Science Center hoping for another blockbuster when shipwreck exhibit opens Mar. 24

Hot on the heels of the successful "Our Body" exhibit, the Detroit Science Center has announced that "Shipwreck! Pirates and Treasure" will open March 24 for a five-month run.

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Todd Slisher, vice president of science programs at the Science Center, went to Tampa to see the exhibit first-hand and then lobbied to bring it to Detroit. "Shipwreck!" comes on the heels of the successful exhibit "Our Body: The Universe Within," which featured human corpses preserved through a process called plastination, where bodily fluids are extracted and then replaced with plastic. The year-long exhibit, which ended Jan. 6, attracted 275,000 visitors, generating about $6.1 million in gross ticket sales.

Slisher says the Science Center was on the hunt for a successful follow-up.
 
"We definitely wanted something big. We were looking for the next blockbuster and the 'Shipwreck!' exhibit is a great find, like buried treasure. Just the atmosphere of the exhibit is incredible," he says. "It's evocative of the high seas and pirates. It is very well constructed and incorporates not only science, but the engineering technology of underwater archaeology."

The Science Center hopes "Shipwreck!" attracts at least 100,000 visitors, Slisher says.

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