To the discussion list:

I am in the ruminating stage of helping to set up a preliminary exhibit plan
for an entire new community heritage museum within a paucity of professional
design command and staff. I'm looking for a handle on how to go about
evaluating the strength of our existing collections to carry a story line
about our community's history, with much new emphasis on exploring the
humanities content of post-WWII immigrant settlement. The exhibits
themselves will be contracted out for professional design, development,
construction and installation once we have passed planning and final
fundraising goals. Currently everything we own except our archives is boxed
or draped and stored, as the existing facility is inadequate and temporary,
and new construction is imminent. A conceptual architectural plan exists,
the new site is paid for, and the construction permitting process has begun.
The museum content, outside of some eye-catching entrance exhibits and the
fairly well thought out archives-storage-research areas, is still in
everyone's heads and also expressed in a preliminary concept outline. We
feel we need a lot more informed evaluation before we can even think about
seeking design proposals.

Frankly, since I'm an archivist/collections manager, I'm a bit in over my
head here. Working on this planning project are the museum's volunteer
Managing Trustee, who has a strong background in fundraising and marketing,
a half-dozen archives volunteers who love being part of the planning
process, and me, the sole paid staff person. We have invited a small group
of local exhibit designers to a brainstorming charette, coming up quite
soon. My hope is that this session will lead to the foundation of some real
exhibit planning. My fear is that since I don't really know how to move from
point A to point B, (and am perhaps incapable of recognizing point A and
point B) I will not efficiently get as much out of this generous sharing of
professional time as we will need to move forward.

We have asked the design consultants to review our collections for interest
and relevance to community stories, and to pull from their own experiences
and what they have seen elsewhere some ideas for effective, compelling
exhibition techniques.  In other words, we have the pedantic history, how
can we make it come truly alive through effective exhibition of relevant
objects. We think of this as the first step toward an exhibit plan. I
believe that from this brainstorming and resulting summary we will be able
to identify what we lack to tell our story comprehensively, inclusively, and
with interest, and can then create an action plan to bring those important
elements in. Since all of our 3-dimensional objects are cataloged and
photographed and none are on exhibit, I hope (pray!) that it will work to do
this kind of evaluation from color photographs, unpacking only what they
truly want to see for themselves, along with some sample items the
volunteers are fond of.

I should add that we have done a community survey for evaluating the need
for a heritage museum to serve the five incorporated areas we represent, and
we have excellent relationships with leaders and residents in all five
communities. We have identified the former immigrant groups, now in their
third generations, who have completely changed the tone, look and content of
the communities since WWII; some are on our Board and many others are not.
We have accessioned almost nothing related to their lives, as the museum
started up in the 1970s with an emphasis on pioneer families and the school
district. We plan to hold a series of forums inviting their participation in
creating a space to tell their stories in words, photographs, objects and
celebrations in the community museum. Only the Asian population has access
to such a space in this region.

There are so many good ideas expressed on this list that I am willing to
expose all my shortcomings here in order to get feedback from those who have
a much better grasp of where to get a toe-hold and what to mark as mileposts
in the planning process.  I do have exhibit planning classes behind me, and
textbooks and project notes/exhibit evaluations available, but for now let's
call this posting and your responses a
beer-and-pizza-with-jazz-in-the-background kind of a brainstorming session.

What do you think? Is this the way to go about starting a plan? Any concrete
ideas on what I should ask of the exhibit design professionals who are so
generously sharing their time? Are my objectives realistic or not? Is the
technique of working with photographs workable or just plain dumb? What
would you do? What have I forgotten? What should I find out before
continuing?

Thanks for any feedback anyone is willing to provide.

Micki Ryan
Curator
Highline Historical Society


www.highlinehistory.org

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