News from Iceland: birds inject hope?

I just got back from a two week trip around Iceland. I had worked there for an ad agency many years ago. I found the country in quite good shape and will be writing some posts about what I saw. Still sifting through 2 gigs of pictures...

One of my favorite museums was Sigurgeirs Bird Museum (in Icelandic known as Fuglasafn Sigurgeirs)- a family owned and operated shrine to their late brother's incredible bird collection. This museum is located in the beautiful, but somewhat remote Lake Mývatn district.

In my post-visit research, I found that they are getting some additional funding from an Icelandic group called the Aurora Foundation. A very interesting match with the funders charter:

"The primary aim of the foundation is to enhance and strengthen cultural and humanitarian activities in Iceland and abroad. Emphasis is focused on supporting projects that can make a difference, that inject hope and optimism into a community."

After having seen the museum and met the hard-working director, I can see that such a project would inject great hope and awe into the lakeside community it lives in. More about it to come.

Image courtesy of the Aurora Foundation.

See ya (but not goodbye) Denver Community Museum

Jaime Kopke's 7 month, uber-community, uber-participatory museum experiment has ended. She's going to London to pursue a Masters in Design Curating. However, the museum is not gone- the DCM is collaborating with the new San Francisco Mobile Museum (disclosure: a project of mine).

The exhibit is a dual city community sharing project about place. We asked @ 15 people in each city, of all ages and abilities to participate. They were given a fixed size box to work within, and the results have been amazing, funny, and delightful.

It opens in Denver this weekend, and moves about the city during the next 6 weeks. It will open in the Bay Area in August, exact dates TBD.

The Plan is the Plan

I realize we hammer on this as a post topic, but only because it's so.... essential.

Earlier this week, I was in a meeting where we were deciding on some moves for a project in it's middles stages and we were at a crossroads. These moves will some day have enormous visitor experience, staff, environmental, and of course, budgetary implications. In order to move ourselves forward, we came back to our strategic plan.

Which is why it's so important to have a strong-yet-flexible plan, strategy, or vision. With museum exhibits involving multiple parts and participants, and museum projects mushrooming out in complexity, there is no better guiding light.

Just a gentle reminder.

Design for... Longevity

[Scott Moulton posting- a follow up to the Design for Change series]

Designing for change should have the end result of making exhibits that last longer so I thought I would give a couple strategies on designing for longevity.

Use simple solid materials that will take wear and can be resurfaced. Solid wood, plyboo, concrete, recycled glass countertops, all are highly durable and wear in ways that enhance the appearance of the material.

Use materials that are easy to replace, retouch or modify. "Patch and paint" can go a long way to refresh an exhibit. Damaged glass can easily be replaced with a call a local glass shop. Similarly there are sheet metal shops in every town with the ability to make some pretty complex parts.

Designing around the in-house capabilities of the museum is another key way to make an exhibit last. Is the shop more geared towards wood or metal work? How much experience is there with media or electromechanical interactives?

Design for Change: disposal strategies

[Scott Moulton posting... part 3 of a 3 part series]

Finally, once exhibits are no longer useful they need to be easily disassembled and recycling or repurposing. Complex assemblies with multiple materials glued together become trash where as a solid wood tabletop can easily be refinished and used for something else.

Designing for change will create adaptable exhibitions that better serve your visitors, give your exhibits a longer life span, and reduce waste.

Design for Change: what does this mean?

[Scott Moulton posting... part 2 of a 3 part series]

This approach does not mean that everything should be built from 80/20 aluminum and live on casters. In fact, unlimited change ends up being terribly inefficient and often goes unutilized. The most important part of this design is deciding what sort of change should be embraced and which should be limited.
Is it hourly change that floor staff will be making or seasonal change that the exhibits maintenance will be making?

Kitchen type infrastructure can be reprogrammed to be an art studio or kitchen chemistry lab as long as the infrastructure is robust and kept neutral. A simple and well-built table is a background for the wide range of activities that can take place on top of it.

Tomorrow: Disposal Strategies

Design for Change: an introduction

[Scott Moulton posting... part 1 of a 3 part series]

Change is critical to making a museum a vibrant and relevant place. Hourly change, seasonal change and long-term change all can work to meet the shifting needs and interests of the visitor. Exhibits need to support the change required for visitor contribution, hourly programs, special events, the re-theming of exhibits, and a major reworking of an exhibit gallery.

One solid strategy for designing exhibits that minimize the use of natural materials and waste is to design for change. This strategy can be played out from the scale of the building to a tabletop exhibit...

Tomorrow: what does this mean?

Missing You, WPA

This photo is from the steps of the Fort Collins Museum, formerly the Carnegie Library in that town. Just wondering what the results of a "new" WPA might look like...