Kelli Ferris
I love Archaeology. I am a scientist who would love to spend her days in a museum in Europe somewhere.
Social Media Ideas & Resources for Museums. Putting Visitors First: An Interview with Beth Redmond-Jones. Since 1988, Beth Redmond-Jones has developed, designed, and project managed exhibitions for museums, interpretive centers, zoos, and aquariums, including Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Bay Area Discovery Museum, the Alaska SeaLife Center, Exploratorium, California Science Center, National Park Service, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Her expertise lies in creating multi-layered visitor experiences that include graphics, text, low and high-tech interactives, live animals, media, theater, and immersive exhibit elements. Her in-house experience includes Director of Exhibits at the Aquarium of the Pacific, Assistant to the Director of Public Programs at the Exploratorium, and Assistant Registrar at the Tucson Museum of Art.
Beth was kind enough to answer a few questions for ExhibiTricks readers: What’s your educational background? I have an MA in Museum Studies from John F. What got you interested in Museums? Definitely. What Do I Do? A blog of museum planning by an experienced exhibition designer. Exhibits. Guest Post: Using Visitor Participation to Improve Object Labels at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Our problem is this.
We have 2500 square feet of exhibit space destined to become a “core” (i.e., essentially permanent) exhibition on collections-based research. We have no funding and a staff that is stretched with temporary exhibitions, contracts, and other long-term planning. Add to this an administrative directive to “put more natural history objects on the floor” and a general lack of the front-end evaluation that would help staff understand the interests, preconceptions, and expectations visitors bring to the topic of collections and research in natural history museums. To date, the solution has been to put photos on the walls, pray for funding, and ignore the front-end evaluation bit.
But when customers start shouting down the stairs to their friends and family, “Don’t come up here! The premise of “Case by Case” is pretty simple: put objects on display with no label and provide the visitor with an opportunity to ask questions and/or make observations about the objects. 17 Ways We Made our Exhibition Participatory. Going to MAH and seeing the LOVE exhibition on First Friday was a wonderful experience.
It made me think in ways that I haven't before about the relation of art--as expressive culture--to democracy. It was fascinating to see people--across social differences--responding to representations of love in the paintings, images, objects and narratives that were part of the installation. It was exhilarating to see them inspired to create their own meanings in response: lovers whispering together in alcoves, people of all ages writing and drawing on walls and post-its, children painting, everyone sitting rapt before screens. --Helene Moglen, professor of literature, UCSC After a year of tinkering, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History is now showing an exhibition, All You Need is Love, that embodies our new direction as an institution. This post focuses on one aspect of the exhibition: its participatory and interactive elements. Content Development Sound Stairs Second Floor and the Main Gallery.