Your Museum and America's Big Birthday Party

July 4, 2026, is coming fast — and it's not just for history museums.

The U.S. 250th anniversary is one of those rare cultural moments when everyone is paying attention. Science centers, children's museums, and natural history institutions all have a genuine stake in this celebration. The question isn't whether to participate — it's how to do it in a way that feels authentic to your institution, not like you slapped a tricorn hat on your usual programming.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Science Centers can explore the remarkable scientific curiosity of the Founding era — Franklin's electricity experiments, Jefferson's obsessive botanical collecting, George Washington's early work as a surveyor, and the Lewis & Clark expedition as one of the great scientific adventures in American history. The 18th century was buzzing with scientific inquiry. Lean into that.

Children's Museums can frame experiences around the simple, powerful question: "What does it mean to be an American?" Invite kids (and families) to add their voices, stories, and drawings to a living community mural or memory wall. 

Natural History Museums can highlight how America's landscape shaped its people. Westward migration, the role of rivers and geography in settlement patterns, and Indigenous relationships with the land that predate 1776 by millennia.

The unifying thread? Make it personal, tactile, and local. Every community has its own semiquincentennial story hiding in plain sight, and it's probably right outside your museum's front door.

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Take It Inside! When Museums Bring the Great Outdoors In

Museum visitors want to DO things. Preferably, things that are slightly surprising, a little bit physical, and things they may not be able to do anywhere else.

That's why some of my favorite exhibit ideas flip the usual script. Instead of asking visitors to imagine the outside world from inside a building, these exhibits just... drag the outside world inside. No bus. No field trip permission slips. Just a great big "yes, and."

The Humble Sock Skating Rink

Let's start with the obvious hero of this post. The indoor sock-skating rink has quietly become one of the most visitor-beloved (and cost-effective!) temporary exhibit ideas in Children's Museums. Kick off your shoes, slide around a smooth surface on your socks, and suddenly you're a winter sport athlete — no Zamboni required.

Boston Children's Museum's Snowmazing! has been running this indoor winter experience for a remarkable 10 years now, pairing sock skating with igloo fort building and a Northern Lights-inspired art installation. 

Out in Santa Barbara, MOXI's Seaside Sock Skating takes the concept in an off-kilter direction; it's on the museum's roof,  with ocean views! They even suggest cotton socks for the best glide performance. (Science!) 

The genius of the sock rink isn't the surface material. You've taken away the barriers — cold, cost, gear, age restrictions — and just given families the pure kinetic joy of sliding around together. 

A video or graphic teaches kids about ice skating. A sock rink produces genuine delight, some wobbly balance practice, and the occasional spectacular fall.

Going Further: Other Outdoor-to-Indoor Wins

Sock rinks may be the poster child, but the broader concept has legs. Here are a few more examples worth stealing inspiration from:

The Providence Children's Museum has "Little Woods," which drops visitors into a colorful indoor woodland complete with tree climbing, caves, and animal costumes. It's not a forest, but it feels like one, and that emotional hook matters enormously.

Boston Children's Museum also features a full indoor nature exhibit called "Investigate,"  where kids and families can crawl under a turtle tank for a bug's-eye view, or handle natural specimens.

Museums that capture the sensory, physical essence of an outdoor experience and bring it indoors in an accessible, repeatable way are the ones that get return visits.

What "outdoors-in" exhibit ideas have you seen (or created!) that deserve a shoutout? Drop them in the Comments Section below!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Where are Your Museum's "Fans" on Super Bowl Sunday?

Super Bowl Sunday will be a great day to visit your local museum --- because it will be even quieter than usual. 

Why are so many people, even folks who don't normally follow football, more rabidly enthusiastic about watching the "Big Game" or attending a local Super Bowl event than visiting your museum?

  

I'd say one possible answer lies in finding the difference between a "fan" and a "casual visitor."  Fans wear logo gear all year long and have no compunction in excitedly telling total strangers how great their team is.

So how can museums create more "fans" and expand their demographic reach as well?  

Places like the City Museum in St. Louis have set out to be gathering spots for their local communities and have opened up to all sorts of fun ideas that are edgy enough to attract a wide, enthusiastic audience of repeat visitors who definitely become City Museum fans.

Of course, all this talk of creating "museum fans" is pointless if your museum isn't really fan-worthy.  Is your admissions procedure torture?  Do you create core exhibits and attractions that are worth revisiting, or do you depend on the hucksterism of events that are only vaguely related to your museum's mission and purpose?  What are the obstacles that prevent your visitors from becoming fans?

Let's see if we can create more museum fans. 

  

GO MUSEUMS!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"