New Exhibit at Yorktown Victory Center - preview new films

AMERICAN REVOLUTION MUSEUM AT YORKTOWN GALLERIES AND FILM

PREVIEWED IN NEW EXHIBIT AT YORKTOWN VICTORY CENTER

A new exhibit at the Yorktown Victory Center provides a multimedia, interactive encounter with the permanent exhibition galleries and introductory film that will premiere in conjunction with the museum’s transition to American Revolution Museum at Yorktown in late 2016.

The future galleries are under construction in a 22,000-square-foot space within an 80,000-square-foot building that opened in March, representing a midpoint milestone in the transformation of the Yorktown Victory Center into American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.

In “Creating Our New Museum,” two dozen objects selected from the hundreds of 18th-century artifacts that will be exhibited in the new galleries are on display near a video preview of future gallery short films about the changing relationship between American colonists and Britain, communication in 18th-century America, two key victories in the Revolutionary War – the 1777 Battle of Saratoga and the 1781 Siege of Yorktown – and the development of the United States Constitution in the 1780s.

The artifact exhibit includes portraits of American Loyalist and noted scientist Benjamin Thompson and British Admiral Richard Howe, a painting of the 1782 naval Battle of the Saintes, British and American swords and firearms, objects bearing slogans and symbols of the Revolutionary era, and American-made furniture and silver objects.

“Creating Our New Museum” also engages visitors in the making of “Liberty Fever,” the introductory film to be shown in the 170-seat museum theater, with interactive experiences including posing behind a screen to create a silhouette to be photographed by family and friends, and taking the stage to act the part of one of the characters in the film.

“Liberty Fever” will be narrated by an early 19th-century storyteller who has traveled the country, gathering stories about the American Revolution. He shares these accounts with his audience using a moving panorama presentation of the time period. Through silhouettes and shadow puppets interwoven with live-action film segments, the viewer will witness “liberty fever” in the stories of people who lived during the Revolution.

“Creating Our New Museum” is located in space that will become the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown’s special exhibition gallery.

Until the premiere of “Liberty Fever” in 2016, three films that dramatize the final military campaign of the Revolution and explore the American ideal of liberty are shown in rotation in the museum theater. Outside the theater, visitors can follow an American Revolution timeline that provides a visual journey from the 13 British colonies in the 1750s to westward expansion of the new United States in the 1790s. A short video introduces visitors to the museum’s outdoor re-created Continental Army encampment and Revolution-era farm, where historical interpreters provide encounters with the daily lives of soldiers and civilians. The farm and encampment, now located side-by-side next to the new museum building, will be expanded and reconstructed by late 2016.

Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (until 6 p.m. through August 15) and located at Route 1020 and the Colonial Parkway (200 Water Street), admission to the Yorktown Victory Center is $9.75 for adults, $5.50 for ages 6 through 12. A combination ticket is available with Jamestown Settlement, a museum of 17th-century Virginia. Residents of James City and York counties and the City of Williamsburg, including College of William & Mary students, receive complimentary admission with proof of residency. For more information, visit www.historyisfun.org or call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838.

For more info on the building of the new museum, click here.