The Lincoln Academy of Illinois chose to include those out of state in honor of the president’s 200th birthday, Judith Bartholf, executive director of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, said.
Rogers, with the help of his BRC Imagination Arts team, spent nearly a decade creating theatrical exhibits, displays and presentation areas in the museum. He applied for the project in 1998 and was chosen out of a field of contenders.
“We approached it as experience design as opposed to exhibit design,” Rogers said. “Anyone can exhibit something, but if you really want to touch a heart or change a life or cause a seventh-grader to suddenly be interested in American history, what you need to do is not give them an object in a glass box, but rather put them through an experience that makes the life and times of Abraham Lincoln meaningful, relevant and attractive to them.”
The museum is in Springfield, Ill., home of President Lincoln from 1837 until he left for Washington in 1861.
The mid-size city of about 120,000 citizens has received about 1.8 million visitors since the museum opened in 2005, making it one of the most visited presidential museums, said Thomas Schwartz, Illinois state historian.
Schwartz, who will also be honored with the Order of Lincoln, was one of the experts Rogers worked with in order to give museum visitors both a factual and aesthetically pleasing experience.
“We thought, ‘How do we tell the story of Lincoln that will knock people’s socks off?’ Not wow them with technology, but wow them with the story, and Bob understood how to do that,” Schwartz said.
The exhibits create a unique museum experience because Rogers applied his background in theme parks and World Expositions and applied it to the Lincoln museum, Schwartz said.
Among the many interactive exhibits, Rogers used BRC Imagination Arts’ patented design to produce a ghost of Lincoln without using a projection screen.
“We were the first museum where he was able to put his imprint of how you take museums that are typically static and often dull [and turn them] into vibrant and engaging experiences,” Schwartz said.
The Bicentennial Order of Lincoln will be presented to the 30 honorees Feb. 7 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.
“It was an incredible experience to have the privilege to work on a project in which the client not only demanded but allowed it to be this great, and, at the same time, receive this award. It’s just wonderful,” Rogers said.
