Category: Virtual Museum

For this year’s Star Wars Celebration, ReedPop asked us to create a high-quality exhibit to fill 6,000 square feet on the third floor rather than our normal 900 square feet in the exhibit hall. That’s a great big empty room to fill, so we partnered with fellow collectors and Rancho Obi-Wan Board members Gus Lopez, Duncan Jenkins, and Lisa Stevens and Vic Wertz to execute the vision for this space. Each of the four collections is unique and provided a balance of amazing objects from concept, to screen, to collectible, to fan-made. We have many people to thank for helping bring this vision to reality for Celebration in Anaheim.

We welcomed just over 8,000 visitors over four days, and we hope the experience we created for you brought a lot of joy, laughter, warm feelings of nostalgia, and the rush of awe and wonder. Thank you for coming!

Our main exhibit, Boba Fett to Bo-Katan: The Evolution of the Mandalorians, and four smaller exhibits, What’s in a Name, The History of Star Tots, Cascading Grogu in Ombré, and 10 Years of Rancho Obi-Wan, took seven months of brainstorming, planning, curating and designing. We ultimately brought almost 600 unique objects from all four collections to display in 20 different cases.

We also had our popular wheel spin, the general store, a fundraising raffle, and—new this year—a Create Your Own Sketch Card program area. We received 347 brilliant works of art from all ages around the world (including one from the man himself, Dave Filoni).

Our mission to inspire came to fruition at this single small table at the exit of the Boba Fett exhibit. We had created a story, found objects in our collections to support that story, displayed them for visitors to enjoy, and then watched them pour that inspiration into works of art. To come full circle, we’ll be scanning the art and sharing them on our social channels over the next many months. I guarantee these pieces will, in turn, inspire others, and so the mission is fulfilled exponentially!

Ultimately, bringing this exceptionally large exhibit to Celebration was exceptionally hard. I’ve likened the experience to running a marathon and then immediately running several sprints. But at least our gang of volunteers was running together and picking up one another when one of us fell. Rancho Obi-Wan may be the result of Steve Sansweet’s passion, but its foundation is a group of incredible people who work hard, who work often, who care for the collection as their own, and who care for its founder and fellow volunteers as their family.

Please join me in thanking the following 76 people for getting it done:

Steve Sansweet
presents
The Rancho Obi-Wan Experience
at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022

Introducing
The Saga Museum
a World-Class Collaboration
featuring the collections of
Steve Sansweet
Gus Lopez
Duncan Jenkins
Lisa Stevens & Vic Wertz

Produced by Anne Neumann

Boba Fett to Bo-Katan Exhibit

Research
Vic Wertz

Story
Vic Wertz
Steve Sansweet

Curating
Anne Neumann
Dan Norgan
Duncan Jenkins
Gus Lopez
Lisa Stevens
Michael Wistock
Rich Smolen
Vic Wertz

Captions
Vic Wertz
Anne Neumann

Interpretive Plan & Design
Anne Neumann
Paula Millstone

Installation
Anne Jenkins
Lisa Stevens
Rich Smolen
Vic Wertz
Freeman

What’s in a Name Exhibit
Duncan Jenkins

History of Star Tots Exhibit
Gus Lopez

Cascading Grogu in Ombre Exhibit
Anne Neumann

10 Years of Rancho Obi-Wan Exhibit
Anne Neumann

Exhibit Prep Marathon
Aileen Sweeney
Bob Canning
Brian Allbright
Carl Wagner, Carpentry
Consetta Parker, Social Media
Curt Hanks, Graphic Design
Dan Norgan, Technology
David Leonard
Duncan Jenkins
Dwayne Smith
Giuseppe Lipari
Gus Lopez
Jeff Neckers
Kaden Smith
Lisa Stevens
Lorena Gies
Marc Morita
Marino Frugoli
Marlon Sarabosing
Michael Wistock
Phillip Barr
Rich Smolen, Online Exhibit Galleries
Shannon Smith
Steve Gies
Steve Sansweet
Stewart Levy
Tahal Royce
Troy Brierly
Vic Wertz
Yannik Morales

Exhibit Set-Up 200m Sprint
Anne Jenkins
Anne Neumann
Duncan Jenkins
Dwayne Smith
Eric Plummer
Gus Lopez
Jason Neurath
Lisa Stevens
Lorena Gies
Marc Morita
Michael Wistock
Rich Smolen
Steve Sansweet
Stewart Levy
Susan Rogers
Tony Clemens
Vic Wertz
Victoria Webb

Exhibit Management 400m Sprint
Anne Neumann, Manager

Anne Jenkins, Assistant to Steve Sansweet
Consetta Parker, Social Media & Scheduling
Duncan Jenkins, Docent
Gus Lopez, Docent
Jason Neurath, Steve’s personal shopper
Joe Churin, Remote Suburban Support
Lisa Stevens, Docent
Lorena Gies, General Store
Mark Rusciano, Videography
Rich Smolen, General Store
Stewart Levy, Wheel Manager & Chauffeur
Steve Sansweet, Docent
Susan Rogers, General Store & Sketch Card Program Manager
Victoria Webb, Photography
Vic Wertz, Docent

Volunteers
Tracy Kelly, Volunteer Coordinator

Tracy Kelly, On-Site Manager
Angel-Marie Ashley, On-Site Manager
Tony Clemens, On-Site Manager

Aileen Sweeney
Amanda Jamnicky
Anne Marie Lehmeyer
Charmaine Cuddie
Chuck Goddard
Davina Deschain
Derek Fecke
Dwayne Smith
Eric Plummer
Grace Chang
Jason Thomas
Jeff Caffrey
Jeff Ellis
Jennifer Sanders
Jon Nagel
Kay Fluhler
Kelly DuBose
Kenny Dow
Kort Peters
Kris Dow
Laura Takao
Lawrence Green
Marc Morita
Matt Kamimura
Melissa Hillman
Nick Dellow
Nick Gillispie
Peter Jamnicky
Rachael Royce
Reggie Clark
Rosy Mendoza
Steven Newcomb
Tahal Royce
Tammy Ross
Tate Dellow
Toni McIntire
Werner DeGruyter
Wes Middleton
Yannik Morales

Exhibit Tear-Down 100m Sprint
Anne Jenkins
Anne Neumann
Duncan Jenkins
Dwayne Smith
Gus Lopez
Lisa Stevens
Lorena Gies
Marc Morita
Michael Wistock
Rich Smolen
Steve Sansweet
Stewart Levy
Susan Rogers
Tony Clemens
Vic Wertz
Victoria Webb
Werner Degruyter

Exhibit Wind-Down Half-Marathon
Anne Neumann
Carl Wagner
Consetta Parker
Dwayne Smith
Octavia Churin
Steve Sansweet
Stewart Levy
Victoria Webb

The only core group shot we got and which I totally forgot was taken by Victoria (not shown). Something apparently hilarious happened. 🙂


 

 

Anne Neumann is President and CEO of Rancho Obi-Wan, former Volunteer Coordinator and Fan Club Breakfast Manager for Official Pix, and previously a Systems Analyst at the University of Texas at Austin.