Cases I

Every exhibition will require cases to safely house museum artifacts on display. Cases not only provide physical protection from vibration, physical force, handling and theft, but also provide a buffer for temperature and R.H. (relative humidity) during swings in the display environment. For and excellent resource on everything exhibit case, you should look up the "Exhibit Conservation Guidelines: Incorporating Conservation Into Exhibit Planning, Design and Production" by Toby Raphael at the National Parks Service.

We were lucky enough to obtain several professional grade cases second hand from the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation via the Diefenbunker. Once every few years, larger institutions will sell-off or dispose of old cases which are perfectly fine for exhibits on a budget. Take advantage.

In the coming months, we will be discussing case modifications including: construction, painting, lining/sealing and mounts. Keep checking back.

Working relationships and sources.

Develop your contacts! Exhibitions require historic photographs, videos, graphics etc. to present the topic in ways that words cannot do. Copyrights require large sums of money so any contacts that you can make along the way will greatly increase your chances of excellence. Contacts are also great for artifact acquisition/loans, material discounts and outsourcing.

Photos

With a few well placed calls,
one can begin a working
relationship that can provide
many excellent sources for images.



Some possible sources are:
- Local museum personnel
- Instructors/professors
- Historians
- Embassies
- International Museums


Videos
If you are looking for sources of digital video, you can try broadcasters, but be prepared to pay up to $20/second! Instead, check out sources like Archive.org where such material can be obtained for little more than proper citation.

Materials
Take advantage of any all possible contacts to obtain materials at the best possible price. Talk to relatives/family in paint/hardware/lumber businesses, friends with scanners and printers etc. You'd be surprised how many people you know can provide help or advice of some kind.

The important thing is to get out into your local museum community and work/volunteer with other professionals. Its not what you know (well, it is to some extent), but its who you know. One leads to many and soon you will have many sources for affordable and/or free rights images, videos etc.

Research

The objective of any museum exhibition should be to tell a story. More than that, the story must present accurate historical information to ensure quality education, public and peer respect and true facts. One must take care when preparing information for an exhibit by using a wide array of sources, including primary and secondary sources, films, books etc. Find out what both sides have to say, and read as much as you can! Start here.

The first step should be the development of a curatorial essay. This will allow the team to discover historical facts, interesting sub-themes and the like, as well as develop their interest and knowledge of the subject. This blog will not describe how to write an essay. However, writing skills are essential and will become extremely useful throughout the entire process. The curatorial essay will lead to topics for the exhibit, development of common threads and of background.

Once your essay has gone through several edits and permutations(check here for tips), you can begin developing a storyline or storyboard to start turning words on paper into tangible information via panels, cases, artifacts etc. To follow...

Maquette Making

Perhaps the most important weapon in a planner's arsenal, the maquette, or scale model, of the planned exhibition space will allow the team to test colours, graphics, layout, panel sizes and much more.

Rough mock-up of space.


Maquette- Floorplan
Obtaining blueprints of your proposed space, or taking simple measurements is the place to start.
Decide on a scale that is appropriate to your exhibit space. For example, if you have a large open space that is 40 feet long, do not use 1:10 because you maquette will be 4 feet long. You want something manageable, but that will be easy to work with and big enough to show some detail and get your point across.

Maquette- Materials
The most common materials used in maquette construction are Gatorfoam, Foam-cor, light woods (balsa) and some plastics. The best way to get started is by calculating your total wall length. Once this number is obtained, figure out your wall height and cut out continuous strips of material on a table saw so that all of your walls are exactly the same height. Of course, make sure to check your material for square.

Maquette- Construction
Use simple materials and common tools. The goal of a maquette isn't to build a full exhibit in scale, but to create a planning tool. Test colours and paint your walls. Make sure all doorways, windows, and architectural features are represented in proper scale. This will allow you to test panel sizes, layout, case sizes etc.

Maquette- Panels and Furniture
Again, the goal of a maquette is planning. Use mat board, plastic sheet, round and tubes (available at hobby stores) to make scale show cases and features to discover flow and accessibility issues. For panels, simple rectangles cut to scale will suffice, however, it does add a lot if you have some preliminary design work done, which can be printed onto scale pieces. If you want to go a little to far, you can create "gravity wedges" to hang your scale panels and move them as needed.