Volume 2, No. 16. August 23, 2002
New Arrivals
It’s
a Bible gallery!
The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, announces the arrival of The Scriptorium—Center
for Biblical Antiquities, August 19, 2002. Measurements: 17,000 square feet
(1,579 square meters), 12 galleries, 75 items on display of almost 1,100 in
the collection. Delivered by Fourth Phase, ITEC Productions, Jack Jennings &
Sons, Sparks Exhibits and Visible Sound.
When he opened the Holy Land Experience in February, 2001, an actor-filled representation
of Jesus Christ’s homeland, Marvin Rosenthal, executive director of Zion’s
Hope and the theme park’s owner, intimated that the park’s crown jewel
was yet to come.
It has come. The Scriptorium serves as a repository and museum of rare bibles,
including artifacts from the Van Kampen Collection. On display are clay cuneiform
tablets, papyrus scrolls, illuminated parchment manuscripts, hand-copied bibles
and a fragment of the Gutenberg Bible. However, true to modern Orlando theme
park presentations, the Scriptorium is more of a walk-through experience than
a museum, as groups of guests are prompted from scene to scene via visual and
audio cues. Produced by ITEC Productions, which also produced the Holy Land
Experience, each Scriptorium scene showcases various artifacts with technological
effects and animatronics.
After a two-week soft opening period to work out the kinks in timing—“It
is a unique flow, trying to take groups of 12 to 15 people and stagger them
through the facility,” said Bill Coan, a partner at ITEC—the Scriptorium
was previewed for the press last Thursday and opened to invited guests Friday
and Saturday evening. On Monday, Rosenthal hosted a Bible study conference at
his Holy Land Experience complex and allowed those 500 participants to be the
first public patrons to pass through the new Scriptorium.
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