AP-Travel Online, June 19th, 2006
Promoters of a new, $26 million World War I museum scheduled to open in less than six months are hoping to get the public interested in a war that took place nine decades ago.
Officials at the Liberty Memorial, the nation's official World War I monument, are unveiling a new logo and creating a promotional campaign that will highlight not only the educational role of the new museum, but also its entertainment value.
Executive director Steve Berkheiser says it will be a marketing challenge to get people excited about a museum focusing on the Great War, especially since there are so few witnesses to the war still alive.
"If we can't establish relevance to the story that we're trying to tell, then we're missing a tremendous opportunity not only to showcase a magnificent collection, but also to understand the message, the impact of that war," Berkheiser said.
The memorial towers above parkland on a hill at the edge of downtown Kansas City. Shut down in 1994 because of deterioration, the memorial was restored in 2002, complete with an area beneath the monument for the new 30,000-square-foot museum.
The Liberty Memorial was dedicated on Armistice Day in 1926, when leaders from five allied powers, Belgium, Italy, France, Great Britain and the United States, gathered in Kansas City.
A public relations campaign will promote the museum as "The Ultimate Reality Show," highlighting features such as the facility's walk-in bomb crater, realistic battlefield trenches, and a tableau of the scarred earth of no-man's land.
Visitors will also be able to play computerized war games and engage with other high-tech wizardry centered on World War I.
A tag line to accompany the museum logo _ which shows the silhouette of a gun-wielding soldier climbing out of a battlefield trench _ consists of three words: Experience, learn and honor.
The museum's gala opening is Dec. 2.
