Science fiction is one of our most popular and enduring genres, with a long history that spans books, art, films and television series. And those works have in turn inspired millions of fans to hold regular conventions around the world—dating as far back as the 1930s.
Now a group of science fiction fans are building on this proud tradition of fandom by developing what’s been billed as the world’s first comprehensive science fiction museum.
We are definitely trying to present a much more balanced approach, not just film and television, we will be going into music, art, literature, and also videogames.
‘We've reached out to a number of existing museums that have covered science fiction, and they are very supportive and ready to roll up their sleeves to help us put this museum in place,’ says Mr Viggiano.
‘Different fan communities and artist communities have come forward. The volunteer effort has been off the charts. We have a group of about 170 volunteers with very impressive professional backgrounds that want to help in just about every aspect of the museum planning.’
The team plans to open the full-scale Museum of Science Fiction in Washington, DC in 2017, with a smaller scale preview museum scheduled to launch in 2015.
‘We are constantly reaching out to the different science-fiction communities and sub-communities to make sure that we are getting their input early in our planning process,’ says Mr Viggiano. ‘That's one of the reasons why we wanted to start with a preview museum, which is only going to be about 3,000 square feet, as we plan the larger 50,000 square foot facility, so we can use that as a prototype and kind of a test bed and collect more feedback and more input from the different fan communities to make sure that we actually get it right.’
‘What we have structured right now in terms of our exhibit planning and visitor experience planning is an arrangement of seven galleries, the first gallery being the creatives and the people that created various science fiction stories, going from the beginning to more present day contemporary stories, and then what we think of as more traditional type science fiction, where we have a gallery set up for vehicles and other worlds, technology, aliens, computers and robots and time travel.’
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Despite its location, Mr Viggiano says the museum will encompass more than just American science fiction.
‘We do not want this to be a US-centric institution. So much science fiction has come from offshore—the Australians, the British, the Japanese—and they have all been major contributors, even going back to the original science fiction stories such as Mary Shelley and Jules Verne who were both British and French respectively, and we need to make sure that this is definitely not an American-only institution,’ he says.
‘We are definitely trying to present a much more balanced approach, not just film and television, we will be going into music, art, literature, and also videogames. When we say literature, we are not just talking about the novels that have been written but also comics and graphic novels and other things that have been written in short stories to make sure that we bring a very comprehensive and balanced portrayal of science fiction.’
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Mr Viggiano, who also has an educational background, believes that science fiction is ideally placed to help inspire interest and creativity in the classroom through its emphasis on imagination.
‘A museum like this could be a perfect learning tool because science fiction is so rich and can be used as a teaching mechanism to get kids motivated in some of these more conceptually difficult areas in school that always gave me a lot of trouble,’ he says.
‘If we were to take an approach where using science fiction and using some the things that we are planning to put in the museum as a teaching tool and an easier way to understand these more conceptually sophisticated areas, it might make a difference in how people, how students choose their career paths.’
‘We'll have some very definite educational programming, but we are also going to use tools such as mobile devices and wireless-enabled display objects in the museum, both to have a lot of fun with for visitors but also to use as teaching tools for students that are going to be coming through the museum.’
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