas. But when I went to California, somebody else had already got the Burnley license plate. So I was very happy to see that it was free in Kansas.

If you’re such a Burnley man, why leave?

You know, it’s interesting. One of the themes I’ve picked up from Kansas is that . . . there’s sort of an outflow. . . . People go and take jobs elsewhere. . . . That’s a theme in my hometown, too. . . . You know, 100 years ago, it was the biggest cotton-spinning town in the whole world. And that industry is just gone. . . . A lot of the people I went to school with, we are scattered all over the globe.

While in school, what did you think you wanted to do for a career?

I knew from the earliest possible age that I loved history. . . . Always been connected to a curiosity about the world around me and always loved museums. . . . Had a sort of a science and engineering bent to that. . . . The choice was to be a history teacher, do archaeology or do museums. . . . At that point in my life, I had no confidence in speaking. . . . Teaching, I didn’t want to stand up and talk. And then archaeology, you . . . had to be able to draw. You know, sketch the things that you dug up out of the ground, and I thought I can’t draw. . . . By default somehow it was like museums seem to be the thing.

Did you feel a particular draw to museums while growing up?

Yeah. And credit to my parents actually. . . . We were always going to museums and castles. . . . Britain is such a wonderful place. You’re surrounded by history.

Your first museum job after school was to start a museum in Methil, Scotland, an area of severe industrial decline and social issues. There you say you learned the power of celebrity. What do you mean?

We were working on an exhibit about the history of Methil in World War II. . . . We learned that the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, who is the husband of the queen, had been in the town in the Navy. . . . So I wrote to him and asked if (he had) any memories. . . . I was at home one day and the phone rang, and they said, “We’ve got Prince Philip on the line. He really wants to talk to you.”. . . You can surprise yourself because sometimes people say, “Yes.”

So how did the call go?

He called me Smith. “Smith, you wrote me a letter?” . . . I let him know that for whatever reason the people of Methil had a bad memory of him, and they all believed that he’d called the place a dump. . . . He said, “Well . . . I’m sure I didn’t call the place a dump.” . . . We talked about his memories . . . which was the purpose of the call, but the cool thing was he said, “When you’ve got your exhibition finished, let me know, and I’ll come and visit.” And so we got a royal visit, and so what a tremendous thing. . . . He still goes back. He formed a relationship with that museum.

Your next job was the National Museum of Flight in Scotland. At the time you interviewed there, you didn’t have an interest in aviation?

I’d never even been on an aeroplane. . . . I believe that I brought something to their world that they were missing, which is a bridge. . . . Most people aren’t uber enthusiastic about aeroplanes and counting every rivet. . . . A lot of the success . . . we had was from making something accessible to the ordinary person.

So did you develop a true affinity for aviation?

I learned to fly. . . . Aviation has become part of my life, and one of the attractions of Exploration Place and moving to Wichita for me was it’s an aviation town.

At Comic-Con, you had a blank canvas to start a new museum. Were you immediately successful or did you learn some difficult lessons?

Did you ever watch that movie “Interstellar,” and there’s this thing that for every hour you spend on this one planet, it’s like seven years of human time, of life on Earth? Comic-Con was very intense. . . . It was actually only two years but it feels like it was like 10 years. . . . We got quite a lot done in . . . a short space of time.

Part of your attraction to leave San Diego and come to Wichita was aviation, right?

I couldn’t fly in San Diego like I want to. . . . It’s extremely expensive. . . . The cost of living here is much less. . . . The aviation cost of living is dramatically less. . . . Flying in San Diego . . . where do you go? South is a Mexican border, west is the sea, east is the desert, and therefore north is . . . this horrendously congested airspace. . . . In Wichita, where do I go? . . . It’s free.

Didn’t Wichita aviation photographer Paul Bowen have something to do with you coming here, too?

I was at dinner in Oshkosh in last July, and this job just popped up. And I’d been thinking about it, happened to be sitting next to Paul . . . who I worked with a long time ago . . . He was so effusively positive about Exploration Place . . . plus what he told me about Wichita as a place to live. I think literally the next day I threw my hat in the ring. . . . I actually need to take him out to dinner and thank him because this has all worked out great.

You’ll be taking the museum through a strategic plan with lots of input from the community, but you’ve said one key area for you is space. What do you mean?

Is there a better way to use what we’ve already got? Do we need to create some more space? . . . This project is not just the building, which is amazing. We’re on 20 acres of property here. So there’s this . . . sort of outdoor classroom that we have . . . How do we use this . . . wonderful sort of parklike environment that we sit in?

Aren’t you having Exploration Place’s architect, Moshe Safdie, back for the 20th anniversary party this year?

I feel like I already know him because you often know a person through their art . . . This is a magnificently designed building the way it interrelates with outside and inside. . . . I will draw inspiration from that always. . . . He didn’t just create a very interesting and beautiful building from the outside. It works as a museum. . . . Sometimes an architect just comes in, plunks their ego, you know, in your community and in your space. Moshe Safdie . . . first came and said, “What is this place? This river? . . . This environment?” So, the interrelationship between the architecture . . . this park, this place is really — I think he got it absolutely nailed on right.

What are some of your favorite museums?

I really appreciate the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. . . . Very cleverly put together as . . . an all-embracing vision. And they’ve definitely influenced me. . . . Part of my job is to build a great organization. So it’s not just a great place to visit and great programs but . . . how we build a community of membership support and philanthropic support for a place like this.

You’ve been to Meow Wolf — an art installation built in a former Santa Fe bowling alley — four times in the last year. Why?

That is a groundbreaking place to draw 800,000 visitors a year to, I think there’s 80,000 people live in Santa Fe. . . . I love the synthesis of art and experience and . . . that is not just a daytime museum. It’s a nighttime museum. And I think part of what you will see under my leadership at Exploration Place is probably more nighttime programming. . . . Maybe . . . a little bit of the flavor of Meow Wolf will find its way in here to some of the things that we do.

You donated to the restoration of Doc, a B-29 Superfortress, even before having a Wichita connection. Why?

I . . . thought it was one of the most amazing things that I’ve ever seen in aviation. . . . Looking forward to seeing that.

Will you ever get back to England to live?

I don’t think I will, much as it will disappoint my mother to read this. . . . Britain has many wonderful things, and it’s a free country, but . . . for me, the fundamental opportunity of America still exists. I could not have done in Britain the things I’ve been able to do in the USA. For example, Britain is still a very class-based society and my accent — you guys don’t understand this — but my accent brands me as a working-class . . . person. . . . In a cultural world of museums and galleries, my accent would mean that certain jobs are unavailable to me, and in America . . . that’s not even a factor.

What’s something few people know about you?

You probably don’t imagine I have quite a large tattoo on my chest. It is back to the beginning of this conversation. I have the Burnley Football Club’s crest.

And, to be clear, by football you mean soccer?

It’s called football, and it’s played with a ball, not an egg. Don’t put that in. At least put in . . . “He said with a twinkle in his eye.”

Why is Burnley football so important to you?

There’s a great book by Seth Godin called “Tribes.” . . . That’s a book that really influenced my thinking . . . . He’s sort of exploring the idea that . . . human beings are very tribal. . . . I am of the Burnley tribe. . . . The Shocker tribe is one that seems to be around here. . . . There’s a Wichita tribe, and there’s a Kansas tribe. . . . We are the Exploration Place tribe. . . . Even though I left my hometown and never went back, somehow it’s my tribe.