[BCMA] Exhibit ideas?

Fri Jan 25 10:04:40 PST 2013

Hi Tammy – sounds like an interesting project.

I understand your lack of space... at the Chilliwack Museum, our curator
developed what we call ‘cube’ cases. These contain usually one or two
smaller items that is linked to an interesting story about the topic of the
exhibit. I’ve attached a picture of what we did. The case is basically an
‘L’ shaped shelf with a piece of plexi-glass over the top, locked on. They
were not expensive to make, you could do the same thing with an old shelf
probably.  For our BCER exhibit, we showcased some items that had a
connection to the BCER. Like for instance, we had a glass souvenir bell from
an 1890’s world fair – where electricity was first showcased to the
world...the bell was from a local resident who travelled to the exposition.
The cube cases can be placed near (or even on top of) text panels, to make
your exhibit more than just text panels and pictures. You may have to get
creative with your objects, but do you have  brick from a building that
burned down? A diary that contains an account of a disaster? Some rubber
boots that people would have used to wade through floodwaters? A pump? An
object that can spark a story that a visitor can relate to or think about.
We find that these cube cases provide for a more intimate view/examination
of an artifact as you can get really close to it.

Images or text panels mounted onto foam-core are cheap and easy to stick to
the wall. Most printers can print off ‘wall-paper’ photos, that stick right
to the wall (and are removable without damage). Since disasters are ‘bigger
than life’... large overwhelming graphics in your small space may be more
effective. Contrast that with small, personal items and you could have a
very effective gallery about your topic for under $2000.

Good luck!

Shannon Bettles

Heritage Records Manager

Chilliwack Museum and Archives

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On
Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: January-24-13 4:13 PM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Exhibit ideas?

Hi Tammy,

One approach we’ve used has been scanning documents and images and printing
them out in a larger size (either slightly or a lot larger than the
original). This can be either at a commercial printer or on your own
depending on what your size requirements are. We’ve shown these in
exhibition frames as well as pinning them directly to the wall, in sizes
from original to approx. 4’ x 6’ (photo). I’ve done this with newspaper ads
and articles, photos, beer labels, lots of things. It works quite well,
they’re interesting to look at and budget friendly.  

Timelines of key dates can also be interesting - we’ve done this (all in
text) at about 3’ x 4’ with both a  brewing and a radio exhibit (in the
shape of a beer bottle and an old tombstone-style radio respectively). These
were particularly cheap – apart from the design and content, which we did
in-house,  we got them printed on blueprint paper for about 19 cents a
square foot!  

Hope this helps, if you’d like more information just let me know, I’m happy
to share.   

Regards, Rod

Rod Taylor

Curator

Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History

502 Vernon Street, Nelson BC V1L 4E7

250.352.9813 x 266

rod at touchstonesnelson.ca 

www.touchstonesnelson.ca <http://www.touchstonesnelson.ca/> 

<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Touchstones-Nelson-Museum-of-Art-and-History/
62908084663> cid:image001.jpg at 01CAFCF8.0AEE2A70

Exhibitions:

Aliens Among Us: BC’s Recent Plant and Animal Arrivals (Dec 1 to Feb 24)

Arin Fay: Beyond the Batholith: Writing Women of the Kootenay/Columbia Basin
(Nov 24 to Feb 17)

þ Do you need to print this email? Please consider the environmental impact
before printing.

From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. [mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 1:46 PM
To: BCMA Listserve
Subject: [BCMA] Exhibit ideas?

Hi, everyone,

I often get complimented on my ability to come up with brilliant ideas, but
in truth I am really only good at recognising the brilliant ideas of others
and 
 ahem 
 borrowing them. So I’m hoping you can help me!

My board has decided that our feature exhibit this summer will be
“Elementals: Earth, Wind, Fire and Flood” in the Creston Valley. In other
words, a look at some of the natural disasters that have hit the valley and
the impact they have had. We’ve done our research, determined the specific
disasters we want to focus on, and identified the resources we have to
illustrate them – and that’s where I run into trouble.

Any suggestions as to how I can transform a couple dozen newspaper articles
(some only a sentence or two long), several written accounts, a number of
photographs (almost all relating to the flood of 1948) and absolutely no
artifacts whatsoever into a physical exhibit that fills a room approximately
12 feet by 12?

Preferably for less than $2,000?

Thanks!

Tammy

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flags halfTammy Hardwick, Manager

Creston & District Museum & Archives

219 Devon Street, Creston, BC V0B 1G3

Phone 250-428-9262

www.creston.museum.bc.ca <http://www.creston.museum.bc.ca/> 

Find us on Facebook! <https://www.facebook.com/CrestonMuseum> 

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