Developing a Museum Exhibit

Many long hours go into developing a museum exhibit. A museum exhibit can be thought of just like any research paper or project. You have to complete a lot of background research depending on how familiar you are with your topic or theme of your exhibit. There will be numerous steps needed to make it to your finished product, which is your opening day of the exhibit. The first job would be to create a small group or committee to work on the museum exhibit and deciding upon what you are doing for an exhibit. There are endless possibilities of what can be done for a museum exhibit. Once, you have your idea of what your exhibit will be the exhibit chair needs to assign the duties of how the committee will work together to create the finished project. Many decisions have to be made within the initials meetings of setting up the committee. A deadline needs to be decided on when the exhibit will open and how long that will take to prepare. Many exhibits take close to eight months to a year to get everything organized and ready to start putting together. It honestly depends on the size of the exhibit as well. Some exhibits could be endless of the amount of information and artifacts to provide the audience, while some exhibits may have less material to present based on your overall focus. An outline and work schedule needs to be constructed to see how the members will contribute and when sections need to be completed to move forward to the next phase of the project.

Another reason why it may take a long time to put an exhibit together is artifacts or information needs to be sent or loaned to the museum from other institutions or private lenders on a temporary contract for the length of the exhibit. The committee also needs to maintain a focus of how they will tell the story and who the main audience will be for the exhibit.  Many exhibits can be displayed for wide audiences, but do many people know of the story you are telling with your display. Sometimes you may have to provide more background to let the audience have a greater appreciation and understanding to what is the significance and message of the exhibit. The next phase of the exhibit is to conduct the research of what information is known and possibly ask some questions that need to be answered for the committee to have a better understanding themselves of why the exhibit is important and to clarify how the story is being told to the audience. Once all research has been collected it is time to start building blueprints or sketched drawings of what the exhibit might look in the space provided to house the exhibit based on what artifacts the museum may already own or have been loaned for the exhibit. Many exhibits have items which fit in glass cases or to be hung up on walls. There may be some items which are much larger and need to assess the area to make sure all artifacts may be accommodated to truly make the story come to life for the audience. The next phase to move into is the writing, editing, and revisions phase. Many of the artifacts may be unrecognizable to patrons, so it is always good to have excellent signage in and around display cases or artifacts in the gallery. You will also need an introduction panel to introduce the title and story for the audience. It also great to include a timeline or exhibit map to layout the flow of the exhibit. There may be tour pamphlets or other signage to be written and produced for the exhibit. All of this information needs to be written up and sent off to printers well in advance to provide plenty of time for the overall construction of the exhibit.

The committee will begin to construct the exhibit if panels need to be built or cases moved into the gallery. It is always a good idea to continue to consult the outline and work schedule for the exhibit to make a simplified checklist just to create some organization to what has been done and what needs to be done to make this exhibit a success. The final step is making sure everything is has been put into place and ready to present to the audience. I suggest finishing an exhibit at least two weeks before an exhibit is set to open to make any necessary changes or adjustments to allow time to correct or reprint materials. It also good to have a final meeting, which is an overall evaluation of the work the group has put into the exhibit. You want to make sure your group feels the story is being told they way they originally felt and to make sure their are no errors in the flow or signage within the exhibit. It never hurts to double or triple check signage, because it is so easy to make the simplest mistakes in a large project.

This is the tire brought in by an Ottawa County Historical Society member who loaned the tire to display a sign for the B.F. Goodrich display, which opened in February 2012. 

A final thought about developing an exhibit, which may need to be covered sooner rather than later is how will you publicize the exhibit and will you have an open house and invite certain guests to a reception in honor of the exhibit. It may be appropriate to invitations to printed a list collected of potential guests. The Dobson Museum had an open house reception for all the B.F. Goodrich employees and their families, when the opened the exhibit back in 2012. It was an opportunity for some of the employees to catch up and revisit old friends. Many of the employees had not seen each other since the plant had shut down over 25 years ago. The tire plant was in operation in Miami, OK from 1945-1986. 

 Ottawa County Historical Society Board and Volunteers on opening day of B.F. Goodrich Exhibit at Dobson Museum on February 26, 2012.  

 B.F. Goodrich guests viewing the display in the main gallery. 

 More guests enjoying visiting while at the B.F. Goodrich Open House. 

 This picture shows the west side of the gallery where scrapbooks were placed on tables for guests to view. There was old newsletters, pictures, etc. throughout the books. 

Another view from the west side of the gallery showing the crowd enjoying the exhibit with the B.F. Goodrich Miami Plant sign in the background. 

*All pictures displayed in this blog were taken by OCHS Board Member and photographer Gary Crow. 

Applying Skills in Museum Exhibits

Have you ever thought about what goes into an exhibit in a museum? The skills needed working in museums varies between the exhibits you implement in your museum. Your resources play a big factor as well just as any other project. Some people have a fairly large budget while others operate strictly off of donations to their museum projects. You need to evaluate the time, manpower, and artifacts available to your group to assemble the exhibit. Some groups are blessed to have individuals or their families who have the knowledge and ability to assist with a project, they are currently working on for their exhibit. It is truly beneficial to the overall exhibit to have a resource like a first hand account person to assist with research, collecting, and organization of the overall product. In same cases there may be no one left who has affiliation, knowledge, or resources left of a particular business, organization, or family. Exhibits can be made up of numerous pieces of a community, county, or company depending on the mission of the museum. There are many steps that go in to an exhibit including the research, organization, design, collecting of artifacts and reproductions, assembling/constructing, and promoting the exhibit. It is always good to have a strong committee developed who will bring numerous ideas to the table about working on the exhibit.

Many museums rely on a strong network of volunteers to keep the doors open and to also to maintain the exhibits within their museums. It is always very beneficial to have as much insight on a project as you can from a variety of sources. I have a few pictures to share this week below of ideas of different artifacts that where collected to assemble an exhibit at the Dobson Museum in Miami, Oklahoma this past summer, when the Route 66 International Festival was held in Joplin, Missouri. The Ottawa County Historical Society displayed a Route 66 Exhibit entitled "The Mother Road of Ottawa County". An exhibit does not always have to be represented with original artifacts to be effective for the audience. Many of the photographs within this exhibit were scanned from the original negatives from the Orrick Sparlin Collection that is housed within the museum, but also many souvenirs or memorabilia was also collected to display. The Orrick Sparlin Collection is such a valuable collection and a true asset to the museum and Ottawa County. Mr. Sparlin photographed Ottawa County life from the late 1930s to the mid 1960s. Many of these negatives have not been scanned until the past couple of years. It is a project I took on as an intern for the Dobson Museum and still work on today. It will be a long process, because there are thousands of negatives yet to be scanned from this collection. Many projects assist with eachother, because of their common goals and interests. For example, the Route 66 Exhibit worked really well with the Orrick Sparlin Collection, because we were able to locate pictures from every town within the county along the route by utilizing this collection in our research and production of the exhibit.

Here is a t-shirt on display at the Route 66 Exhibit at Dobson Museum in Miami, OK.

This case is one section of the Route 66 Exhibit at the Dobson Museum in  Miami, OK.

 



 

Texaco Truck on display in Route 66 Exhibit at Dobson Museum in Miami, OK.

 

Route 66 Flag at Dobson Museum in Miami, OK.

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Training in Museums: How do Museums work?

The ability to work in a museum is just like any other field or profession. It varies on the museum you work with to see what areas you need to focus on and what background you have going into the position. I just attended the Oklahoma Museum Association (OMA) Conference last week. They had a great turnout and excellent presenters for the sessions, workshops, and programs for the three day conference. Berkeley Young was the guest speaker and he definitely informed and entertained the conference delegates about how to focus and connect with museum visitors throughout the year.

I definitely learned a lot from attending the conference and this was my first conference to attend with OMA. I have been to some district meetings prior to this conference. The sessions covered a wide variety of materials and tasks throughout working in museums. One of the sessions I enjoyed the most was a peer to peer breakout session for emerging professionals in the museum field. The speakers shared experiences from working in museums and interviews they have completed to get to where they are now working in the Oklahoma History Center. I was also able to visit with some of them afterwards to get more information about one of the museums I work in and how better to handle preserving research materials for the future. It is always a crucial part of any field to continue to learn and grow in being offered training opportunities like these to network with individuals who have been in the field for many years and those who are emerging into the field with less than 3-5 years experience. I always think you gain a better understanding when you step back and look at both sides of the situation at how someone with thirty plus years says about a situation and someone with less than five years.

The methods are always constantly changing and new techniques and technologies are being presented all the time for more efficient ways to perform tasks. I also had the opportunity to listen to some graduate students from the University of Central Oklahoma Museum Studies Program present about their research and what internships, they had participated in this past summer. The theme for this year's conference was "Connecting to Museums". I have a few pictures below taken from this summer when we hosted the traveling exhibit "The Way We Worked" at the Miners Hall Museum at Franklin, Kansas. There are many ways to connect your museums and reach out to you communities by hosting different events and reaching multiple groups at the same time. It was a worth while conference and I am looking forward to next year's conference in Idabel, Oklahoma.

 Antonio and Holly Martinez at unveiling of artwork at Smithsonian Preview Evening on May 10, 2013. 

 Crowd beginning to gather for Smithsonian Exhibit Grand Opening at Miners Hall Museum on May 11, 2013. 

Visitors inside the museum during the opening day of "The Way We Worked" at Miners Hall Museum.