Grand Rapids Public Museum builds puzzle room based on local history
The Grand Rapids Public Museum recently created the hands-on exhibit Puzzle Room: Quest for Conviction. This experience was crafted and implemented by the creative minds on the exhibit team and allows an interactive and unexpected challenge.
Puzzle Room: Quest for Conviction, a new exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, is designed similar to an escape room, but without the fear. Based on a true story rooted in Grand Rapids, the exhibit uses a historic event to create an interactive experience.
The murder of John Peck and his wife Hannah took place over a century ago and is the center of the puzzle room. Quest for Conviction asks its visitors to find the clues to convict the Peck family murderer, Arthur Waite.
Research will not help solve this true story in the Puzzle Room.
“How can we trick and surprise people?” is one of the questions Lacy Petersen, an Exhibits Specialist and Project Manager of the Puzzle Room exhibit team, asked often.
The museum uses real artifacts from the museum’s archives to help bring the story to life. The artifacts in the Puzzle Room can be touched and used to help solve the puzzle.
“We were allowed certain liberties of design and interaction that maybe we aren’t given with other exhibits that are behind glass,” Petersen says.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum is using the Puzzle Room as a test prototype, says Petersen. For six months the Puzzle Room: Quest for Conviction exhibit is open for audience enjoyment. The museum will find new adventures in their archives to keep the audience coming back to the Puzzle Room.
“The uniqueness of using stories from our Archives is that we can change it and still have a fun, interesting Grand Rapids tie, allowing people to experience the Puzzle Room for a second time being a whole new experience,” says Petersen.
The Puzzle Room’s exhibitions team created the puzzle room as a new kind of exhibit. Kate Moore, the Vice President of Marketing and PR at Grand Rapids Public Museum says the puzzle room is different than their other displays—it’s more of an experience.
“We want visitors to truly experience the artifacts and content of the exhibits we create, and to develop the space around it to enhance it all,” says Petersen.
A team of curators, collections staff, designers, and consultants came together to create and build the Puzzle Room. With their expertise the group found best way to include both interactivity and history.
“Putting together a team of talented and passionate people who care about every detail is essential,” says Petersen.
This team was tasked with finding an interesting story that could be built upon using the collection of archives. With the details of the case, they created clues to help support the trial outcome.
Along with designing the details of the space, the creative team also built a model of the electric chair that was used in the execution of Arthur Waite.
Tickets can be purchased at the museum when you arrive, but pre-ordering tickets is encouraged. A recommended group is 3 or more people in a group with a limit of 10 people.
