The Henry Ford: New and always improving
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George Tamayo | August 4, 2021 4:00 AM ET
Presented by: The Henry Ford New. Improved. Fresh: words that are essential to the lexicon of modern marketing. Museums on the other hand are, by their nature, dealing in the past. Filled with artifacts and archives from bygone eras, museums are still enterprises that must attract visitors and benefactors to keep the doors open and lights on. Does that mean that they, too, must also find their own path to relevancy?
“It was something that was on our minds from the get-go,” says Matt Anderson, transportation curator at The Henry Ford about planning for the “Driven to Win: Racing in America presented by General Motors” exhibit. “How do we keep the exhibit fresh? How do we stay current with not only the trends in racing, but culture in general?
“Part of the solution was to leave some expansion space within the exhibit that would allow us to bring in cars from the recent past,” Anderson explains. “But in a more immediate sense, we wanted to make sure we found ways to bring in the racing world of today. While museums are necessarily about history, and we at The Henry Ford are no different, we are mindful of conveying the idea that motor racing isn’t a thing of the past. It continues on.”
One simple, yet elegant solution is a countdown clock (ABOVE) – prominent within the exhibit – that counts down to the next race each week. It includes tent pole events such as the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, along with smaller, regional events that represent the entire spectrum of American racing. Alongside it is another digital display with a curated Twitter feed from drivers, teams, sanctioning bodies and venues that continuously refreshes with all the buzz of the moment.
Another significant part of The Henry Ford’s vision with the Driven to Win exhibit is to build new audience for the sport, which resulted in including several interactive elements central to achieving that aim. For the youngest visitors, there’s a gravity racing activity (BELOW) similar to a Pinewood Derby. For others, there are high-end motion simulator rigs that allow visitors to drive a number of world circuits. There’s also a synaptic training rig used to test and improve hand-eye coordination that was developed in conjunction with Indianapolis-based Pit Fit, renowned for training a number of current NTT IndyCar Series drivers.