Big changes - described in the Raleigh News & Observer's article, History museum charts a new path. I'm glad we spent a number of visits at the health and healing exhibit because it's gone. They have a new director who:
...gets restless when he strides through the galleries at the N.C. Museum of History.
History shouldn't be musty, he thinks. It should feel fresh.
Of course, a history museum has to preserve the past and educate the populace. But you have to get people's attention first.
History should be -- he'll go ahead and say it -- entertaining.
"We're
in the entertainment business," said Howard, who officially becomes the
museum's director today. "There are so many other things people can
choose from."
Here are some of the plans:
First, he tore down the decade-old health exhibition. Then he made
plans to create a decorative arts gallery, using the museum's large
collection of textiles, pottery, silver and and other objects, which
will open in August.
Next year, the gallery will expand to
feature the early 19th-century works of Thomas Day, an African-American
cabinet-maker from Caswell County. In May, Howard breathed new life
into a dormant military history gallery, which this fall will expand
and coordinate a program with UNC-TV on the new Ken Burns series about
World War II.
He has embraced and expanded one of Buford's final
projects. In October, the museum will open its first blockbuster
exhibition, "Mysteries of the Lost Colony," which will be built around
a collection of watercolors loaned from The British Museum.
"Lost
Colony" will mark the first time the museum has charged admission, and
Howard is counting on a lot of interest from the general public.
Besides the paintings by colony governor John White, the exhibition
will incorporate aspects of "The Lost Colony" outdoor drama, include an
Algonquin Indian village and offer what Howard calls a "C.S.I."-type
exhibit, in which visitors sift through clues and try to determine what
could have happened to the settlers who disappeared.
Howard said
$1 million will have to be raised to cover the loan from The British
Museum. That's in addition to several hundred thousand dollars being
raised for the decorative arts gallery.
The final challenge is
still ahead. Next year, Howard hopes to push through the signature
exhibition that has been planned since the museum moved into its
current building in 1994: a chronology exhibition that would trace the
state's own history for the first time. At more than 19,000 square
feet, it would be the museum's largest exhibition ever, taking up most
of the first floor.
If the money comes through, the first phase,
covering pre-history to 1850, would open a year from now, and the
second phase, 1850 to the present, in December 2008. Howard said $6
million in state money is proposed, and the rest would have to come
from donors.
Terrence (Terry) Mann is best known for originating the Broadway roles of Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, Javert in Les Misérables (Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), and the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Actor in a Musical). His directing credits include such regional productions as 1776, The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly, Gypsy, Funny Girl, Show Boat, Camelot, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, Dream Girls and Pirates of Penzance. He is the past Artistic Director of The North Carolina Theatre. Terry's first job, upon graduating from The North Carolina School of the Arts, was with Raleigh's Theatre In The Park. While with the theatre, Terry played such roles as Tybalt in ROMEO & JULIET and Petruchio in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. He was an original castmember in TIP's first production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL (he co
mposed the music for ONCE A YEAR, the song still sung by the Cratchit family). Terry directed THE LOST COLONY - America's oldest outdoor drama - for two seasons. He is currently appearing in
