This session sounded much better in the description than it turned out in the execution. The time allotted for each speaker was fairly short and their talks didn’t appear to be coordinated but each managed to plug his or her booth in the Marketplace on Friday.
Reb Haizlip, the first speaker started off talking about the Gulf oil spill and was very emotional . This led into his talk about children today not experiencing nature. He thinks there is a place for children’s museums to reconnect kids with nature. Incorporate genuine nature play to reconnect to love of outdoors. Children’s museums can show us the world again.
The second speaker was Allen Berger of Roto Studio, a design firm. He said there are 3 things to know in planning for exhibits
1. Know who’s out there.
Know what exhibits are out there, museums & attractions. Know the people, professionals who can help.
2. Know what you want.
Craft an RFP or other document that fits your needs. Make it very clear. Relationships can help . Roto helps write RFPs
3. Know who you are. Soul search—who are we within the community.
Ron Street of Northstar Museums came next. Although his company does project management at other installations his passion is children’s museums. Currently serves on the board of Please Touch Museum. Background in construction. Things that might be overlooked in construction or remodel, focused a bit more on remodel.
Keep it simple.
Keep the team focused on end goal and vision of institution.
Never lose sight of the visitor during remodel. Safety, sound containment, dust containment.
Make code officials your friends. They don’t understand how children’s museums work, how they are fabricated. Make them an asset to the project.
Be sure to plan for a soft opening prior to grand opening. Give staff opportunity to see how things work (like pizza & play!).
Cheryl Bartholow, Argyle Design since 2001 previously Cheryl was with the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
She posed a number of questions to ask during your planning process.
Who is your audience?
What ages?
Local or destination seekers?
Will organized groups visit?
What will they see, do learn? What are the big messages?
What will it feel like? Look like? What is unique about your space?
Visitor Experience—where do we start and end?
Recently completed completed 20,000 sq ft display space at the Houston Children's Museum. One area Kidtropolis, looks and works similar to Pretend City, get kid card and get paycheck, Kidtropolis dollars, appeals to children 8 and up. Also included Matter Factory, Tot Spot, Invention Convention.
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Renee actually summed up the entirety of good points. It was an odd session. I was really psyched for this - especially after the last one was so good.
ReplyDeleteThe professionals seemed nice. There were some sprinkles of good advice, but overall it seemed like a plug, choppy, and a bit competitive between presenters.
Interesting comments:
Haizlip - Children's museums can bridge the gap between art and science though myth. Children need the opportunity to take risk to create these powerful emotions or deep attachment - love- that will create this unforgettable learning experience.
Allen - Previously an exhibit designer in house for Ohio museums. There firm will help museums write up an RFP even if tey don't want to contract with Roto. There's an acronym for science museums - STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and ?). Oh - the Evansville museum has the cutest exhibit called the Quack factory. It's a giant metal duck factory that the kids can climb throughout and feed the duck. There's a long story about how it relates to the city's manufacturing industry.
Northstar - Code inspectors have no idea how children's museums or exhibits operate. A big time investment is needed t help them understand.
Argyle - Renee really got everything. She focused a lot on decide where you want your big budget items to be. The whole time we looked at Houston. They had a wonderful 35 ft. climbing structure that the museum was based around. The designer is supposed to have a booth so I can't wait to check that out!
What's so funny is that I thought pretend city too - and we didn't even talk about it! I wonder if other museums get irritated if they feel "copied."
Haizlip was one of the candidates we (Michelle and I) interviewed for our Rancho KIDS consultants (which was eventually awarded to Gyroscope.)
ReplyDeleteIf it was Reb from Haizlip who was there, I just thought he (and his company) were lazy in his presentation and thought that by reading off of their resume of past projects that we would be impressed.
Obviously not.
I have seen the renderings of Kidtropolis - fantastic! It really looks engaging and exciting - a little more slick than Pretend City and yes, for an older audience. I think Houston is also where that giant 3-story climbing structure is (I showed you a picture a while back Angelica). Anyway, isn't the next Children's Museum conference in Houston? I know it's in Texas. Definitely will try to work in Houston Children's Museum even if it's somewhere else in Texas.
ReplyDeleteI didn't care for Haizlip either. I think they expected us librarians to be wowed by them for being them! Uh - not so much.
The next ACM is in Dallas (which is pretty far from Houston!)
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned code enforcement. I know for sure that Trang (the Building and Safety director who oversees code enforcement) is on board with the 2nd floor. He knows conceptually about what we have planned and has said whenever we start the design process to bring them on board so they can help us through the permitting process. (Unlike with most CMs, code enforcement and us are on the same team!)
If there are potential hurdles, I suspect it would come from risk management. At some point I will be talking to Chris Paxton, our HR director (who oversees risk management) and just bring him up to speed on what we have planned. I have talked to Kevin McArdle, the CSD director about the 2nd floor and he didn't see any big issues. I know that risk management was a little apprehensive about the aquatics center (but that isn't going to happen now) but with things like their play areas in the parks, these are pretty standard and there is basic coverage for things like these now.
These are things for me to worry about!
We'll have to compare notes on Reb :).
ReplyDeleteGlad you guys get to worry about the "unfun" stuff and as always - you've got it handled (really well)! Of course you know building and safety - and he's already on board! I'm soooooo glad I work for Rancho :).
Oh and Reb quoted both Marcus Aurelius and Al Gore in his talk. What a combo. Tonight Justine asked me to share our blog with her. She was pretty insistent but I told her it was not ready for prime time. Some of these entries are why it's only for us!
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the Power Tower in Houston. Wow, that's one big climbing structure. We'd need three second floors to fit that in. Of course there's always Angelica's dream of a tree from 1st floor to 2nd. I wonder how much something like this costs?
ReplyDelete