Green Bay Packer Artifacts Have Temporary New Home

Starting on Saturday, Packers fans can visit their team’s memorabilia in a new location: The team has closed its Packers Hall of Fame for renovation and lent artifacts to Green Bay’s Neville Public Museum.

The exhibit includes such iconic football memorabilia as the first Lombardi trophy.

“It’s going to be a starting point of a fantastic 2014,” says Beth Lemke, the interim director of the Neville.

Last year 55,000 people came to the museum. She expects that number to increase dramatically, but can’t make predictions.

“I hope to see it skyrocket,” she said. “We want our parking lot full, we want people to come and access us. We don’t have an upcharge – we have our standard admission fee of $5 for adults and $3 for children.”

Lemke and the Packers say it was an easy decision to loan the artifacts to the museum.

Kramer Rock is a hall of fame board member and recently retired as chair of the Neville Public Museum Foundation. He says museums shouldn’t be judged solely by attendance numbers, but adds that curators have to connect with the community. By that token, he says, the hall of fame exhibit just made sense.

“This can only help, because there are an amazing number of people that you’ll casually hear (say) ‘You know, I haven’t been to the Neville in 10 years, when the kids were young,’” said Rock. “There’s always this perception that you have to take the kids to the museum. And then when all of a sudden they don’t want to be around you anymore, guess what? You don’t go to the museum anymore.”

The hall of fame display is expected to remain for a year.