(All photos by Ezri Ruiz and Tomás Diniz Santos)
As the five-year mark of the Pulse tragedy approaches, the Orange County Regional History Center has created its annual exhibit in remembrance of the nightclub shooting. “COMMUNITY: Five Years After the Pulse Tragedy” runs through Aug. 15 and offers free admission to the entire community through June 13.
Located on the third floor of the museum, The History Center has created an exhibit honoring and memorializing the 49 victims and all those affected by the events of June 12, 2016 since the tragedy’s first year. The exhibition this year focuses on the community and how there was an “immense outpouring of love” from loved ones and strangers around the world.
Although many think about their physical neighborhood and area when hearing the word “community,” the tragic events that took place at the Pulse nightclub saw that word take on a bigger meaning. People came together both in Central Florida and globally to show their support.
The exhibit begins with Pulse pre-shooting and sheds some light on what it was like around the time it opened in 2004.
“What was Pulse to the community? What was it to the people who went there? To those who worked there? It was a family,” Pamela Schwartz, executive director of The History Center, said during a walkthrough of the exhibit prior to its opening. “This whole section tells you the history of how the nightclub came to be.”
The section also includes an all-white piano that is on loan from Barbara Poma, Pulse owner and CEO of the onePULSE Foundation, which was a prominent feature in the white room in the nightclub, known as the ultra lounge.
“It’s a cool artifact in that it doesn’t wear the same scars as the rest of the story. It’s something that people will recognize if they’ve been to Pulse,” Schwartz said.
A multi-media production shows video footage and oral histories of people reflecting on the nightclub prior to the shooting as well as photographs from inside the nightclub.
As the exhibit goes further, the visitors are given the opportunity to go in two different directions. To the right, visitors can go into the actual story of June 12, 2016, and what some would consider more “sensitive” content. The design of the exhibit allows visitors to bypass this section known as “June 12, 2016,” if they prefer not to access it.
This area, which is behind curtains, features a sensitive artifact from the day of the shooting. It’s a bent bumper hitch and tailgate from a truck that belonged to the Orlando Police Department. It was the same truck used to transport many of those injured from Pulse to Orlando Health.
Aside from that artifact, there are photographs and quotes from survivors of the shooting along the walls as well as other news that occurred in the days before and after the shooting. It features the death of singer Christiana Grimmie and the alligator attack and the death of 2-year-old Lane Grave near Walt Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort.
To the left, visitors will walk through memorial spaces which are separated by location. They include the Pulse nightclub, Dr. Philips Center for the Performing Arts, Lake Eola and Orlando Health.
“The exhibit features material selected from the One Orlando Collection, which consists of over 12,500 physical artifacts, archives, photographs and oral histories preserved by the History Center,” the History Center’s website stated. “Many of the items on display are those collected from memorial sites in the weeks and months following Pulse, the tangible representation of the local community’s response.”
The 12,500 artifacts, which doesn’t include thousands of uncataloged photographs according to Schwartz, were collected by most members of the staff as well as many having been donated from the community. Schwartz said that her staff has been collecting items relating to Pulse every day since June 12, 2016.
At the time of the Pulse shooting, the History Center had two people on the collection staff and a few more on the exhibits department. Now, they’re up to 10 to 20 staff members who work on the exhibits.
With the year 2020, COVID-19 made it difficult to collect artifacts and items but Schwartz said it also presented the History Center with new opportunities.
“Doing oral histories with people who aren’t in the same state, who aren’t in the same country, having people from other countries actually come to our virtual programs that would not have been able to come when they were physical. It’s definitely opened some things for some,” Schwartz said.
Each memorial space includes a large-format photograph and a case of artifacts collected at each individual site. Some of the artifacts displayed in the exhibit include flags, signs, signatures, pinwheels, stuffed animals, children’s artwork, candles and flowers.
The exhibit also incorporates more permanent features such as a replica theme park window from Universal Studios which is inside the wall of the exhibit to honor the resort workers killed in the shooting.
As visitors continue in the exhibition, they will see how the community in Central Florida and beyond came together in unity. Images of monuments lit up in colors of the rainbow are included from the Orlando Wheel and the Eiffel Tower. This area includes an interactive screen where visitors may click on different dots and see how Pulse was honored around the globe.
Throughout the entire exhibit, all the text and quotes on the walls have a Spanish translation as many of the victims of the Pulse shooting were from Latin countries and communities.
Many large banners throughout the exhibit read powerful quotes such as “Gays Against Guns” and “LOVE > HATE.”
Towards the last section of the exhibit, it looks towards the future museum and memorial that is going to be built in honor of the Pulse tragedy and its victims. This section features the competition model of the winning memorial design in the middle of the room that visitors may look through a glass case to observe.
“A wall will also feature an in memoriam panel, which is about individuals who have passed away since Pulse happened, not as a result of Pulse, but that were very close to that story,” Schwartz said. “Community members, a couple of survivors who have passed away, first responders, we want to make sure we honor them since they are not here but they are still a part of the story.”
The last wall before visitors approach the end of the exhibit is a wall honoring the 49 victims of the tragic shooting. The inspiration came from the Orlando United T-shirt, which has become “ubiquitous” to this event.
“We made the decision early on that we wanted it to be more than names. We wanted it to be faces. It’s easy to walk by a wall of words but not by 49 faces,” Schwartz said. “That’s sort of making sure that we constantly keep them at the heart of these exhibitions and at the heart of the story.”
Also on display, as part of the exhibit, from June 11-13, will be the 49 white memorial crosses created by Greg Zanis. Days after the shooting, Zanis — a retired Illinois carpenter who had made thousands of crosses for victims of gun violence since the ‘90s — drove 49 white wooden crosses, each one marked with the name of one of the victims, to Orlando and displayed them in front of the Orlando Regional Medical Center. Schwartz said the crosses will only be displayed for a short period of time due to how fragile each one is.
Schwartz, who has worked in and around museums for about 20 years, said that no degree could prepare someone for work like this. She recalls taking advice and visiting historical sites such as the location of the World Trade Center after 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing to learn what she could about preserving history.
With this being the fifth year that the History Center has created an exhibit reflecting on the tragic events of June 12, 2016, Schwartz said she sees the project continuing for many years to come with new artifacts and items being displayed every year.
“Who knows what 10 years will be? Every community is different. The Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum is just now bringing some objects out. That was in 1995,” Schwartz said.
She believes the work the History Center has been doing over the last couple of years is very important and she hopes it means just as much to the community.
“We all wear the story and so I hope that the community sees this as part of their history, part of their story and that it’s something that they can connect with, maybe in a way that they can’t connect with history from 400 or 500 years ago,” Schwartz said. “I hope people can sort of see themselves in it. Find some piece of healing from it and also be inspired by it, to try to maybe make a better world in the future.”
The Orange County Regional History Center’s “Community: Five Years After the Pulse Tragedy” exhibition is open now through Aug. 15. The exhibit is free of charge through June 13. For more information, visit TheHistoryCenter.org.
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