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 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.
In this article, Jeff Hayward, Director of People, Places & Design Research, defines the role of museum evaluators by explaining what they do, who they do it for and why, the skills they have, and how they see themselves in relation to other exhibit-related professionals. With input from colleagues, Hayward also describes issues associated with the profession, like the question of credentialing and the role of evaluators in the exhibit planning process.
In this article, Minda Borun, Director of Research and Evaluation at The Franklin Institute Science Museum, discusses how and why exhibit designers need to design experiences for multi-age groups (families) not individual users. Borun sites exemplars from the field who've successfully created immersive experiences for multi-generational visitors.
This article features critiques of the Tusher African Center at the California Academy of Sciences. Marjorie Schwarzer, Chair and Professor of the Department of Museum Studies at John F. Kennedy University, Margaret Kadoyama, Principal of Margaret Kadoyama Consulting and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Museum Studies at John F. Kennedy University, and Sheila Pressley, Director of Education at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, share their analysis of the exhibition and assess its strengths and weaknesses.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marjorie SchwarzerMargaret KadoyamaSheila Pressley
This article analyzes discussion exhibits as a method for garnering visitor feedback. Authors Ben Gammon, of Ben Gammon Consulting, and Xerexes Mazda, Head of Learning and Audiences at the British Museum, critique the experimental use of this kind of exhibit in the Science Museum, London. They describe both the advantages and disadvantages of this method.
In this article, Alan Teller Partner at Teller Madsen, highlights the major points of a forum on exhibition evaluation at the AAM Conference in Chicago. The forum focused on three distinct approaches: the Execellent Judges Framework, Independent Critic's approach, and Summative Evaluation approach. Challenges and opportunities of each approached are discussed and are regarded as tools for museum evaluators.
This article features three critiques of the exhibition "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" on view at the Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore, MD) from October 3, 2009-September 5, 2010. Nigel Briggs, exhibition designer at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Kerr Houston, Professor of Art History at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Peg Koetsch, curator of Exhibtions at VisArts and Founder/Director of Learning Insights, each provide an assessment of the exhibition.
In this article, Kathleen McLean, Principal of Independent Exhibitions, explores the importance of criticism for museum exhibitions. McLean includes a model of how to assess an exhibition as a chronicle of personal experiences. This article is a reprint from the "Exhibitionist" vol. 12, no. 2, Fall 1998.
In this article, Jessica Willcox, Creative Director at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, describes the development of the OMSI's "Green Exhibit Certification" guide--a tool to help developers rate the environmental sustainability of exhibitions and encourage exhibition development teams to improve their sustainability efforts. Excerpts from the tool are included in this article.
In this article, Suzanne Gaskins, Professor of Psychology at Northeastern Illinois University and researcher at the Chicago Children's Museum, discusses how museums should design exhibitions to support and encourage family interaction. Specifically, Gaskins discusses how caregivers' understanding of the exhibition influences their engagement and their use of resources offered by the museum to support their engagement as well as cultural differences in caregivers' understandings of how experiences like those in a "hands-on" museum are related to learning and what their should be, and how they
In this article, Sonal Bhatt, Assistant Director of Interpretation at the Wildlife Conservation Society (headquartered at the Bronx Zoo), describes the Zoo's Eco-restroom project, a multi-part experience that embodies their mission of conservation. Bhatt highlights the key features of Eco-restroom area, evaluation results, and lessons learned.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sonal BhattNational Association for Museum Exhibition