Coatings World - June 2012

PPG pledges $75,000 to fund
Harley-Davidson Museum ‘Color Caper’ show

PPG Industries Foundation pledged $75,000 to Carnegie Science
Center in Pittsburgh for collaboration with Harley-Davidson
Museum on a version of “The Great Color Caper” science show
for students in the region surrounding PPG Industries’ Oak
Creek, Wis., coatings plant. The comic-book styled program uses
interactive multimedia to teach students about light, energy, re-
flection and color while they help solve the mystery of the miss-
ing colors from a city called “Spectropolis.”
Carnegie Science Center developed The Great Color Caper in
2006 with funding from the PPG Industries Foundation and PPG
Industries, and PPG employees collaborated with the center’s ed-
ucation specialists to develop the multimedia show and sup-
porting materials. In the original show, audiences work with a
guide named Blinky to find the culprit who stole colors from the
city, following clues that local PPG scientists provide related to
the science of light and color.

“To tie this version of The Great Color Caper to the Harley-
Davidson Museum, Blinky rides a motorcycle, of course, and
scientists from Harley-Davidson and PPG’s Oak Creek plant
provide video briefings with clues and tips,” said Tamela
Greene, manager, business development, Harley-Davidson Mu-
seum. “We are very pleased that PPG and Carnegie Science
Center are helping us bring this engaging program to students
in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois.”
The PPG Industries Foundation previously worked with
Carnegie Science Center to replicate The Great Color Caper pro-
gram with Discovery Place in Charlotte, N.C. Additionally, PPG
employees at facilities in Mojave, Calif., McCarran, Nev., and
the Detroit area have requested grants through an employee pro-
gram of the foundation to fund visits by Carnegie Science Cen-
ter to schools in their areas.

This van recently took the Harley-Davidson Museum’s new multimedia, interactive science show, “The Great Color Caper,” to East Middle School and Deerfield Elementary School in Oak Creek, Wis., for its first school presentations.