New Denver Titanic exhibit provides immersive experience | Arts & Entertainment

Forty years ago, Navy officer Robert Ballard struck gold at the bottom of the ocean.

While on a top secret Navy mission to locate two submarines that had gone missing during the Cold War, he not only found them but also the remains of the Titanic.

The location of the giant, luxury liner was unknown since striking an iceberg in 1912 and sinking into the deep blue water of the North Atlantic Ocean. Ballard found it in 1985 about 400 miles off Newfoundland’s coast.

Exhibition Hub’s “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” offers visitors a chance to experience what that fateful night more than a century ago might have been like for its passengers and to see what the wreck looks like today.

“The Titanic is the Greek tragedy of our modern era,” said John Zaller, executive producer of the immersive installation. “It has all the elements: hubris, the hopes and plans of thousands, the cool hand of fate intervening, all the unrelated events that led to this moment in the ocean. The number of stories around the Titanic are endless. It’s like peeling an onion — there’s always another layer. That’s what draws a lot of people.”

The new exhibit, which opens Wednesday and runs through July 6 at Exhibition Hub Art Center Denver, features almost 100 artifacts, reconstructed rooms and hallways from the Titanic, 3D views and a virtual reality exploration of the shipwreck resting almost 3 miles below the ocean’s surface.

Visitors will relive the experiences of the ship’s passengers, such as standing on the ship’s bridge and hearing the iceberg warnings, standing on the crow’s nest trying to spot the ominous berg, and being rescued in a lifeboat while watching the ship slowly sink.

“We take all the elements of a traditional artifact and exhibit-style approach and overlay it with technology that places you in pivotal moments of the Titanic story,” Zaller said. “It makes you feel as close to the story as possible.”

There’s also a Colorado connection to the Titanic — former Denver resident Molly Brown, whose husband worked in the mining industry around Leadville.

He wagered correctly there was gold in the mines, a winning bet that propelled them to significant wealth. They moved to Denver where they built a house that’s now the Molly Brown House Museum.

Brown, an arts and women’s rights advocate who also did charity work, was traveling in Europe before learning her grandson was ill. She booked the first available ship home — the ill-fated Titanic.

“She got into a lifeboat and took charge, made sure everyone was rowing to stay warm,” Zaller said.

“She was overruled when she insisted they go back to rescue passengers. By the time she got to the U.S. she’d already raised more than $10,000 in relief funds. And she used her newfound fame to champion women’s rights and the arts.”

The story of the Titanic continues to be fleshed out through new scans of the wreck and as people find old letters, archival research and other memorabilia from the ship’s passengers. It serves to make the stories of the humans on board that much more visceral.

“This type of exhibit combines the theatricality of a museum exhibit with the technology of an immersive exhibit,” Zaller said.

Contact the writer: 636-0270

Contact the writer: 636-0270