mr.x
April 13th, 2007, 01:53 AM
Behind the scenes at Victoria's new Titanic exhibition
Crown corporation to share profits with private backer
Michael Smyth, The Province
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007
Four years ago, the Gordon Campbell government resisted temptations to privatize the Royal B.C. Museum and instead converted it into a stand-alone Crown corporation with a mission to increase revenues, stage better shows and work with private-sector partners.
Now the venerable Victoria institution is set to launch its first-ever blockbuster in partnership with a private company: The Titanic artifact exhibition.
Premier Exhibitions Inc. is the only company in the world that has recovered artifacts from the luxury ocean liner, which hit an iceberg and sank 600 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland in 1912 at a cost of more than 1,500 lives.
Starting this Saturday -- exactly 95 years after the famous accident -- the museum opens a new six-month-long show featuring 281 Titanic artifacts, recreated ship cabins and corridors and live actors portraying the real-life passengers and crew of the doomed vessel.
I got an advance peek at the exhibition this week, and it's a stunner.
But here's what the public won't see: an American backer putting up part of the costs to stage it in return for a cut of the profits.
In what has become a hallmark of the Campbell government, this one is a public-private partnership.
"It's a whole new ballgame for us," museum CEO Pauline Rafferty told me yesterday. "We've never done a contract like this, and we're learning as we go along."
The museum is teaming up with the Atlanta-based company, which has become one of the world's top providers of touring museum shows and a hot stock pick among investors.
The success is not without controversy. Its exhibition of plasticized human bodies (Bodies Revealed) sparked a nasty copyright-infringement lawsuit from the rival Body Worlds show, a recent hit at Science World in Vancouver.
The Titanic artifact exhibit has also been attacked by some who think the vessel's final resting place shouldn't be looted.
"It's a graveyard," Edward Kamuda, president and founder of the Titanic Historical Society, has complained.
"It's the last point on this earth that people had contact with. To us, that's something that should be left alone."
But Rafferty points out how the Victoria exhibition focuses on the social and historical context of the tragedy while adding a special B.C. section that tells local Titanic stories.
"It isn't just about the sinking," she said.
For privacy reasons, she won't reveal how much of the show's profits will be split with Premier Exhibitions. But she did say they need 250,000 visitors to break even. Any fewer and both partners would lose money.
"Talk to me in three months," she said nervously.
I don't think she has anything to worry about. Most government and museum insiders anticipate a Titanic-sized hit -- and more public-private exhibitions in the future.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
Crown corporation to share profits with private backer
Michael Smyth, The Province
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007
Four years ago, the Gordon Campbell government resisted temptations to privatize the Royal B.C. Museum and instead converted it into a stand-alone Crown corporation with a mission to increase revenues, stage better shows and work with private-sector partners.
Now the venerable Victoria institution is set to launch its first-ever blockbuster in partnership with a private company: The Titanic artifact exhibition.
Premier Exhibitions Inc. is the only company in the world that has recovered artifacts from the luxury ocean liner, which hit an iceberg and sank 600 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland in 1912 at a cost of more than 1,500 lives.
Starting this Saturday -- exactly 95 years after the famous accident -- the museum opens a new six-month-long show featuring 281 Titanic artifacts, recreated ship cabins and corridors and live actors portraying the real-life passengers and crew of the doomed vessel.
I got an advance peek at the exhibition this week, and it's a stunner.
But here's what the public won't see: an American backer putting up part of the costs to stage it in return for a cut of the profits.
In what has become a hallmark of the Campbell government, this one is a public-private partnership.
"It's a whole new ballgame for us," museum CEO Pauline Rafferty told me yesterday. "We've never done a contract like this, and we're learning as we go along."
The museum is teaming up with the Atlanta-based company, which has become one of the world's top providers of touring museum shows and a hot stock pick among investors.
The success is not without controversy. Its exhibition of plasticized human bodies (Bodies Revealed) sparked a nasty copyright-infringement lawsuit from the rival Body Worlds show, a recent hit at Science World in Vancouver.
The Titanic artifact exhibit has also been attacked by some who think the vessel's final resting place shouldn't be looted.
"It's a graveyard," Edward Kamuda, president and founder of the Titanic Historical Society, has complained.
"It's the last point on this earth that people had contact with. To us, that's something that should be left alone."
But Rafferty points out how the Victoria exhibition focuses on the social and historical context of the tragedy while adding a special B.C. section that tells local Titanic stories.
"It isn't just about the sinking," she said.
For privacy reasons, she won't reveal how much of the show's profits will be split with Premier Exhibitions. But she did say they need 250,000 visitors to break even. Any fewer and both partners would lose money.
"Talk to me in three months," she said nervously.
I don't think she has anything to worry about. Most government and museum insiders anticipate a Titanic-sized hit -- and more public-private exhibitions in the future.
© The Vancouver Province 2007