How one unique museum combines the history of racing and the art of design for children
By Alison Williams
W
hat if I told you that there is a place like no other right in your backyard? One full of luscious, green grass and miniature worlds within garden walls. What if I told you that it was a racetrack? Would you believe me?
Drive 30 minutes outside of downtown Birmingham, and you’ll find Barber Motorsports Park, a land full of high-speed adventures and history that goes back over 100 years, and the perfect place for just about anything, from kids events to vintage festivals to marriage proposals.
Barber is “the only place like this,” said Park and Museum communications director Robert Pandya. “The Guinness Book Certificate on the wall says it all.” The museum, which was originally located in Southside Birmingham, houses over 1,800 motorcycles – the largest collection in the world – and vehicles that have made history around the world.
But that is not what makes this museum so unique.
Picture this: Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson running through a museum as the sun sets, hundreds of stories unfolding around them. That is what Barber Motorsports Museum is. A Night at the Museum, but it never ends. This museum and park are a living museum. Every single vehicle can still be driven, and every piece of art has meaning to the park’s founder, George Barber.
“Mr. Barber really wanted this place to not be a home for a bunch of relics,” said Pandya. “He wanted it to have a reason.”
And that reason is not just for car or motorcycle fanatics to visit.
“It’s not just the motorcycles, it’s the building, it’s the fact that it’s in the park, overlooking the track is the Barber Advanced Design Center, a high-tech space where the next generation gets to explore the world of motorsports.
“We have a design curriculum that teaches kids design. Not just vehicular design, but design as a concept,” said Pandya. Every week, classes of children come through the doors of the museum and head up to the design center. They learn how to design and build a motorcycle or car and then get to head down to the lab where they take apart motorcycles. It is a hands-on science project from start to finish. But it is so much more.
Barber wants to teach the next generation that they can design their own life, no matter what that looks like. Some of them can come back to work for the track as museum curators, motorsport historians, or event coordinators and some can walk out the doors and go build a life of their own somewhere completely different.
Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is “not just a place for a bunch of dust to collect,” said Pandya, it is a place where they “light up kids’ imagination” day in and day out.
That is something the Birmingham community can boast about. The museum has been creating an atmosphere that attracts people of all ages from around the world for the past 50 years, and they are still cruising along. From hosting the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix for 14 years running, a feature race in the INDYCAR Series; to a Vintage Car Festival every October where over 75,000 people visit the park, Birmingham can take pride in the unique home that is Barber, and there are economic benefits too.
“For Birmingham to have an IndyCar race is a really big deal,” said President of Zoom Motorsports George Dennis. Zoom Motorsports is Barber’s promotions group and management team, which helps organize and promote for the multiple events Barber hosts each year.
“Having a facility like this being known around the world makes people know where Birmingham is,” said Dennis. “We’re able to showcase our city to people who may have never been to Birmingham before. (This facility) expands the view of this area about racing.”
This 501(c)3 non-profit is bringing in over $180 million in revenue every year for this city, according to Dennis. That is why this facility and its mission matters. “This magnificent place, built like no other place, is a powerhouse for this city,” said Dennis.
“We’re a lot more than a racetrack, we’re a lot more than a museum, we’re a lot more than a garden party,” said Pandya. There is another world inside the grounds of Barber that everyone should have the chance to experience.
When kids get to come in and explore the powerful machines that are motorcycles and race cars at a young age, imagine the possibilities. Imagine just how far they will go if that passion is ignited at a young age.
“When you’re a little kid you don’t realize that everything around you is designed, from a door handle to your sippy cup,” said Pandya. “So basically, that’s really been Mr. Barber’s mission with the education side of things, is to teach kids that they can control their own life, that they can design their own life.”