Exploration Place exhibit to focus on aviation today and tomorrow

When Exploration Place unveils its new “Design, Build, Fly” exhibit next year – the biggest change to the museum since it opened in 2000 – officials want to make sure it reflects and serves its host community.

“We’re thinking about ‘How do we create an aviation exhibit that feels like Wichita and doesn’t feel like Science Center Anytown?’ ” said Jan Luth, president of Exploration Place.

“Everything we’re doing is not duplicating what has been done anywhere else,” she said. “We’re doing something that’s really quite original and quite different and coming at it from a different perspective.”

Exploration Place officials began talking about overhauling the flight pavilion more than five years ago, saying they planned to collaborate with local aviation companies to create something that would “look toward the future” during challenging times.

Earlier this year, the museum got a $1.25 million boost from NASA – a grant that put plans for the exhibit, as well as related education programs and events, into high gear. The projected opening date is December 2017.

In recent weeks, representatives from aviation companies, schools and nonprofit groups have been meeting at Exploration Place to brainstorm plans for the new exhibit, which will focus on workforce development and inspiring young people to choose a career in a STEM field – science, technology, engineering or math.

The museum is working with Roto, an Ohio-based exhibit design and production company, and Randi Korn & Associates, an audience development and research firm, to pinpoint the new exhibit’s mission and guide its design.

Their work has focused on four key audiences, Korn said: aviation professionals, both current and retired; school groups on field trips, grades 3-8; adolescents in after-school, weekend or summer programs; and families. Officials want to make sure those groups find something in the exhibit that catches their interest and keeps them coming back.

“It doesn’t work just to create the exhibit. There’s got to be purpose behind it, and you have to ask, ‘Whom is it for?’ ” she said.

One highlight of the exhibit will be a “fuselage theater” – a portion of a 737 fuselage with real airplane seats and a screen. Inside, visitors will watch two- to three-minute videos about aviation research or production processes.

The exhibit as a whole will focus on Wichita pride and the future of flight, officials said. Activities or displays within each of the three content areas – design, build and fly – will highlight forces and physics, design testing, materials, tools and processes, the pilot experience, the passenger experience and more.

“This exhibit is about today and tomorrow. This exhibit is not about what was,” said Luth, the museum president. It also will direct visitors to other attractions, such as the Kansas Aviation Museum, where they could learn more.

“We’re all in this together. We want to complement what their initiatives are; we don’t want to duplicate,” Luth said.

“They’re preserving the incredibly rich heritage of the industry in this community, and we need to work on: How are we helping to keep this industry healthy and alive? We’re only going to do that if we have people to work it.”

Tony Auseon, a producer with Roto, said designers hope the exhibit will give visitors insight into the sights, sounds and mission of the National Institute for Aviation Research and the National Center for Aviation Training, as well as local production facilities.

“We are really wanting to help people understand the range of possibilities in this field, and we want to … play our part in helping to sustain the industry here in Wichita,” Luth said.

Local aviation professionals mentioned during brainstorming sessions that the new exhibit could be “a healing process for the industry,” which has dealt with job losses that have affected the Wichita community as a whole, she said.

“This exhibit has the opportunity to help heal and inspire the community by bringing back a huge sense of pride for the average person who’s going to walk through our doors.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2016 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Exploration Place exhibit to focus on aviation today and tomorrow."