>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 > >[log in to unmask] Claire Pillsbury Exhibit Developer Tech Museum of Innovation; San Jose, CA 95113 PH 408-279-7136, FAX 408-279-7197