What's the Backstory?

Our current exhibition, Icons of Costume: Hollywood's Golden Era and Beyond, began more than two years ago with discussions about the need for the Michener to mount a major costume exhibit, something we'd never attempted.

• First, a collection was identified, a contract was negotiated, and then, like casting a movie, a selection of specific objects was made.
• Some of the objects needed conservation care before undergoing the scrutiny of an audience that would be inches—rather than rows of movie theater seats—away. Similarly, the collection had not been thoroughly researched, so a costume scholar was hired, helping us verify the history of each piece.
• Meanwhile, all the details of packing, shipping, and insurance were being worked out by the museum's registrarial office.
• The marketing team conceived all of the public relations and marketing activity—design of brochures, feature stories and online outreach—needed to inform the audience.
• Our education staff began to create the public programs and tours that augment such a large exhibition, as well as the ambitious "Screen Test" interactive area, with its complex technological requirements.
• Meanwhile, the design team was working on the "stage set" and the lighting. Exhibition labels were written, designed, and fabricated.
• And then, like the director and editor of a Hollywood extravaganza piecing together the final product, all the components of the exhibit had to be assembled and installed in our gallery.

Even with projections of a large audience for shows like Icons of Costume: Hollywood's Golden Era and Beyond, admission fees cover only a small percentage of the full costs of bringing such shows to you. We depend so much on those who can afford to give a little more, to help the Museum with a gift to the Annual Fund.

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Hooray for Hollywood! And an even bigger "hooray" to you for the part you play, the support you provide.