In this article, Maria Mortati, Founder of the San Francisco Mobile Museum, discusses her experience launching a "pop-up" museum project in 2009. Mortati describes the process of selecting and designing mobile exhibitions, and shares best practices.
In this article, Nancy Schnitzerling, Human Resources Director at the Liberty Science Center, recommends steps human resource managers need to take in order to assist employees that travel for exhibit work throughout the world. Schnitzerling provides tips related to passports and visas, insurance, vaccines, disaster preparedness, and other issues related to foreign travel.
In this article, Diane Willow, Assistant Professor of New and Combined Media in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, discusses how technology can be used to better engage children and families in the content of exhibitions. Willow highlights several exhibitions as they relate to how children interact with technologies in general and digital technologies in particular.
In this article, Gretchen Jennings, editor, and Maureen McConnell, Museum Exhibitions Consultant, summarize and comment on how professionals in the field responded to the question, "What, if anything is 'unexhibitable'?" They organize the topics into categories and explore the roles of time, place, culture, community, funding, and other issues play in shaping answers to this question.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gretchen JenningsMaureen McConnellNational Association for Museum Exhibition
In this article, Kathleen McLean, Principal of Independent Exhibitions, responds to her 1994 article in the "Exhibitionist" to explore how far the field has come in terms of exhibit evaluation and what work remains. McLean discusses how criticism based on personal experiences is just the first step in creating a more reflective group of practitioners and better exhibits.
In this article, Beverly Serrell, Principal of Serrell & Associates, discusses the Excellent Judges Framework and how it is different from other methods of reviewing exhibitions. Specifically, Serrell compares the Framework to summative evaluations, exhibition critiques, reviews, The AAM Standards for Museum Exhibitions and Indicators of Excellence, and critical appraisal.
This article was derived from an AAM panel session of the same title at the 2003 Annual Meeting. The session, chaired by John Chiodo, Director of Design at Academy Studios, included observations by three international museum professionals: Silvia Singer, Director, Espacio Centrale Educativo Betlemitas, Mexico City, Mexico; Tim Walker, Director, The Dowse Museum, The Hutt, New Zealand; and Chris Cawte, Managing Director, MET Studio Design LTD, London, England. The speakers argue that American musuems need to be more willing to implement alternative interpretive techniques.
In this article, Maria Piacente, Principal at Exhibition Studio for LORD Cultural Resources, draws on experience in Asia and Continental Europe to reveal that audience development and visitor research is less common than in the US, Canada, and UK. Some projects at small museums in Asia, however, reveal that a few are taking strides to engage their audiences and work with local communities to meet their needs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maria Piacente
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this article, Dan Bartlett, Curator of Exhibits at Midway Village & Museum Center, explores his experience preparing RFPs (Request for Proposals). Bartlett describes a "rational, formal process" that can guide others as they plan, prepare, and distribute RFPs.
In this article, Eugene Dillenburg, Assistant Professor of Museum Studies and Scholar at Michigan State University, seeks a universal definition for a museum, noting that the term nowadays describes institutions representing a broad range of sizes and disciplines. Dillenburg provides examples from museum literature and deconstructs these definitions to conclude that exhibits are the defining feature of the museum. He goes on to define exhibits and remarks that exhibits are museums' "one irreplaceable feature."
In this article, three museum professionals explain the meaning and importance of experience design. The authors include Dan Spock, Head of Exhibitions at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Donna Braden, Lead Experience Developer at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, and Ellen Rosenthal, Executive Director at Conner Prairie in Fishers, Indiana.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dan SpockDonna BradenEllen Rosenthal
In this article, Eileen Campbell, head of Farallon Media, discusses how video can be used as an integral part of exhibits, especially small exhibits, interspersed with objects, panels, interactives, and other exhibit elements. Campbell describes the various ways video can be used effectively in exhibits including presenting narratives, recreating environments, introducing people, showing the unseen or unseeable, showing beauty and motion, making connections to the wider world, and adding humor. Campbell also provides advice about producing videos for exhibits.