The National WWII Museum is continually ranked as one of the best tourist attractions in New Orleans, and as one of the best museums in the United States. COVID-19 closures put a dent in the museum’s plans for 2020 but they’re planning to come back strong in 2021, and Newell invited President and CEO Stephen Watson onto the program Wednesday morning to share the details.
“I have been watching the canopy growing, I love seeing guys scale that incredible structure over time,” Newell began. “How close are you to completing that project?”
“We’re almost finished!” Watson said. “They’re putting the fabric panels on now, the last part of the process. The steel structure has been complete for several months and came through Hurricane Zeta with no issues which is obviously a good thing. We are literally weeks away from completion now, and we’ve been doing lighting tests at night to work on the final bits and pieces of that. Shortly after the New Year we’ll be able to talk about when we will dedicate it and do a public launch.”
“I got a private tour about a year ago and saw a lot of the machinations that are going into this canopy - there’s a lot of curiosity in the community about it. I’ve been telling people they are going to be amazed at what this thing is going to be able to do!” Newell continued.
“It will be a beautiful, iconic structure that will sit over our entire campus, and we’re going to be able to light it at night in a very dramatic and engaging way,” Watson answered. “We will launch a nighttime outdoor sound-and-light show called ‘Expressions of America,’ which will not only use the canopy but the facades of the buildings and the interior of the parade ground, to create a one of a kind show using 3D projection mapping, all hosted by Gary Sinise. That will be about another 18 months away. It’s going to be something really remarkable.”
“I’ve attended a lot of functions there, and I’m always amazed that when I walk on that campus, something is evidently different, every time,” Newell said. “Some of the improvements you can’t see from the outside, but you walk in and see everything that you’ve changed.”
“We’ve been constantly adding and working towards the completion of this plan that was developed almost 20 years ago,” Watson said. “The last permanent exhibition pavilion is called ‘Liberation,’ which is under construction now and is about the end of the war, the Holocaust, and the post-war story, and will help visitors think about WWII in a different light and connect some of the dots that are important about the war’s legacy, like how this country changed, the GI Bill, the advance of the middle class, peaceful use of nuclear power, how the civil rights movement was changed by the war, the UN, NATO… these are all direct products of the war that have had a big impact on this country and the whole world.”
Hear the entire interview in the audio player below.
