MOSI is launching a crowdfunding drive for its massive summer exhibit with a new goal: break the Guinness World Record for the largest cardboard sculpture ever built.
Tampa, Florida — With liftoff less than a month away for its new summer experience Cardboard Space Adventures, MOSI is asking space lovers to Boldly Go online to crowdrise.com/cardboard and Use the Force of crowdfunding to take One Small Step toward creating a once-in-a-lifetime science fun and learning experience for families.
Failure, of course, Is Not an Option.
Cardboard Space Adventures takes a child’s dream — to turn a simple box into an amazing imaginary spaceship — and brings it to life… on a staggering scale. A cardboard space station and alien base will tower over guests’ heads. Inside, families can help build a life-size rover and play a giant Space Invasion video game using controllers made from cardboard. Snapshots of real science in action will fill the exhibit.
Covering a vast area inside Tampa’s Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI), the exhibit will stretch across far more than the 1,109 square feet needed to break the Guinness World Record for the largest cardboard sculpture ever built. While other cardboard creations have challenged this mark, the Guinness-certified record still stands with a cardboard castle built in Hong Kong.
Yes, castles are cool — but space is much cooler. Literally, space is much cooler. It’s -455 degrees Fahrenheit out [if gte vml 1]><v:shape id=”Picture_x0020_4″ o:spid=”_x0000_s1026″ type=”#_x0000_t75″ style=’position:absolute;margin-left:0;margin-top:25.8pt;width:174.75pt;height:257.25pt;z-index:-251657216;visibility:visible;mso-width-percent:0;mso-height-percent:0;mso-wrap-distance-left:9pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:0;mso-wrap-distance-right:9pt;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:0;mso-position-horizontal:left;mso-position-horizontal-relative:text;mso-position-vertical:absolute;mso-position-vertical-relative:text;mso-width-percent:0;mso-height-percent:0;mso-width-relative:page;mso-height-relative:page’> <v:imagedata src=”cid:image017.jpg@01D2C58C.335DE310″ o:title=”” /> <o:lock v:ext=”edit” aspectratio=”f” /> <w:wrap type=”tight”/> </v:shape><![endif][if !vml]
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“If you want to inspire the next generation of explorers, engineers, and artists, you have to get them to dream big! It doesn’t get any bigger than Cardboard Space Adventures,” said Anthony Pelaez, MOSI’s Director of Innovation. “We’ll use it as a platform to show kids a whole range of scientific principles. We’ll be packing in learning about physics, math, biology, and a lot more.”
The really big dream comes with a pretty big price tag. This much packing tape, glue, and unused cardboard — plus supplies for families to build new projects together — will add up to more than $10,000. So MOSI is turning to the public to raise the funds to make it happen.
A crowdfunding effort launches today at crowdrise.com/cardboard to generate donations for the record-setting effort. As thank-you gifts or “perks” at certain levels, donors can receive a custom-embroidered Cardboard Space Adventures mission patch or spend time one-on-one with a real NASA astronaut.
Major sponsors for Cardboard Space Adventures include Piedmont National and Leggett & Platt. The adventure begins May 27, 2017. MOSI plans to recycle all of the cardboard used in the exhibit, which ends September 5.
EDITORS NOTE: Prototypes and under-construction portions of the exhibit are now available, along with exhibit designers, for interviews and stories.
Media contact: Grayson Kamm, MOSI Communications Director – 813-987-6018 or grayson@mosi.org
Media b-roll and images of exhibit prototypes: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AjMl2DqAimg9rTcFftAAurR7r0Df
MOSI, the Museum of Science & Industry, is Tampa Bay’s community-supported science center. At MOSI, people of all ages (this means you!) can see and do amazing things every day. Experience an immersive film in the Florida Hospital IMAX® DOME Theatre, see the stars in The Saunders Planetarium, have a blast in our Kids In Charge! children’s science center, witness tomorrow in 3D Printing the Future: The Exhibition, wonder at nature in our BioWorks Butterfly Garden, and defy gravity on our Sky Trail® Ropes Course. MOSI (we pronounce it MOH’-zee) is the largest science center in the Southeast, and a not-for-profit magnet for innovation in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) education where we make a difference in people’s lives by making science real for people of all ages and backgrounds. For more information about MOSI, visit mosi.org.