hello and welcome to the army store up close and personal i'm your host venus and up here so brain you through this musical dance we call life and to do that you know i bring on prominent people in the community to help us make it through now to day's guess is a huge ordinary woman for fifteen years she devoted her life to our children she is among the many men and women who could we could never repay she's a former teacher who spent the last five years right here in the princeton school system now the second half of our life she is still giving and teaching but she has a new platform and that platform is teaching the world through a vehicle she calls museums and motion and we're going to find out what that is i'm so goodness i'm so excited cause you know i'm an entertainment person so right i love everything in acting it here and so i know you do a lot of exhibits and we're going to get to that but first let me just delve into your background you know for a bit now  appreciate teachers so much but you guys do not get appreciated as much so for all those parents who did not say thank you to you i want to thank you thanks for teaching our children after her now i know that the school you worked at was a private school was a hit the chakan schools haven schools  and go towards this career actually i was interested in starting a black history some type of museum or some type of project in black history for several years and the time just came about last year when i decided that this was my moment to step out and venture and get back to the community what i've really left to do ok ok so now let's go to the museums in motion  the way that it actually got started it was during my last five years teaching here in princeton i begin a i began teaching a course for all the students based on african american history ok and it was for any student that wanted to sign up any student i wanted to take that particular elective right so the very first year that i was at that school i said you know it would be great if we started a museum and actually walk through a museum for the community for the parents to teachers just to observe and learn all types of history about african americans so i went to my principal and i said this is something that i would really like to do and he said fine have at it and there was just no one that didn't love it and it was it was there for about six days and it it went across all spans of african american history government science medicine entertainment actual plan of your research how you had to do that and what you had to do because it's really important when you're going to do something you have to have a player because if you don't make a plan then you plan to fail when you want to do that so tell me about that plan at first i did not have a plan it was a lot of thoughts in my head wake up in the middle of the night and i and so this would be great to do and i would be great to do but eventually when i knew that this was something that i wanted to create into a business i  little journal and i started writing down step by step what i wanted to cover what i wanted to offer how i wanted people to see it and i just developed it from that ok all right and the school was very supportive they were they were so now tell me i would i  don't know anything about serving up a museum ok and i know a lot of things that you do you have to have a license to do it is that so do you have to get a license to open a museum if you're interested in actually reaching out to the community and establishing it as a business and you do need a license if you're interested in doing something this on a volunteer basis you don't but this is something i was interested in taking around the state and other states so you did have to or should i say i did have to receive a license and credentials in order to be able to do that job so just to take the products around the state but not specifically a license to having using correct ok correct exactly so that's that's something that i had to investigate because that was all new to me being in business for myself you know it it turned out really well ok so because you were involved in history and because you liked history and you wanted to do this museum and have it historically correct let's stop for a minute now we know would say i went for a few ideas but it's just so much history you're right you can add to it all in one day right right right i don't people taking bus trips there and i would love to do it my family but it's so hard to get it it is these folks together to do things but now  there are museums all across the country and we've got the wax museums and all those things i have before i delve into all your exhibits and things tell me what makes the museum special what makes museums in motion special is we allow our clients to be able to select from several different varieties of history we offer eight different types of museums so they have a range where they have the ability to select from let's say the  inventors among my personal favorites artists and in chambers you mean the one that we're going to talk about that that particular one you said there were eight that you name only because i don't want to miss anything i did and i'm all eight illiteracy scientist good so that's awesome i mean to me see how many i can't remember and it's terrible i can't remember the last time i've been to museums i'm really anxious to go to the museum in d c d c and i'm not even been to the wax museum i went to vegas brings you that's right we're going to get out of that so you have a museum exhibits yet and for sizes you tell us about that well we realized menus are different and that their budgets that are different for everyone so we offer different sizes they range from small medium large and grand and our grand museum is our most popular because it gives you a little bit of a taste of everything and it's the hugest museum we offer so you have the costumes and the artifacts and the and everything incorporated and it's really like stepping into an offsite museum but just being right there with you know that right there makes it special yes because you said it's like stepping into an offsite museum you know i read something about when you do with the kids and sometimes you have people dressed up as the characters i did a whole us about that i mean how do kids feel when they're walking around and then diana ross walks up to them and they love it they love it and they want to reach out and touch you and shake your hand and i remember one one particular time i was at a school and i was diana ross i do believe i was to iraq when it's over and you dress up as i do well i do and i would love to act i love to go into the role of the person become the person and sometimes allow the children to have a head or a cape or something so that we can bring them into their particular role as well but they they really enjoy it and we bring out information that they've never heard or heard a lot of the characters the people that are patrolling the museum they never heard of so it's just it's a great time you know you only do that for the kids or do you dress up like a like the character for you know let's say it was  airman or famous first women it depends on the venue normally we do that at schools when it is in the schools and setting up the the museums there are let's look at some of these some of the things that we're we're featuring the exhibit for arts and actually just a little bit of background history on how the supremes began when asked to perform when they were the primary and they were growing up in detroit and they met so that's just a little bit of background information that we feature on all of the display tables throughout the museums and they're a part of the space or you bring those to put around as well this particular display if i'm not mistaken those who are already there at the school that we do bring some of some huge photographs some huge posters with us when we rotate around  and entertainers and the african american first and an amazing men and amazing men this particular one this is another vintage album that i have i have fifty six albums ok it's just period just period right now of different artists and entertainers and so we have actual one of our props here right in front is a guitar that sitting right in front of the prop box right yes that's how you or maybe i should you know what ax me if i have an album that you may need to on the ice and she's she's toiling around and of course the bio information that's set up right in front of the figure skating outfit rancid dress that she wore yes well so this looks like it's a bed and breakfast place on the on the terrace this is actually on a patio and one of the retirement facilities that we visited so let's stop here and talk about the types of places that you do i know i met you at a church function right but you go you do all cons where we rotate to schools different schools districts retirement facilities currently we are looking into getting into hospitals for long term patients and are able that are able to leave the hospitals social club cultural events just everywhere you said it was leave the ho se would also be good if it's in the hospital let's say in a particular room and they have some sort of event where they can have that would really be well actually that's what i meant more for patients that are there who are receiving long term care that they  necessarily leave for a week or whatever and then they're there they're at the hospital that totally uplift and yeah i'm not sure how much more they we have there but i wonder if our camera man can get this dress behind us welcome back to michael and we get this dress behind sales and thrift stores and i reach out to communities and then from places and i collect all of these items and i also have a woman that works with me in terms of making some of my costumes so i am always in search of some things to add to the preserve the pieces well show will we store them basically the some of the pieces are very expensive and the ones that require a little bit more care in detail i make sure that they are under my my eye most of the time so i bring certain pieces to my home where i can watch them than others we keep in storage facilities ok all right so you've already told me what your most popular exhibit was and that's the grand one right yes how large amazing african american women display right right right so how long does it take for you to put these exhibits together generally it appears now the grand using being the largest and the most detail it takes about eight to nine hours than ours to to actually set it up so obviously you know doing this by yourself most of the time but you know when you're the boss at the ball sometimes your team calls then or what have you so there are times when i have to just go in and set it up but it is a portion of a grand is just a small segment you can't see the entire meaning in that i'm sure it goes out this way right it goes it actually wraps around into another room real well yes wraps around into another room that you can't actually see but that that will be a grand si on the platform right here there's a test gear my jacket you can see the face the face of the pilot in the middle and all of the bands on the arm so so you're looking for some print stuff absolutely gotta look  working on adding to the arts and entertainment segment a theater portion where we're going to do some things concentrating on the with is not easy and i now i have to ask you this because you know we have a diverse audience i have to ask you if you're planning to  have you done anything for any other cultures actually at this particular moment we are extending into creating some hispanic museums which will be ready in november of this year because so we will have excess hispanic museums to extend to schools and communities of who have had good good good so give us an idea of what something like this cost if you can if not to get the adult book for us to bring the museum two hundred fifty dollars in and that includes the costume and the background information the props we come in a set of everything from the table quads to the floor says the floor easels and it goes on up to the grand sized museums which are close to eleven hundred and that the best thing about it is you get to keep them for a number of days are you kidding me not at all not at all i did not imagine you were going to say that i was waiting for some kind of astronomical figures that is really awesome so it makes it really affordable where would you like to see these museums go to this museum go i would like to see them rotated actually all types of areas at risk for students for her students like us for the elderly community events everyone who may not have had it opportunity or perceived opportunities to travel and go to cultural events like to for people to be able to see these that are interested in what you do other best sister there is a merger i would love to have volunteers i've reached out to one or two colleges to their history departments trying to obtain internship people that would be interested in volunteering so always and always interested in people coming out to help write you know i mean so if you go where you think it's missing what do you think these other things you mentioned to begin with you think you might need to add and how can you add the actual make make some of the events stand out a little bit more i know that right now that we're working to increase what we have but life size pieces and things that that people can actually say and never actually knew about this and to make it just come to life for them so let's go back to the children so when you do that with children it was kind of like history lessons right absolutely so did you have any question and answer sessions with  yes at least at the end there will be there will be more questions than i actually could answer really absolutely especially when we would get into women like to see coleman the first african american woman to pilot and they never knew she existed there would always be i would have to maybe place them in groups sometimes and they would come up with questions per group and speaking of that of the women from hidden figures oh you want to want to sort of yeah yes i am i am i am adding them actually and i did scientists all the people that work behind the scenes with nasa those type of people yes i mean i think it's really wonderful because i found earlier in life that when you especially children with disabilities learning disabilities if you do something that catches their interest and you teach them like and song had a niece who could never remember anything in her parents used to get really upset with her so i started i remembered how i was a certain things i would remember because i was always into music so i would saying my stuff  so i started singing her lessons to her make a song out of it and she remember that and i and her parents would look and go oh wow you know my problem was if i got this loan for me why do you do it right you know but anyway but i think that what you're doing is really want to thank you and i really hope that this show will help spread it all around people tell people about it in more people come and see it now getting the three tips because the show is about giving information to others give me three tips that you would give to someone who might want to start a museum like this or some sort of all the travelling business if i had to get through to some never say the first would be to really ask yourself am i the type of person who is energetic and to have a mobile business because it is a lot of work any type of mobile business i would say at least sixty to seventy percent of it is physical so are you a person that is willing to work outside running sunshine whatever the second one i would say call around and check out your competition inquire about what they do and try to incorporate something different in yours and thirdly if you're interested in doing a museum like this what have you concentrate on trying to get some unique and different pieces at first and make those pieces things that people want to go back and talk about often karen thank you so much for being here and so please tell our viewers where they can find you how they can get in touch with you for this museum absolutely you can reach and and if you like to call it if you like oh fashion way just pick up the phone it's area code two zero five three two three zero nine seven i want you to keep her busy busy busy busy to get everything venus this is the on be strong up close and personal thank you so much for joining us