On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the moon.
Over 50 years later, the Ellen Noël Art Museum is honoring that historic mission with its new exhibition at the Presidential Archives “Destination Moon: A Celebration of JFK and the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.”
The exhibition is on display until April 13.
Due to the Ellen Noël Art Museum’s affiliation and accreditation with the Smithsonian Institute, they were able to host this riveting exhibition from the institute along with historic items and artworks from the Presidential Archives’ collection as well as items on loan from other museums including the Museum of Texas Tech and the New Mexico Museum of Space history.
The exhibit is also centered around astronaut Mike Massimino who the University of Texas of the Permian Basin will be hosting for its Distinguished Lecture Series at 7 p.m. March 30 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
Massimino was a part of the space shuttle mission known as STS-109 which was the 27th flight of the orbiter Columbia back in March, 2002.
Collections Intern Victoria Hutchinson-Deeb, who is also in charge of putting together the exhibit, talked about the new display at the museum.
“The exhibit is going up because we have Mike Massimino, the UTPB leadership is bringing him here later on,” Hutchinson-Deeb said. “That’s what the inspiration behind this exhibit was. We wanted to put something together about the moon and the astronauts because UTPB is having that guest speaker with their lecture series.”
The exhibit contains a few posters from the Smithsonian as well as a portrait of JFK which belongs to the archives collection.
“A bunch of other objects like the moon rocks and the space modules are from the Museum of Texas Tech up in Lubbock,” Hutchinson-Deeb said. “We also have signed autograph photos of the three men that were on Apollo 11, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. We also have some patches and medals. That’s all from the New Mexico Museum of Space History.”
“Destination Moon” is centered around events earmarked by July 20, 1969, a decade of unprecedented change and technological innovation that brought humanity farther than ever before.
Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon could only have been possible with the leadership of Kennedy and the following presidents who saw his vision through.
The exhibit has been in the works for a couple of months and Hutchinson-Deeb finished putting it together last week.
“Something unique is that because the Ellen Noël is an art museum and this is a history exhibit, we have some art with the portrait of Kennedy but the rest of the exhibit is history-centered objects. It’s fun because the Presidential Archives is a history museum. What makes it unique is that there are historical objects with pieces here including the moon rocks and I think that’s what makes it interesting.”
The exhibition is going to have its closing reception at 5:30 p.m. April 13. The reception will be a free event presented by the museum. Activities will include viewing of the PBS video “8 Days: To the Moon and Back.”
For more information about the exhibit, go to tinyurl.com/4abun4yp.
If you go
- What: “Destination Moon: A Celebration of JFK and the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.”
- When: Open now-April 13.
- Where: Ellen Noël Art Museum (Presidential Archives).
