We recently connected with Frederick Trust and have shared our conversation below.

Frederick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Being the collector of the Wizard of Oz memorabilia for the past 35 years, it was a dream to open the museum one day. My background in software development lacks the necessary skills to open and run the museum. Knowing that displaying memorabilia might not be sufficient to inspire interest in people visiting, additional elements were required to provide a great museum experience.
Visiting the Immersive Van Gogh experience in Miami pre-pandemic, inspired me to create an Immersive experience for the Wizard of Oz, where I can let visitors be part of the story.
I did not want to recreate scenes from the movie but settled for creating the scenes from the original book which had never been addressed in the original 1939 movie.
Due to a lack of funds to purchase or build a museum, I settle for leasing a space for the museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The museum location was chosen based on proximity to Orlando, 5 minutes from the Port and 20 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center.
During the pandemic, I designed various scenes and worked with the specialist to create scenes. After six months of setting up the space for the museum and installing computers and projectors, the museum opened its doors on February 11, 2022.
Although I planned to create seven Wizard of Oz scenes, only two were completed within a year. The complexity of creating scenes from scratch led to creating each scene for almost six months.
We decided to create the Immersive Van Gogh exhibition to provide visitors with around 20 minutes of experience of which 15 of them Van Gogh. The whole 15 minutes Van Gogh took around 3 months to create, based on the presence of existing artwork.
From the initial opening of the museum, I listened to customers and enhanced the museum experience, by adding a guided tour, offering the animal scavenger hunt for kids, creating a video that explains the museum’s experience, and website, and working on the museum’s awareness.
Currently, two years later the museum is a family museum that provides a unique experience that is unusual and loved by most visitors.
Below is what has been achieved for the past two years.
Over 1900 reviews on Google with 4.9 stars (the highest rank museum in Florida).
2023 Travelers Choice Award by TripAdvisor. Highly ranked nationally in 4 categories on TripAdvisor (the main source of the museum rankings) as an Art, Specialty(pop-culture), Children’s, and Hidden Gem.
In the USA, as a museum, it ranks #90 out of 30319 museums, as an Art museum it is ranked #30 out of 1821, Pop Culture #63 out of 7425, as Children’s #3 out of 620 and #1 out of 620 by travelers ranking, as hidden gem #29 out of 1541.
Of course, we have more challenges ahead of us, but to be competing in the attraction industry in Florida with 33,000+ things to do, Tripadvisor placed the museum at #21.
Links
(things to do in Florida) https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g28930-Activities-oa0-Florida.html
(Art Museum)https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g191-Activities-c49-oa90-United_States.html
(specialty)https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g191-Activities-c49-oa90-United_States.html
(hidden gems)https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g191-Activities-c49-zft12156-a_sort.TRAVELER__5F__FAVORITE__5F__V2-United_States.html
(Children)https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g191-Activities-c49-t29-a_sort.TRAVELER__5F__RANKED-United_States.html

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I addressed them in the previous message, Slightly more here. Immigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1980. Graduate degree in Computer Science in 1990. Work in the computer industry until 2012. Collected Wizard of Oz from the early 1990s. Become experts in the Wizard of Oz series books ( 40 Oz books in the series). Moved to Miami, Florida in 1914 and moved to Melbourne, Florida in 2019 to open the museum.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I created a group named The Wizard of Oz Museum group ( private) and within 6 months before opening the museum I had over 3,000 members. Currently 3400. After opening the museum, I also created Facebook page where I have 6700 followers. The way I build the group is by inspiring visitors that there is more to the story than the movie. Provided details of obstacles I faced from the permit department to open the museum. Design logos for the museum together, and soliciting advice.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I knew the complexity involved with creating 3d Immersive experiences from scratch, I wish I knew where to spend advertising dollars to get the best ROI. I wish I knew the complexity of obtaining the business permit to operate the museum. I wish I knew how to raise funds for profit organizations since it is very easy for non-profits.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wizardofozflorida.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wizardofozmuseum
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wizardofozmuseum
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgBfbog33cM7WxCPEZV2QTw