People willing to pay to see quality exhibits

If you bring it, they won’t necessarily come. But as Exploration Place has shown once again, people will pay to see an interesting, quality exhibit – even a somewhat controversial one. Exploration Place drew 55,000 visitors to see the traveling exhibit “Our Body: The Universe Within,” which closes today. There was considerable skepticism about whether Kansans would pay $25 per adult and $20 per kid to see preserved human corpses and body parts. But as museum president Alberto Meloni said, “This taught us that if an exhibit is important enough and good enough, people are willing to support it.”

7 Comments

  1. Phantom
    Posted January 11, 2009 at 9:22 am | Permalink

    The whole thing sounded gross to me. My daughter and son-in-law went to see it in KC. Left in a few minutes, the kids were grossed out.

  2. Regular
    Posted January 11, 2009 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    Yes, I think that Exploration Place needs to buy a ream of copy paper and put out surveys before they invest in a museum.

    I noticed exhibits in places like Chicago Natural History and London’s Museum, the biggest attractions are historical, dinosaurs and interactive technology.

    The slabs of dead flesh in Chicago’s museum, never drew much attention except for the occasional ‘ewww.’

  3. Regular
    Posted January 11, 2009 at 12:07 pm | Permalink

    correction:

    invest in a museum project/exhibit.

  4. Mary_Caruso
    Posted January 11, 2009 at 8:11 pm | Permalink

    I agree, as a nurse who has seen my share of bodies, both alive and dead…the LAST thing I wanted to do was see that exibit.

  5. BlueJay
    Posted January 11, 2009 at 9:09 pm | Permalink

    Though I too found the exhibit a little morbid, I would have like to see it and take my son. But the price was WAY too high. Attendance would go up as admission prices came down.

  6. Jed
    Posted January 12, 2009 at 11:30 pm | Permalink

    Mary,
    Yeah, me too. I’ve seen more than my share, and without buying a $25 ticket.

  7. Monkeyhawk
    Posted January 13, 2009 at 12:05 am | Permalink

    I saw my first autopsy when I was four years old. The hot brunette “older” girl (she was about 10 and I was 7) invited me to play hide-and-seek in the back rooms of her Dad’s funeral home.

    I generally believe the human body is merely the space suit Beings wear when they visit planet Earth.

    And it’s amazing how it works.

    Yeah, I recognize how some people might find it ghoulish, but I also recognize how some people think they can’t die happy without a $50,000 funeral, casket, vault, and headstone. (Welcome to the Senate, Mister Burris!)

    But the lessons of such an exhibit (I’ve seen photos) are pretty significant. And it’s not bothering anyone in the cast.

    It’s a shame the tickets were so high-priced but Wichita is a small town and this is a big show.