>While many ready built science center buildings have very sturdy attachment
>points designed into their ceiling structures,  a prominent architect has asked
>that exhibit staff justify the need to suspend artifacts or other exhibition
>components from the ceiling of a new science center building.
>
>Do Museum-L readers have specific examples of objects which were best displayed
>suspended?  If so, for each example, approximate dimensions, weights, the name
>of the relevant institution plus information about getting the object up and
>down would be much appreciated.

The following are some examples with  exhibit type and institutions - not
dimensions and wieghts which could be obtained from the particular
institutions.

1) Some examples are in the category of large things that you want people
to see and not touch but don't want to have on the floor with huge barriers
around them.  Airplanes are hung in space in Chicago's MSI and the War
Museum in England and I think in the Air and Space Museum of the
Smithsonian.

2) Another example of an exhibit type that requires ceiling attachment
points are the very striking Foucault pendulums (Heureka in Finland, the
Weitzman Center in Israel, Cal Academy in California)

3) Monterey Bay Aquarium hangs large fiberglass whales and other marine
models from their ceilings - I suspect more to impress people with the
scale rather than to protect them from touching.

4) Traveling wave exhibits - those ones that look like a fish bone skelaton
and that you give a twist to and see the wave propagate.  The Exploratory
in England has one that is a vertical rather than a horizontal structure -
which is desirable because the "footprint" is smaller than a horizontal one
and you can see it twist from a distance.

5) Large structures that need to be secured by cables or struts from the
ceiling as well as the floor.  The climbing rabbit warren type tunnel
structure that the Memphis Children's Museum has and I think the Boston
Childrens Museum has or had is an example of this.

>I feel the option to suspend objects particularly in temporary exhibition
>areas is essential.

For traveling and temporary shows - it is very often desirable to have
rugged attachment points to use for some very common fixtures associated
with installation.
1) lighting rigging (can be VERY heavy)
2) banners
3) "freestanding" or hanging large panels/partitions of soft or rigid
materials to affect light, sound, or space design.

You may also get some helpful observations from SITE at Smithsonian and
ASTC about what they think traveling exhibitions need in the way of ceiling
fixtures.

>Joe Ansel
>
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Claire Pillsbury
Exhibit Developer
Tech Museum of Innovation; San Jose, CA 95113
PH 408-279-7136,        FAX 408-279-7197