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The Durham Museum Announces its 2023 Exhibit Schedule

11/28/22

The Durham Museum is excited to announce its 2023 exhibit lineup. The year kicks off with Hall of Heroes, which celebrates both the history and science behind America’s fascination with superheroes and how they impacted our popular culture throughout the 20th century and beyond. In February, the museum will host Descendants of DeWitty, a photo exhibit that shares the history of the people of DeWitty, the largest African American homestead settlement in Nebraska. Spring brings nostalgia and a walk down memory lane with The Lunchbox: Packed with Pop Culture. The summer’s interactive exhibit Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO ® Bricks partners some of the world’s most dazzling and innovative skyscrapers with the world’s most popular building brick. The year ends with Julia Child: A Recipe for Life which explores the key ingredients that led to Julia Child’s personal evolution and America’s culinary revolution.

A complete list of exhibits and their descriptions are found below (listed in chronological order). 

Hall of Heroes
January 28 – April 16, 2023
Hall of Heroes celebrates and explores both the history and science behind America’s fascination with superheroes and how they impacted popular culture throughout the 20th century and beyond. Visitors of all ages are encouraged to explore, learn and test their heroic abilities at engaging and challenging interactive stations. Ever wonder how your favorite super-powered characters were created? Hall of Heroes provides an immersive experience for visitors to understand the world of heroes, crime-fighters and gadgets. Their journey takes them through several themed environments with surprises around every corner. Visitors will explore the histories of heroes and the circumstances that created them, while discovering the ideals that make them the heroes that we know and love. Hall of Heroes includes:

  • Life-sized statues of the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, Black Panther and Superman (great for photo ops!).
  • A full-scale interactive recreation of the iconic 1960’s Batmobile and Batcave, and a showcase of the various gadgets used in the television series.
  • Movie props, reproductions and rare artifacts from past and present major motion pictures and television shows.

Hall of Heroes was created by Stage Nine Design and is distributed by Exhibits Development Group.

Descendants of DeWitty
February 4 – May 28, 2023
This 25-photo exhibition shares the history of the people of DeWitty, later known as Audacious, the largest and longest-lasting African American settlement in rural Nebraska. The settlers, including former slaves who had fled to Canada before the Civil War and their descendants, began to arrive in 1906-07, attracted by the 1904 Kinkaid Act’s offer of 640 acres of free land in the Sandhills. The traveling exhibit is on loan from the Descendants of DeWitty, NE organization.

 The Lunchbox: Packed with Pop Culture
March 4 – September 3, 2023
The Durham Museum is pleased to partner with local lunchbox collector Mark Kelehan to present The Lunchbox: Packed with Pop Culture. Featuring hundreds of lunchboxes as well as one-of-a-kind original paintings, the display provides an overview of the history of lunchboxes, insight into the production process and an educational introduction into the dynamic world of collecting. The Lunchbox demonstrates how lunchboxes are time capsules of American pop culture from the 1950s through the 1980s. Join us for a celebration of the lunchbox and enjoy a walk down memory lane!

Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks
May 27 – September 3, 2023
Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks partners some of the world’s most dazzling and innovative skyscrapers with the world’s most popular building brick. The exhibit features 20 astonishing skyscrapers from North America, Asia and Australia constructed in breathtaking architectural detail by Ryan McNaught, one of only 12 LEGO®-certified professionals in the world.

Visitors will be inspired to create their own ‘towers of tomorrow’ with over 200,000 loose LEGO® bricks available in hands-on construction areas. Young and old will be limited only by their imaginations as they add their creations to a steadily rising futuristic LEGO® metropolis inside the exhibition. McNaught and his award-winning team of builders have used more than half a million LEGO® bricks and devoted over 2,000 hours to build the structures featured in the exhibition.

Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks is a traveling exhibition from Sydney Living Museums and toured internationally by FLYING FISH.

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life
October 7, 2023 – February 11, 2024
Julia Child’s insatiable curiosity and tenacious spirit drove her to endlessly try, test, prove and communicate how to make delicious food. Learning to cook empowered Julia and she in turn empowered others, profoundly transforming American cuisine and food culture. Julia Child: A Recipe for Life explores the key ingredients that led to Julia’s personal evolution and America’s culinary revolution.

Visitors will journey through Julia’s life, as she explored the world and discovered her sense of curiosity including the moment that ignited her love for French cuisine and inspired her career. At the heart of the exhibition, Julia’s passion for teaching is explored through her meticulous process of recipe development for Mastering the Art of French Cooking and The French Chef, culminating with her legacy of inspiring chefs of all levels.

Key Experiences:

  • Interactive The French Chef television set
  • Video, audio and photography documenting Julia, her distinctive voice, and her extraordinary contributions to the culinary world
  • Sounds and smells of Julia’s kitchen
  • Visitors can view and share memories of Julia’s legacy

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life is a touring exhibition produced and managed by FLYING FISH, developed in collaboration with Napa Valley Museum, under the rights granted by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and The Schlesinger Library Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, and generously supported by Oceania Cruises.