ROCKPORT, Tx — The Texas Maritime Museum is launching its biggest project yet, planning a $14 million expansion of its current facility.
"What we want to do is become the Louvre of maritime museums for the state of Texas and for our nation," Executive Director Michael Ables told KRIS 6. "We want all other museums in and around the nation to look at what we're doing as a good representation of how maritime museums should act."
Ables, who has been with the museum since May, already has long-term plans for its future. “We all go back to the experience that we're really trying to create as a lasting effect," he said. "So that way not only do people want to come to the museum, but they want to come back to the museum.”
KRIS 6 received copies of the museum's proposed floor plans and renderings of the expanded facility. The new wing would form an L-shape along Broadway Street and include new exhibits, staff offices, and an auditorium that Ables said would host over 200 people. The project also allows for potential augmented and virtual reality exhibits to enhance guest interactivity.
When asked about the fate of current exhibits, Ables said that while their locations may change, all existing exhibits will remain. One exhibit, La Tortuga—a Scow Sloop built in 1990 and one of the museum's few outdoor displays—will be moved indoors for preservation. The ship will also feature new sound and lighting effects. "What we're going to do is some amazing sound and lighting, unique opportunities to create the sounds of waves crashing against the hull, the lighting effects of how this is going to look as if it was on the horizon in the bay itself," Ables explained.
For a project of this scale, Ables expects groundbreaking to occur within the next two years. In the meantime, the museum is "getting all their ducks in a row" and feels confident that county commissioners and city council members "will be very pleased with the work we’re going to be doing."
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