National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA
All year
The National Corvette Museum just opened the McMichael Family Education Gallery, its fully reimagined, 2,500-square-foot dedicated education gallery on April 28. This new space allows the NCM to provide a state-of-the-art educational experience geared directly to the next generation of Corvette enthusiasts, engineers, designers, and more.
The McMichael Family Education Gallery is a space to engage families, students, and kids of all ages with standards-based STREAM education, group tours, school field trips, and curriculum-based learning opportunities. Large interactive screens, tablets, recreational fun workshops, films, mockups, latest technologies are used all around the gallery to help visitors understand the design complexity.
![](https://i2.wp.com/automobile-museums.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Corvette-Education-Gallery-Assembly-Plant-Display-1024x683.jpg?ssl=1)
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One special feature of the new education gallery is a space called Studio X. When Bill Mitchell became the second head of GM Styling in 1959, he needed a way to step out of the shadow of the legendary Harley Earl. Mitchell found a small room in the basement of the GM Technical Center – a simple, 15’ x 42’ cinderblock room with keys for only one sculptor, a designer, one studio engineer, and Mitchell. This small room – which generated the XP-87 Stingray Racer Special – began a series of private studios known as “Studio X” that continues to this day.
![](https://i1.wp.com/automobile-museums.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Corvette-Education-Gallery-Engine-Display-1024x683.jpg?ssl=1)
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The Mako Shark, the Manta Ray, and dozens more of the greatest Corvettes were born in these studios. The spirit of this legendary studio is captured in a small garage within the new gallery. It is used to inspire students of all ages, displaying design and engineering prototypes and serving as a small projection theater to share stories of innovation.
The photos on this page belong to the National Corvette Museum, no right of reproduction without the express permission of the museum.