This week, I thought I would mention a few Science Fiction Museum Exhibits that look like fun. Like Festivals, Museum Exhibits have a limited life span (usually 3 to 9 months) before they are off to another location. Another similarity is the difficulty of finding the things on display (be they films or objects) outside of those venues, at least for a time. Should I call it Rare Ephemeral Things To Do… nope, too cumbersome, and only true sometimes, I am sure.
There are a ton of things I could point to about the various Air and Space Museum locations, like the POP Observatory or the fact that you can still see the IMAX versions of Star Trek 11 or A Night At The Museum in the theaters on the Mall and at Dulles. But what I would like to mention is the ray gun exhibit out by the airport; it is amazing. It is in the room just behind the hall where the original space suit developed by balloonist Jean Piccard (name stolen for the TNG captain) is on display.
If you are in D.C. for that, you will also want to stop by the National Geographic Terracotta Warriors exhibit, where you can meet up close and personal some of the 2,000 year old statues that have guarded the Emperor (and were more recently seen in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Another Museum Exhibit to be aware of is the Maidens and Monsters presentation, running now through April 18th, 2010, at the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, Florida. While the Polasec Museum has a lot going on, this display is something special, with original artwork by N.C. Wyeth, J. Allen St. John, Frank Frazetta, Virgil Finley, Hannes Bok, and many others. These paintings, posters, pastels, and other formats became some of the best known covers of Sci-Fi pulp magazines from the 20s to the 90s; get a glimps here of the wonders in this exhibit. Oh, and did I mention that while you are there you can also play a Theremin?
Touring for a few years now, Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television, organized by the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, runs from the 6th of February until the 16th of May, 2010, at the Orange County History Center in California. With outfits from the Wizard of Oz, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, and Star Wars, this is a display no Cosplayer can afford to miss!