The National Corvette Museum has officially released its 2024 Annual Report, highlighting a year of momentum, innovation, and mission-driven impact. Among the key achievements featured is the extraordinary success of the McMichael Family Education Gallery, which since opening in April 2023 has become a dynamic learning space that brings the spirit of Corvette into the classroom, and the classroom into the Museum.
“We wanted a space where students could dream big,” said Tim McMichael, whose family provided lead funding for the Gallery. “This is about showing young people that innovation isn’t just something they read about, it’s something they can do. Corvette is the perfect vehicle for that inspiration.”
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Built around the Museum’s education mission to ignite curiosity, fuel innovation, and inspire the next generation, the Museum, and McMichael Family Education Gallery has welcomed more than 215 school groups, an average of three per week, introducing students and educators alike to the legacy, design, and innovation of America’s Sports Car.
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In just two years, the Gallery has engaged nearly 8,500 students in hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) programming. If gathered in one place, these young learners could fill the lower bowl of Rupp Arena or pack over 100 school buses lined up bumper to bumper, a convoy of future Corvette fans stretching for miles.
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Through interactive stations and digital design tools, students have created nearly 40,000 digital concept cars, the equivalent of Corvette’s 2016 production run.
“The McMichael Family Education Gallery isn’t just an exhibition, it’s the heartbeat of our mission,” explained Robert Maxhimer, National Corvette Museum Director of Curatorial Affairs and Education. “It brings Corvette’s legacy of innovation into a space where students can learn by doing, imagining, and creating. Every hands-on experience here is designed to connect the past, present, and future of automotive excellence, showing young minds that they have a place in that story. This gallery is where curiosity meets possibility and what makes it so central to everything we do.”
The 2024 National Corvette Museum Annual Report also highlights the Museum’s Fund a Field Trip initiative, which provided access for 28 schools and groups and 1,414 students to visit the Museum and the McMichael Family Education Gallery at reduced or no cost. This program, made possible by generous National Corvette Museum Members and donors, expands access and ensures students from all backgrounds can engage with the Corvette legacy.
To learn more about the National Corvette Museum’s education initiatives and explore the full scope of its mission-driven work, view the entire 2024 Annual Report. If you are an educator interested in visiting the National Corvette Museum with a school group, please visit corvettemuseum.org/education/.
