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New Exhibit at CMU Takes You Back to 1969

A new hands-on exhibit at Central Michigan University is feeling the music. It’s all to celebrate the ground-breaking innovation and creativity from 1969.

Students at CMU have been working for the last year on this groovy exhibit. One student says it’s a good way for kids to learn about 1969, the infamous year of Woodstock and Apollo 11.

Blair Miller is a public history and museum studies student, he said the big idea of the music room is, “People thinking that they can’t play instruments, they’re not made to be a musician.”

Another feature at the exhibit is a hippy van that will surely take you back to the ‘good old days.’

Hannah Gulick designed the groovy van, she said she was surprised that, “People lived in these and they would drive them out to the music festivals and they would just camp in them and sleep in them.”

To fill the van, Gulick said she had to take lots and lots of trips to charity shops:

“I think the hardest part was finding all of the pieces to go inside of it.”

You can even leave your mark on the hippy van by picking up a piece of chalk:

“When they come, they can grab the chalk and draw on it, and it’s not just for the kids, any visitor can draw on it and they love that part,” said Gulick.

It’s an exhibit CMU students said, is new and different:

“The museum has never really done something like this before,” said Gulick. “Will this work, how will this play out with the people who come in, and so far it’s been a great success.”

The exhibit is at the Museum of Cultural and Natural History. You can tour the exhibits during their Tour Tuesdays. Here is a link for dates and times,