5 THE CUSTOMERS

“I TRADED A BUFFALO SKULL FOR SOME ARTIFACT POINTS,” SAYS BRENNAN, WHO STARTED HER BUSINESS BY CUTTING DEALS WITH SCIENTISTS. “WE BARTERED, SCRAMBLED, AND BOOTSTRAPPED.”

BETTY BRENNAN

Taylor Studios

Betty Brennan lives in a world of her own making. In Rantoul, Illinois, Brennan and her 36-person team create 3-D experiences for museums: a 7,000-pound woolly mammoth for a nature center in Wisconsin, a 60-foot tree that sings for the Cleveland Museum of Art, a 32-foot-high replica of an Icelandic cliff with more than 200 birds (and their poop) for a museum in Reykjavik.

Brennan grew up on a farm, where she preferred working in the fields, feeding