Over Two Decades After Captivating Dallas Audiences at Fair Park, Titanic: The Exhibition Returns with Immersive Experiences, Original Artifacts, Stunning Ship Recreations, and a VR Journey to Titanic’s Final Resting Place.
IMAGINE’S “Titanic: The Exhibition” is now open to all and is located at Pepper Square, 14902 Preston Road, Suite 386, in Dallas. The exhibit is housed in a former movie theater space. IMAGINE, a company founded by Tom Zeller produces the exhibit and travels to venues in many US cities as well as cities abroad. The experience was memorable, and I thoroughly enjoyed the approximately 90 minutes I spent inside the “immersive” museum.
The TITANIC story is well-known by every school child the world over. We have watched numerous television specials and at least two full-length films re-creating the fated maiden voyage of the much-heralded ocean liner and its tragic sinking on April 14th, 1912. We’ve read books detailing what seemed like everything known about the ship, its crew, its passengers (both real and fictional), and its horrific demise. I have to admit that was pretty much my take upon approaching the current event. I was pleasantly surprised.
The exhibit is extensive, to say the least. It has taken at least six weeks to unload it from trucks and set it up, ready to welcome the public. When it is time to move on, it will all be disassembled and packed up carefully once again, and then it will be off to another city for the public to experience.
This exhibit welcomes you to begin your experience as a real passenger on the ship. You receive a boarding pass at the beginning of your tour, and on it is the name of one of the actual Titanic passengers and the class they set sail in. I received the boarding pass of a man, Algernon Barkworth, forty-eight years old, and traveling in first class. At the end of the museum experience, visitors face a large wall of passengers’ names, listed as either having survived or died, and you are invited to search for your passenger, Mine lived.
There are numerous experiences to help one “imagine” being actually on board the ship, including a stroll along the deck with the darkest of “skies” and hundreds of stars. There is also a recreation of the” iceberg that spelled doom for Titanic, and you are invited to touch it to feel something of what those icy Atlantic waters felt like that night. There is also an outline on the floor of a lifeboat with benches where one can sit and again imagine what passengers lucky enough to be put into one might have felt,
Of course, kids can do that imagining much better than we adults can (well, usually), and I feel this exhibit is great for them. I found it interesting but not “unforgettable” and just a bit on the too-commercial side. And that was before we walked through the last door and into a colorful, brightly lit Titanic Store where anything and everything Titanic was on sale. No thanks.
As I said earlier, the experience of the exhibit was memorable but less than unforgettable, as promised. The exhibits were nicely mounted, lit, and explained. We had the audio phones to listen to information, but after the fourth one in that series, we read from posters on the walls. The VR sets were nothing outstanding, but overall, it was an interesting experience that actually contained information I had not previously read or seen. It’s cold inside, thanks to keeping that iceberg from melting, so layer up! Some of the rooms are dark and difficult for some handicapped attendees. I use a cane, and there were quite a few subtle unmarked changes in floor elevation, which, coupled with dim light, proved a bit of a problem to navigate.
The exhibit took us about one and a half hours to complete, and it wouldn’t be difficult to extend that another half hour, I’m sure. You are not rushed and free to move through at your own pace. I was told the exhibit would be here until May, and it’s a nice way to spend a morning or afternoon refreshing your memories of that magnificent ship full of beautiful people meeting its doom in the icy Atlantic.
“Titanic: The Exhibition” is now available to experience in Dallas. For tickets and showtimes, please click HERE.
