Dora:
Thank you so much for your response to my e-mail. Currently, we do not have
an Exhibit Director or Coordinator on our staff, so I am working on the
exhibits from an education perspective.

The museum, Pretend City, will be about 40,000 square feet and will also
have an interconnected city theme with a bank, post office, supermarket,
city hall, etc. We have an architect who has designed most of the exhibit
content but we need to supplement her work with our own educational goals
and objectives for each exhibit. If all goes well, we hope to start building
the museum at this time next year and to open in winter 2002. I am
considering recommending that we hire a full-time Exhibit Director or
Coordinator in the new year to handle all of the exhibit development and
planning. What do you see as the role of an Exhibit Director? Exhibit
Coordinator? What might such a person do for us at this stage in our
development process?

Thank you,
Jessica Ruskin
Education Coordinator
Pretend City
The Children's Museum of Orange County, Inc.
949-553-8790 ext. 105
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Dora Chiu
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 12:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exhibit Coordinators


Dear Jessica

I would like to share any information.  We have just recently implemented a
regular evaluation of exhibits in our children's museum.

Our museum gallery is only one floor.  It is approximately 8000 sq.ft.
There are only 4 people in the programming committee that deals with both
exhibits and educational programming.
We do not have temporary exhibits.
We have a play-based learning environment- open concept- chidlren and
parents are allowed to move objects around the museum to suit their needs.
Our gallery is divided into areas that represent a neighbourhood.  It has a
cafe, market, vet clinic, house, nursery, theatre, construction zone,
workshop, story nook, and garden.

We had certain areas in the museum which were obviously not being used by
the children.
The earliest type of informal evaluation done were by facilitators, the
staff who were on the floor all the time.  The did mini-tracking studies to
see how the children were reacting, playing in the problem areas.  How long
did they stay, what did they say, what did they do?  sex? age? accompanied
by a parent?

The programming committee then set up a format of evaluting how they felt
about the problem area according to these criteria:

Learning - if there is a diversity of learning happening ( supports
cognitive, emotional, social , physical development) If the area support
learners of diferent ages...

Age - If the area meets the museum's recommended age range

Condition - the state of things in the area and the state of the room

Flow - whether people are circulating in and out and can access different
activities within the area, ca people get in but not get out, etc...

Design - whether there are enough things , whether there is enough room to
fit people comfortably, is there an infrastructure ( shelves, hooks,
cubbies) to support better organization, more learning, etc...

We rated each area out of a total score of 50 points.  From there, we could
see where our priorities were and what was it that we had to focus on.

We also developed an exhibit design standards guide for any
maintenance/workmen/ designers we have building things for us.

Independent of this, I am also preparing for a conference on family learning
and museums.  If you would like to see these documents i can attach them in
another e-mail to you.

I welcome your response.

Dora

>From: Jessica Ruskin <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Exhibit Coordinators
>Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 11:18:55 -0700
>
>I am working with a children's museum in the development process and we are
>beginning to focus seriously on our exhibit content--in terms of our
>educational goals and objectives. I would love to talk with some Exhibit
>Directors or Coordinators about your exhibit approval process and the role
>of education in the design process. If you would be willing to have a
>conversation and answer some questions, please let me know.
>
>Thank you,
>Jessica Ruskin
>Education Coordinator
>Pretend City
>The Children's Museum of Orange County, Inc.
>949-553-8790 ext. 105
>[log in to unmask]
>
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