Creating Exhibitions Collaboration in the Planning, Development, and Design of Innovative Experiences

“This is a must-read for the nervous novice as well as the world-weary veteran. The book guides you through every aspect of exhibit making, from concept to completion. The say the devil is in the details, but so is the divine. This carefully crafted tome helps you to avoid the pitfalls in the process, so you can have fun creating something inspirational. It perfectly supports the dictum—if you don’t have fun making an exhibit, the visitor won’t have fun using it.”  
—Jeff Hoke, Senior Exhibit Designer at Monterey Bay Aquarium and Author of The Museum of Lost Wonder

Polly McKenna-Cress is Department Chair and Program Director of Museum Exhibition Planning & Design at the University of the Arts, as well as Principal of Alusiv, Inc., a design firm in Philadelphia. She is a consultant, author, and educator who leads institutions, departments, and teams in master planning, development, design, and project management of exhibitions. Over her 25+ year career in both museums and design firms, she has led the creation of more than 60 exhibitions of varying sizes, budgets, and complexities.

Janet A. Kamien was an executive consultant, author, and strategic planner. In her 40+ years in the museum field she worked on staff at four major museums and also worked as an independent consultant. She worked, consulted, and advised on more than 100 different interpretive projects and strategic master plans.

Chapter 1

Collaboration Unpacked

Why Collaborate?

Why Collaborate in Museums?

How to Collaborate

A Case Study in Extraordinary Collaboration: Science Gallery Trinity College, Dublin Ireland

An Intrinsic Imperative

Chapter 2

Advocacy Positions as a Team Creation Strategy

Five Advocacies Needed for Every Team

Action Steps

Dangers and Pitfalls

Chapter 3

Creating the Landscape for Exemplary Exhibitions

Laying the Foundation

Planning Major Change

New Exhibition Initiative

Review, Critique and Approval

Institutional Culture and Risk

Assessing Results and Learning from Them

Chapter 4

It’s About Something Too!

Approach and Philosophy

Object Driven or Idea Driven?

Dangers for the Subject Matter Expert

Two Curatorial Perspectives:

Chapter 5

Developing Exhibition Content for Visitors

Synthesizing and Presenting Initial Concepts

Getting Started: Developing the Concepts

Strategies for Organizing Information

Synthesizing and Presenting

Organizing the Concepts into a Cohesive Narrative

Documentation and Presentation

Getting the Details Ironed Out: How Does This Thing Really Work

Strategies for Ironing Out the Details

The Final Miles

Chapter 6

Advocating for the Physical and Sensory Experience

Design Advocacy: Working within the Collaboration

Primary Exhibition Design Principles

The Launch of Design

Spatial Planning & Visitor Flow

Gestalt – Sensory Perception Forming a Whole

The Medium is the Message: Modes

Immersive Environments

Accessible and Universal Design

Environmentally Sound Practice

Exhibition Design—Chapter Conclusion

Chapter 7

Managing the Project and Team

Creating a Budget

Managing a Team

Chapter 8

Getting the Most Out of the Process

Process Documentation

Ways to Produce and Shape Ideas

Concept Organization and Visual Documentation

Making Decisions and Conducting Evaluation

Chapter 9

How Do We Set Up Our Process?

Process Outline

Process Phases (See Visual Map proceeding this chapter)

The Postpartum: Evaluating, Maintaining, Evolving and Documenting

Exhibition Closing

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