Making the Museum

OK, this is going to get super-nerdy.

A reminder about a very special episode of Making the Museum, for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 later this week.

For most exhibition projects, inventing a new genre (or, easier, a sub-genre) is not in the cards.

We all want to do new things in exhibitions.

A visitor walks up to a security guard in an exhibition and asks: “Where’s the restroom?”

On a recent episode of the Making the Museum podcast, architect Mark Wagner said something that stuck with me: If one person cannot comfortably use a museum environment, the museum may not lose one visitor.

Quick, what are the phases of exhibition design?

A very special episode of Making the Museum, for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11.

To paraphrase (and possibly butcher) a lighting designer truism: If it ain’t lit, it ain’t there.

A museum touchscreen can borrow from websites.

A test fit is a quick, rough, scale-accurate drawing that answers a simple question before you start designing: Will our important stuff actually … fit?

“Holiday lights” are a time-honored trick at botanical gardens.

What’s a raisin muffin mostly made of?

Museums call long-term exhibitions “permanent.”

If we’re not studying our visitors, how can we fulfill our mission?

I run a design studio.

Most commonly in museums, objects get chosen to go on display because they are categorically similar to each other.

Not every museum display case groups similar objects (geodes) or juxtaposes objects (a Klan hood in a black baby carriage).

Most museum displays invite visitors to compare things of a similar category.

When most people imagine creating a museum object case layout, they might think of somebody arranging artifacts until the composition looks good visually.