Bluecadet set up the interactive expos at the new Museum of the American Revolution

Wednesday morning got off to a weird start for those who live or work near Old City.

See, the Museum of the American Revolution formally opened to the public today, amid speeches from Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and former VP Joe Biden. There was even a small parade that Code for Philly’s Pat Woods described as a “revolutionary cosplay”:

Me: I'll miss working in Old City, especially the parks and history.

Also me: what the hell is this Revolutionary cosplay happening? pic.twitter.com/Td1eDBtdw0

— Pat Woods (@patwoodsdesign) April 19, 2017

And in honor of their long tradition of working with art institutions, of course Fishtown-based design shop Bluecadet had a hand in crafting the new institution’s interactive offering.

The firm, which has worked on exhibits at the Smithsonian and the MoMA, has been quietly working with the institution for a decade: from its logo to its website to fundraising materials and even an educational app were developed by Josh Goldblum’s company, which currently employs 50 out of their Philly and NYC offices.

The Museum is also “launching” as part of Ticketleap’s Out to Launch event on Monday, May 1, as part of Philly Tech Week 2017 presented by Comcast.

Inside the Museum of The American Revolution. (Courtesy photo)

There are still some tickets available for opening day. Here’s the lineup of expos developed alongside the museum’s staff of 100:

• Posters of Protest presents and interprets a collection of high-resolution images of historic handbills, cartoons and broadsides that depict the decade-long escalation to war.
• African American Stories enables visitors to come face to face with the tough choices faced by the Colonies’ African American population which have gone largely untold.
• Seasons of Independence allows visitors to explore the 88 regional declarations that preceded Jefferson’s famed Declaration of Independence and to encounter colonists, revolutionaries, Native Americans and loyalists who represented the breadth of opinion about liberty and gave shape to the revolution.
• Arms of Independence: used an advanced robotic camera system to capture “explorable photography” of 46 artifacts. The shoot lasted 14 days and captured over 635,000 images. The interactive itself includes over 200,000 of them.

The firm also did some ambient projections that add that ye olde texture and atmosphere to galleries and spaces.

Mind you, beyond the splashy opening, the new institution is not without its detractors. The Inquirer’s architecture reporter Inga Saffron wrote in a piece published this weekend that the design of the museum was “at odds” with its revolutionary content. She did, however, say the exhibits themselves were “stirring” and “moving.”