>I'm the exhibit designer for the Museum of Mobile. My dilemma is whether
>to use carpet in my core exhibit galleries or not. I would like any pros
>or cons of such use.


PRO:  Easy to vacuum (as opposed to swab and/or wax)
CON:  Stains are harder to remove (especially paint...)
PRO:  Keeps the atmosphere quiet, if that's the atmosphere you want
CON:  Makes the galleries look like a living room


We had carpet in our old building and I found I had to spend lots of $ on a
carpet service to keep it looking decent.  The color of the carpet changed
in only 10 years, and the whole place looked blah.  When we designed our new
building I asked for one gallery to have a colored concrete floor (we keep
it waxed) and the others to have natural wood with heavy-duty urethane
finish.  After 1 year we have had no problems except a little scuffing on
the wood floors--scuff marks come out with an industrial degreasing cleaner
or the wonderful stuff called Goof-Off.

Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center