Exhibits Division

What's Up in Exhibits?

Welcome to the Exhibits Division, where you'll find a little bit of everything — our division is home to the Art Show, the Dealers' Room, and all of the other exhibits, fan tables, and bidders' tables that are a familiar sight to Wolrdocn regulars.

For fans who are new to Worldcon, we'll be adding explanations about various exhibits and activities that what we're talking about, so check back regularly to see if we've answered your questions. If we haven't, please let us know.

The Dealers' Room will be in Exhibit Hall D of the Hynes Convention Center, while the Art Show will occuply the Third Floor Ballroom at the Hynes. While most other exhibits will be in Hall C of the Hynes Convention Center, there will be a selection of exhibits in lots of parts of our facilities.

Check out Reimagining Exhibits!

Highlights

We've got people working on lots of interesting things ... this is just a selection!

Fifty Years of the Hugo Awards Exhibit

The first Hugo Awards were presented in 1953 at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention (popularly known as Philcon II) in Philadelphia. This year's Worldcon, Torcon 3, will host the 50th Hugo Awards Ceremony since no Hugo Awards were given out at the 1954 Worldcon.

What were those ancient Worldcon committee members thinking as they sat in their caves and pecked on their primitive typewriting devices to send postal mail to each other? What was the inspiration for the Hugo Awards? We know that Hugo Gernsback had just been the Guest of Honor at the 10th anniversary Worldcon in Chicago. The 25th Academy Awards Ceremony in 1953 had been the first live television broadcast of the Academy Awards. Perhaps our fannish ancestors were just bored because Star Trek wouldn't be on the air until 1966?

Noreascon Four will be honoring fifty years of the Hugo Awards by putting together an exhibit. We plan to display as many of those fifty Hugo Awards as we can beg, borrow, or...well, beg and borrow. We'll present some of the history behind the Hugo Awards, like how Jack McKnight missed most of Philcon II because he was stuck in his basement learning how to weld aluminum to attach the fins on the first Hugo rockets. And, yes, the first Hugo rocket design was based on an automobile hood ornament.

The Noreascon 4 Exhibits Division will be contacting past Hugo Award winners and other people during the coming year. If you are willing to loan us Hugo Awards or memorabilia from past Hugo Award ceremonies, please contact Michael Nelson at hugos@noreascon.org or write to:

Space and NASA Exhibits

Did you know that Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket from Aunt Effie's farm in Auburn, Mass.?

Or that Chandra, the world's most powerful X-ray telescope, is operated from nearby Cambridge?

Or that several important experiments onboard the International Space Station were created by Boston-area universities?

When most people think of NASA, they think perhaps of launches from Florida, Mission Control in Texas, or perhaps Deep Space missions operated from California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But Massachusetts and New England have made many important contributions to our nation's space program. We will attempt to highlight that aspect in our Space and NASA exhibits.

Stay tuned for further details as we get closer to the convention.

Ankh-Morpork

Y'never know who (or what) may show up around a corner in Ankh-Morpork … is that … Death? Or is it just Mort?

We're looking for as many Discworld characters as we can find to populate the city (otherwise known as our ConCourse), particularly on Thursday evening during First Night Noreascon. If you enjoy the Discworld books and would like to take on a particular persona, let us know by dropping a note to ThursdayPerformers@noreascon.org. It just wouldn't do to have too many Night Watch Captains …

One of the main gathering places in Ankh-Morpork will be the Mended Drum Pub (we have to start with the "Mended Drum" since the Hynes takes a very dim view of explosives in the Exhibit Halls). John Syms, a well-known beer geek, has agreed to be the Mended Drum host. We'll have areas for conversation and traditional pub games, with various beers and food for sale. With a little luck, the Hynes may even be able to provide a cask-conditioned ale and a cider for sale; no promises, but we are trying!

Help make Ankh-Morpork in Boston a reality!

Fan Exhibits

We hope to have a new and exciting take on many of the fannish exhibits this year — see Reimagining Exhibits for details of what we're trying to do.

In addition, we already know that we'll have a significantly expanded International Fandom exhibit. We are working to collect new items, catalog them, and present them. We have new material coming in from Australia and South Africa in particular. If you would like to contribute to this exhibit, send email to fanhistory-exhibit@noreascon.org or send postal mail to:

Contacting Us