By Joelle Renstrom | 6 years ago

Here in the United States, we have plenty of art museums, science museums, and historical museums. We also have a bunch of downright bizarre museums, including the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum, the National Museum of Funeral History, and one that’s in my neighborhood: the Museum of Bad Art. We even have a UFO museum and a Creation Museum, brought to us by Ken Ham. With funding, one can build a museum featuring just about anything, and if someone builds it, people will come — especially to the Hollywood Science Fiction Museum.

The project has been initiated by the non-profit group New Starship, which aims to reconstruct sets from Star Trek and is currently working on restoring the Star Trek: Enterprise bridge.

The organization was established when founder and sci-fi enthusiast Huston Huddleston found parts of the set Paramount created for Star Trek: Generations. The set was a duplicate of the original TV set, and after touring the replica around the country as an exhibit, Paramount put it into storage, where it languished until Huddleston found it and began the restoration campaign. Now, New Starship Foundation has set its sights on something even bigger — a museum that shows and celebrates science fiction movies, television, art, and literature.

The museum will have exhibits of show props, sets, costumes, and footage from actors, directors, astronauts, and scientists. It will also aim to teach visitors about actual scientific concepts that are woven into science fiction. A brilliant idea, if I do say so myself!

New Starship Foundation has launched a Kickstarter to acquire funds for the 2015 Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum, which will serve as a precursor to the Hollywood Science Fiction Museum, estimated for completion in 2018 (most of the concept art on this page is for exhibits for that museum). While I’m sure GFR readers won’t take much convincing that this is a worthwhile project, checking out the Board of Directors inspires even more confidence. On the board is Ronald Moore, Hugo Award-winning NASA and sci-fi artist Rick Sternbach, Star Trek writer Larry Nemecek, Oscar and Emmy-winning visual effects artist Doug Drexler, Hugo and Nebula award winner David Gerrold, and more. The Board of Directors is a who’s who of famous writers, set designers, and artists. With them backing this museum, there are equal amounts of talent and appreciation for sci-fi, which should help give the museum not just an amazing look, but an amazing feel.

Right now, the design for the museum includes an exhibit on classic sci-fi cars, a hall of spaceships, a time machine and TARDIS, laser tag, a hall of robots, and sections celebrating Star Trek, BSG, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and more. Sign me up! With 35 days to go, the funding is at about 25% of its $82,300 goal. If, like me, you’re ready to buy tickets to the museum, consider chipping in a few bucks to make sure it happens!