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.
In this article, Ian Kerrigan, Assistant Director of Exhibition Development at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, articulates the importance of the 9/11 Memorial Museum being located at the World Trade Center site. Kerrigan goes on to explain how the museum is also serving as a archaeological site, how artifacts will play a pivotal role in the Museum's public spaces, and how the Museum's primary artifact is the site in and of itself. Kerrigan also describes how media is an integral element of the exhibition space that reflect the media age of era and allow visitors to share and
In this article, Ted Ansbacher, museum consultant with Science Services, presents a model for experience-based learning, based on the ideas of John Dewey. Ansbacher also presents an interpretation of "meaning making" and implications for exhibit development based on this model.
In this article, Michael Spock, a Research Fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and consultant, presents a collection of stories about museums. These anecdotes shed light on what it takes to create really meaningful exhibits and why efforts so often come up short.
In this article, John Russick, Curator at the Chicago Historical Society, shares his adventurous experience participating in an archeological dig at a remote site in central Turkey. The experience taught Russick four important lessons related to exhibit development and foreign travel.
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.
In this article, Janet Petitpas, assistant director at the Bay Area Discovery Museum and President of the Youth Museum Exhibit Collaborative, discusses how the group of North American children's museums share and manage traveling exhibits between the United States and Canada. Petitpas addresses the challenges associated with international exhibitions and offers suggestions based on her experiences.
This article highlights four controversial exhibits from various institutions who, in the end, used controversy to their advantage. The authors include Kimberly Louagie, Curator of Exhibits at the Outagamie County Historical Society in Appleton, Wisconsin, Saudia Muwwakkil, Public Information Officer at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, Diane Perlov, Senior Vice President for Exhibits at the California Science Center, and John Russick, Curator at the Chicago Historical Society.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kimberly LouagieSaudia MuwwakkilDiane PerlovJohn Russick