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Recent entries: 1-16 of 16

1. Power users

   Posted 1 day ago

   In October, we recognized the contributions of two ExhibitFiles power-users during a gathering at the ASTC Annual Conference in Philadelphia. Paul Orselli, a self-described instigator and principal of Paul Orselli Workshop (POW!), was among the group of exhibit developers who guided early planning of this site, and one of the first to contribute a review (check out Toasters, posted in April 2007 - and his 8 other case studies and reviews).

   Gretchen was also among the early advisors, and her case studies of Psychology and Invention at Play provided models for others to follow. As editor of Exhibitionist, journal of the AAM’s committee on exhibitions, NAME, she - along with Beth Redmond-Jones, Penny Jennings, Eric Siegel, and others - has looked for ways to make this site useful to NAME members. And she’s spread word about the site through presentations to groups outside of the United States.

   To them, and to all of our other 960+ members, thank you for so generously contributing to our common fund of knowledge and experience.

2. Insect zoos

   Posted 24 days ago
   ExhibitFiles member Beth-Redmond Jones is looking for good examples of insect zoos (and also life science/ecology halls). Does anyone have a review to contribute? (The photo, right, was taken by Christine Ruffo of ASTC during the ASTC Annual Conference in Philadelphia two weeks ago. It’s in the Academy of Natural Sciences Butterflies! exhibition.)

3. ‘Bits

   Posted 1 month ago
   Over the last 18 months, we’ve received a lot of suggestions for new features for the ExhibitFiles site. One recurring request is to allow members to post not just full Case Studies or Reviews of exhibits and exhibitions, but short message or media elements. In other words, members could share one image (or video) or [...]

4. Universal design: share your stories

   Posted 1 month ago
   An Inquiry Group working under the auspices of the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) is looking to catalog efforts that make informal science education experiences more inclusive of people with disabilities. Founded in 2007 with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), CAISE is a center that works across the entire spectrum [...]

5. ExhibitFiles favorites

   Posted 1 month ago
   If you’re a member of ExhibitFiles, and you haven’t yet “favorited” a case study or review, this would be a good time to start. Just a year and a half after the site initially opened, 69 members have taken time to post 137 case studies and reviews, helping to build a common resource for all [...]

6. The diorama: a place of dreams?

   Posted 1 month ago
   Joel Bloom, longtime director of the Franklin Institute and ASTC’s first president, died on September 23. As many of us recall, Joel used to speak movingly of his childhood memories of dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History. An obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted one of his speeches: “One of my favorite exhibits was [...]

7. What difference does an exhibition make?

   Posted 3 months ago
   We were happy to see two new ExhibitFiles case studies posted by participants in the PI Summit, held July 25-26 in Washington, D.C. Liza Pryor of the Science Museum of Minnesota wrote about Science Buzz, and Elizabeth Fleming of the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, wrote about Flip It, Fold It, [...]

8. From Visitor Response to Visitor Artistic Creation

   Posted 4 months ago
   I just returned from the Visitor Studies Association (VSA) annual conference in Houston. This year’s theme was “Theory, Practice & Conversations,” and the conference was structured for attendee participation—the opening plenary was pitched as potentially “one of the best opening sessions ever, as the speaker is . . . YOU!” What made the conference such [...]

9. ExhibitFiles at the NSF ISE PI Summit 2008

   Posted 4 months ago
   ExhibitFiles members will be participating in the ISE PI Summit 2008 , July 25-26, when leaders of informal science education projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) gather here in Washington, D.C. More than 180 projects will be represented at the Summit, including not only exhibitions, but a range of media, from youth and community programs to [...]

10. Stagecraft, remembrance, and moral gray zones

    Posted 4 months ago
    It was because of Dan Spock’s informative and thought-provoking review of the Terror House that I found myself there in late May, while I was in Budapest for the ecsite meeting. As it happens, I visited with Andrea Bandelli, who posted his own review the other day, and I shared some of his reactions and reflections. There’s a forced-march quality [...]

11. Visitor memories

    Posted 4 months ago
    What happens when you invite visitors to tell their own stories? In his recent case study of the Liberty Science Center’s Skyscrapers exhibition, Wayne LaBar described a place among the towering exhibits where visitors can make themselves heard. As Wayne describes it, “Our visitors also have a voice in the story when they write [...]

12. Unexhibitable?

    Posted 6 months ago
    Are there topics you, or others you know, consider “unexhibitable”? The AAM’s National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME) wants to hear about them. The Fall 2008 issue of the NAME journal, Exhibitionist, will consider this and related questions, and the editor, Gretchen Jennings, and Boston Museum of Science exhibit developer Maureen McConnell are looking for [...]

13. Create a case study, write a review

    Posted 6 months ago
    ExhibitFiles members can post case studies of exhibits or exhibitions they’ve worked on and write reviews of exhibits (and exhibitions) they’ve visited. Consider contributing your experiences and reflections to this growing resource for the museum field. You don’t have to complete your post all at once. It’s easy to work a little at a time, save [...]

14. New to ExhibitFiles? Tips to get you started

    Posted 6 months ago
    For those new to ExhibitFiles, you may be wondering what you can do now that you’ve set up an account. Here are a few ideas:Add a photo to your profile—Log in, click on the Profile tab, and look for “update thumbnail.” Choose “upload a new image” and browse your computer to locate an [...]

15. Happy birthday, ExhibitFiles

    Posted 7 months ago
    ExhibitFiles reaches a milestone April 23 with the first anniversary of the site’s opening. Started with the support of a committed core group of exhibits people, the site has grown to include more than 650 members from around the world, who have generously shared their experiences and reflections in more than 100 case studies and [...]

16. ExhibitFiles wins Best of the Web award

    Posted 7 months ago
    ExhibitFiles is winner of the Best of the Web award for museum professional sites, annnounced today during the Museums & the Web conference in Montreal. The award recognizes achievement in web design for sites that support distributed activity and innovative work among museum professionals. Congratulations and many thanks to the 636 members who’ve joined up, contributed [...]