Thoughtful article in Museum: "Are DJs, rappers and bloggers ‘curators’?"

N. Elizabeth Schlatter, an expert herself in the realm of curating and museums, wrote a thoughtful article on new twists on "curating". While we don't curate here at Gyroscope in the strictest sense, we create institutions and platforms thata support all sorts of curatorial endeavors.  It's a good read:

http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/newspin.cfm

Been to Chabot Space & Science Center? Take their survey!

Chabot Space and Science Center is working with Reach Advisors and "other museums" on what people want out of their museum. If you're in the Bay Area or have been there, head over to this link and give them a moment of your time:

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22A54ZWX2WT

A Gift of an Idea

Just before the holidays, I received an email about a "New Museum First-Aid Kit" which is "...packed with items every art lover needs, including a New Museum gift Membership."

This is a fun idea, and an innovative way to wrap the gift of membership. Yet the costs for this particular "gift" are in the realm of a significant tax-deductible donation to the museum. 

But it got me thinking.

What about  beloved museums in the country, large and small, who have unique communities and unique identities... could a nuance of this idea benefit them and help raise funds while also reinforce their identity or mission?

Perhaps curating an annual museum "gift box" could be worth trying out.  In the next couple of posts I'm going to look at what this might look like for a variety of institutions and sketch up some possibilities.

Relevance and Wonder, Science and History

I've mentioned before that we're working on a project that's a marriage between a local history museum and hands-on science center: the Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center. 

One of the strategies in terms of exhibit development is leveraging the history to support the science, and science to back up the history. This helps create an environment which is multi-layered, and connection-rich (not to mention a nice match with current educational standards).

Using history to provide context to the science presents the concepts in a real-world manner. Visitors don't tend to experience life in isolated silos of science, history, art, etc. They experience them simultaneously, so this is a familiar fit. 

At the same time, science and scientific phenomena can provide a level of impact and wonder that history can't. The vehicles in science museums tend to be more hands-on.  So we're using the engaging tools of science exhibits to provide attractors to both topics.

On another level, we're using this overlap approach in two other ways. One is that we're fostering connections between global topics and visitors by using local instances of an idea, and vice versa.

The other is by highlighting role models of all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities. This brings a first-person voice to the multitude on the museum floor- it personalizes the experience. It also can have the affect of making seemingly out of reach achievements seem more... acheivable for the average Jill.

The ideal for any cultural institution marriage is to develop a situation where the complementary qualities can come together and create something bigger or better than either could be on their own.

Prior to a new building, the Museum is starting to experiment in the existing museum and via their blog to with these ideas. Take a look!

More about Green Design in Tempe

By Scott Moulton, LEED® AP

[This is a follow up on a previous post on Tempe Historical Museum.]

Beyond the material specifications, another key sustainable strategy we used for Tempe Historical was to design a system for displaying artifacts and telling stories that was easily reconfigurable. The limitations of a single purpose exhibit often lead to a short life span and staff being constrained by whatever assumptions the designers were working with.

For this client we came up a modular design let the museum re theme their exhibits and adapt over time. One design is a system of platforms that support interchangeable graphic stands, artifact displays, and flip books which include visitor's stories. The platforms ties all the modular parts together into a cohesive exhibit and become an organizing element for the museum.

One challenge for this modular approach is creating the appropriate level of interchangeability. A system can become burdened by it's own flexability at a certain point taking on too many features that may never be used. For Tempe we worked hard to insure they had a framework to support the change but the primary goal was to present the artifacts and local history in a compelling way.