AACA Museum Station Wagon Exhibit - Part 2

Our series exploring the AACA Museum’s “A Family Affair: Station Wagons” exhibit continues with an interview with Nancy Gates, Director of Marketing and Communications. She sat down with us to give us the inside scoop on the fascinating selection of station wagons and how they came together.

Photo: AACA Museum

REVolution: Thanks for speaking with us Nancy and sharing a bit about the museums’ motivation and process behind your station wagon exhibit. What can you tell us about it?

Nancy Gates: Station wagons have become retro-cool again and when you think about a lot of the baby-boomers, they remember having one growing up, riding in the back seat which was located way in the back. So it really was one of those things where we said to ourselves, “Hey, this is a fun memory that we can bring back for people.” That’s what we’re all about here at the museum; creating different themed exhibits that either people learn from or takes them back to the past.

REVolution: Can you give us a birds-eye view of the exhibit?

Nancy Gates: We wanted to have a mix and variety of the different makes and models and we wanted to present them in a way that triggered memories. Many folks remember having picnics out of the backs of these vehicles, so we’ve dressed up a couple of the wagons with period correct memorabilia. It just so happens that the Vacation movie remake came out this summer which was a happy coincidence but that’s the sort of memories people think about; the family truckster, going cross-country on a vacation…roadtrips.

REVolution: How does the museum curate the vehicles for the exhibit?

Nancy Gates: We post a call on our website and print magazine, network with several publications we work with, we put it in our email newsletter and also via social media. We were lucky with this exhibit; Autoweek magazine published that we were looking for specific years of makes and models. The phones and email went crazy with great leads. We’re going to do an exhibit next year that will focus on early off-roaders and they were very instrumental in helping us with that, too. So we’re very fortunate to have media partners that will help us with that process.

REVolution: So you already know what you’re looking for when you create a themed exhibit, right?

Nancy Gates: Yes, we do. Our Executive Director, Mark Bennett, oversees that process after he’s come up with the theme. He has extensive knowledge of the makes and models and so when he gets an idea for an exhibit with the types of things he’d like to see in it, it gives us a direction in which to begin. But we’re always surprised because somebody will come out of the woodwork with something really cool that maybe we didn’t know was out there. Or somebody will refer someone with a great car to us. That’s the fun of it; there are always surprises that we didn’t expect. Mark has core pieces in mind that he knows about and we always end up with these other options as well. Sometimes we get the list that we want and sometimes we don’t. Occasionally, we have to go to Plan B because we didn’t get a specific make or model but we usually get something close to what we wanted. There are times where we need to get something altogether different. It’s like a treasure hunt.

REVolution: So which car in the exhibit is your favorite?

Nancy Gates: Even though it’s not actually a station wagon, the 1984 Dodge Caravan minivan is my favorite. It’s a stunning vehicle, in factory fresh condition; I have fond memories of my family owning one. Because the minivan took the place of the classic station wagon as the next generation large passenger vehicle, it somewhat marked the end of the station wagon’s popularity. We’ve included it in the exhibit because it signaled a turning point in car buying trends, historically.

REVolution: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us about your wonderful station wagon exhibit here at the AACA Museum.

Nancy Gates: Station wagons are such an interesting topic and so many people have incredible memories of them. We’re thrilled to bring those fabulous times back and display these marvelous machines. Just looking at the vehicles in the exhibit, it makes me want to load one up and take off for a family vacation!