In this article, Wayne LaBar, Vice President of Exhibitions and Featured Experiences at the Liberty Science Center and Principal-in-Charge at LSC Experience Services, presents preliminary observations, lessons learned, and discoveries made during the first year of developing "Cooking: The Exhibition Chefs." During the development of this exhibit, Liberty Science Center began an ongoing series of investigations called "Exhibit Commons," an attempt to engage the public in its exhibition process and operations. LaBar's analyzes the influence of this method on the entire exhibit development
In this article, Jim Spadaccini, Director of Ideum, examines open source software packages designed specifically for museums. Spadaccini provides practical advice on how this software can be utilized in museums.
In this article, Jay Rounds, director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, analyzes "meaning making" as a new approach to exhibits. Rounds helps clarify what "meaning making" means and identifies conctrete ways in which exhibits can be designed to stimulate and support visitors in their processes of meaning making.
In this article, Rich Faron, president, and Susan Curran, director, both of Museum Explorer, Inc., explore the importance of internal relationships among museum staff. In particular, the authors outline "Five Ts for successful teams" and other ways to improve teamwork amongst museum professionals.
In this article, Beat Hachler, co-director of Stapferhaus Lenzburg, discusses his institution's unique exhibit design approach, which uses unconventional strategies to "represent the present." In particular, Hachler describes the techniques used in "A Matter of Faith: An Exhibition for Believers and Non-Believers" and its impact on visitors and museum staff.
In this article, Jay Rounds, Director of Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, explores the growing concern within the museum field about (a lack of) of exhibit creativity. Specifically, Rounds explores why creativity seems to be diminishing despite enhanced technical competencies.
In this article, Jenni Martin, Director of Education at Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, describes how and why her team developed a new exhibit, "The Wonder Cabinet" for children ages 4 and under and accompanying adults. Martin outlines the design process associated with this exhibit, noting challenges and best practices.
In this article, John Chiodo, Senior Associate, and Alissa Rupp, architect and exhibit designer, both for the Portico Group, explore six ways museums can enable visitors to extract meaning out of exhibits. The authors contend that exhibits designed specifically to support meaning making can help visitors find order, connections and compassion in their environment, which will allow museums to retain and even grow audiences.
In this exhibition review, Eric Siegel, Director and Chief Content Officer at the New York Hall of Science, critiques the "Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids" exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Siegel provides a walkthrough of the exhibit and remarks about the audience and pedagogy.
This article presents some of the basic tools to keep in mind when developing a traveling exhibitions program. Michelle Torres-Carmona, Director of Scheduling & Exhibitor Relations at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, provides advice on developing a traveling exhibit (concept, collaborators, budgeting, contracts) and Whitney Owens, manager of the traveling exhibitions program at The Field Museum, Chicago, discusses how to best market the exhibition tour.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michelle Torres-CarmonaWhitney Owens
In this article, Richard Faron, independent museum consultant, discusses how the act of musuem building can unite communities and the government. Faron uses Iraq as an "imaginary case study" to investigate how museums can strengthen Iraqi identity and pride.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Richard FaronNational Association of Museum Exhibition
In this article, Darcy Fohrman, Principal of Darcie Fohrman Associates, summarizes the conversation at an AAM session, in which three young exhibition professionals (the "Young Bloods") and three experienced exhibition professionals (the "Silverbacks") debated issues related to planning and designing interpretive exhibitions. This article also includes post-session thoughts from the presenters.