FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2007

CONTACT:
Michael Johnson, Director of Communications
816-421-1388
michael@maaa.org

Heroes of the Sky on Display at Airline History Museum
Exhibition celebrating early flight comes to KC with help from Courtney S. Turner Initiative

Heroes of the Sky: Adventures in Early Flight, 1903-1939, opened in Kansas City on July 5, 2007 at the Airline History Museum (Hangar 9, 201 NW Lou Holland Drive, Kansas City, MO 64116) as part of the Courtney S. Turner Exhibition Initiative to bring traveling arts and humanities exhibitions to the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Using historic artifacts, documentary videos, graphic panels, and hands-on activities, Heroes of the Sky introduces visitors to the men and women who had the vision to see flight as more than a simple curiosity; to the barnstormers and record breakers who pushed the limits of what the new machines could do; and to the explorers who saw airplanes as a means of expanding our understanding of the world. The Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Donald Douglas, Glenn Curtiss, Jimmy Doolittle, Bessie Coleman, and Admiral Richard Byrd are just some of the adventurers featured in this exhibition.

The Courtney S. Turner Exhibition Initiative will help Kansas City-area venues host museum-quality traveling exhibitions through December 2009. While Mid-America Arts Alliance is headquartered in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District, a large number of area institutions do not have the resources to host exhibitions offered through ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America’s traveling exhibitions program. However, a large number of nonprofit museums within a 50-mile radius of Kansas City may be eligible to benefit from the Initiative, including those in areas as far-reaching as Atchison, Kan.

Heroes of the Sky: Adventures in Early Flight, 1903-1939, has been made possible through NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is brought to you by Mid-America Arts Alliance, and was organized by The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, the nation’s oldest regional arts organization, was founded in 1972 to foster cultural growth in heartland communities. Today, Mid-America primarily serves communities throughout Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, though it also develops and delivers fine arts, performing arts, and humanities programs for a national audience. Mid-America programs attract upwards of one million people annually in more than 300 communities.

For more information, please contact Andrew Graham at (816) 421-1388, ext. 225.