Hope these thoughts are useful. At Texas Parks and Wildlife we use large
scale models quite often.
Good luck,
Wally
-----Original Message-----
From: David Driscoll
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 2:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would like
to hear from anyone with experience commissioning accura
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would like to hear from
anyone with experience commissioning accurate scale models for use in a
museum setting. As part of a restoration and documentation project, the
Corps has agreed to produce models of the locks on the Portage Canal in
Portage, Wisconsin. The canal, completed until 1876, connected the Fox and
Wisconsin Rivers, providing a continuous waterway from the Great Lakes to
the Mississippi River.
Since developing museum exhibitry is outside the Corps'
usual areas of expertise, feedback in the following aras would be especially
useful:
1. Is it better to compose a formal bid document (where
almost all details of materials and technique have been defined in advance)
or to work with an RFP (where potential fabricators have more leeway to
apply their own ideas and experience)? I would suggest you go with a RFP. Be
very specific about the goals of the project (what information you need to
convey to the viewer), durability (will the public be able touch it), and
context (how does it fit into the whole?) Each artist is going to have a
preferred way of working being specific about materials and methods of work
will narrow the field unnecessarily.
2. How can we access the necessary model-making expertise,
either to develop reasonable bid specs or to evaluate differing proposals?
Is hiring a contract consultant useful and/or necessary? If you have
experience writing specs for other projects they same principles would apply
here. If you have no or little experience consider working with a project
manager to help you write the RFP and bid specs etc.
3. Where should we advertise the project to bring it to the
attention of potential fabricators? Are there specialist publications
directed toward model-builders? What are the standard venues for reaching
museum exhibit fabricators? Try the Exhibitionist, the publication for NAME.
My best recommendation would be word of mouth. Your working relationship
with the artist is going to be paramount. Someone who is a prima donna could
make this project your worst nightmare. Look for someone who can put aside
their own agenda for the good of the project.
Please reply on- or off-list to Brad Johnson, St. Paul
District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, [log in to unmask],
(651) 290-5250.
David B. Driscoll, Curator of Business & Technology
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
608-264-6571
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