Limited Portfolio
I have created this site to present for review descriptions, drawings, photos and animations of three exhibitions I have worked on as an Exhibit Designer for three different museums. My dedication to the work on these exhibits and motivation to grow have led me to exceptional projects and experiences.
Since the start of my career in the museum world in 1994, I have worked on over 200 exhibitions at museums and galleries in a variety of positions. A majority of these were as an Exhibit Designer or Project Manager for art exhibits, along with history, science and children's exhibits. A few of these have been permanent, though a predominant amount were temporary.
Every museum exhibition, regardless of the topic or objects presented, is a collaboration between multiple parties that come together with a shared objective. Each participant has their own expertise, ideas, goals, skills and expectations. Varying amounts of research is done on the subjects, objects, and presentation then brought to a consensus by all participants' input. It is the responsibility of the Exhibit Designer to bring all of this information together and develop the best way to present and display the content. Though compromise is inherent from an array of factors (fragility of objects, budget, time, physics, among others), the end result is to be compelling and educational. An overarching goal being to develop an aesthetic for an exhibit that draws connections between the viewer and the subject. This can be achieved by use of architecture and physical structures, color, lighting, graphics, fonts, texture, video, audio, and olfactory.
Every exhibit I have worked on has been an anticipated learning experience, whether from the subject being presented, objects being displayed, or the challenges that arise from designing and installation. I continue to learn and improve from every project and the journey is not over. I am proud to say the exhibits presented here, and every one that I have worked on in my 29 years as an Exhibit Designer and Production Manager, was completed on time and within budget.
VISIONS OF THE HISPANIC WORLD
Albuquerque Museum
Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library is an international traveling exhibition consisting of over 200 of the Hispanic Society’s most exceptional works from its museum and library collections. The exhibit objects span 4,000 years of art of the Iberian Peninsula, and of Latin America from the 16th to 19th centuries. Initially opening at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, Spain before traveling to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and back to the US, with the Albuquerque Museum being the host and providing support to two additional venues.
In preparation for designing this exhibition, I was only supplied with a detailed list of objects and an exhibition catalog. Containing over 50 objects that needed custom display mounts, each venue was required to produce mounts for these objects. Having funding and support to travel to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, I took this opportunity to meet with their museum staff. This trip permitted me to review the installation challenges, take detailed notes and photographs, and attend the opening receptions. This, in turn, enabled me to observe how best to display certain objects and possibly improve on their presentation.
Given the total value of the objects and the rental fees for the exhibit, the Albuquerque Museum took on the responsibility of applying to the Art and Artifacts Indemnity Program to subsidize the insurance costs for all the US venues. I assisted in creating and compiling the required documentation for this submission, resulting in indemnified coverage.
As a requisite by the Art and Artifacts Indemnity Program, I needed to create a layout for the gallery that allowed an unrestrained clear view of all objects at all times for the Museum's security officers. This required me to design a more open gallery flow. I developed modular slant pedestal cases that could be used to display a variety of objects against gallery walls or self-standing. This allowed objects to be easily viewed while permitting a clear view above the cases across the gallery.
With an open floor plan for the exhibit, it would be challenging for visitors to distinguish between different sections without some visual change. I chose to represent each section, which contained particular time periods, with distinct colors that complemented the variety of objects and symbolized each period. Deep dark red and blue characterized royalty and wealth, gold represented “The Golden Age,” a deep lush green promoted expansion and colonization, and white embodied the “Modern Age.”
It was necessary for the Museum's curator to develop exhibition text and was decided that all text be available in English and Spanish, specifically due to the subject matter and number of native Spanish speakers in our community. With the amount of text that evolved, I established the exhibit would only contain introduction and section texts with basic identification labels adjacent to objects. The bulk of the text would be available as bound gallery guides for visitors to use and read. This made for a cleaner visual experience for visitors without having to crowd in front of display cases to read all of the available text. They could, and did quite often upon my observations, sit on benches in the gallery and read at their leisure.
An additional level of visitor engagement was developed as a smart phone app audio tour for 28 key objects throughout the exhibit. This worked as a proximity indicator within the gallery. With the app running on a device carried by a visitor, upon approaching a key object, the app would alert the visitor of this object with photos and text with the opportunity to listen to an audio message about the object. This was also indicated with an icon label next to each of these objects.
Given the amount of effort by the entire Museum staff to host this exhibit and the stunning results, this exhibit was submitted for the American Alliance of Museums Excellence in Exhibition Competition.
Perspective view of exhibit layout
Perspective view of exhibit layout
Screenshots of smart phone app audio tour developed for this exhibit
Perspective view of exhibit layout
DESIGN & PREPARATION
Using SketchUp Pro, Layout and Photoshop,
I am able to create detailed 3D models of
the gallery with display and object placement. These images show perspectives, floor plans, and construction drawings of the gallery in preparation for construction and installation of the exhibit.
GALLERY PHOTOS
Photos of the completed installation.
Distinct wall and pedestals colors discern the different sections of the exhibit. An open floor plan allows ease of movement and areas for reflection and contemplation.
SACRED REALM
Museum of International Folk Art
Sacred Realm: Blessings & Good Fortune Across Asia was a temporary exhibit that provided multiple perspectives of communities throughout Asia. The focus consisting of supernatural, divine, and sacred represented by amulets, votive offerings, and ritual objects from the museum's collection. Ranging in size from mezuzahs to a fully installed Tibetan Buddhist altar, the exhibit consisted of over 550 objects.
Having worked with a co-designer and a conventional museum team to design and install the exhibit, I also worked with knowledgeable authorities from the surrounding community for insightful ways to display these objects. These consisted of New Mexico rabbis, Imam, Asian and Middle Eastern religious scholars, Thai Buddhist monks, Tibetan Buddhist monks, ritual dancers, practitioners, magical tattoo masters, shamans, and artists. These consultations were done to explore how best to respectfully present religious objects from different cultures within the same gallery space. Additionally, I conferred with a local Feng Shui master to incorporate contemporary Feng Shui principles into the gallery design. This, in turn, influenced the gallery flow and color scheme.
Working with the curator, educators and graphics designers, we developed AV interactives and hands-on activities for an expanded level of visitor engagement within the exhibit. Placed in key areas around the gallery, iPads were used to allow visitors to obtain more information, photos and videos on objects and ceremonies surrounding them. Hands-on activities available for visitors were to make paper flowers, khamsa hands, and Shinto emas, to take home or place in the gallery at different offering receptacles. A section of ritual tattoos welcomed visitors to take photos of their own tattoos to be part of the exhibit.
Platform displays for larger objects were designed to suggest an environmental setting. I designed a label rail system for a previous exhibit that was used along the perimeters of these platforms. This flexible system acted as a physical barrier in front of objects as well as a visual barrier containing text and graphics.
3D perspective overview of exhibit indicating sections
Floor plan of exhibit indicating sections
Graphics and text label schedule
3D perspective overview of exhibit indicating sections
DESIGN & PREPARATION
Using SketchUp Pro, Layout and Photoshop, I am able to create detailed 3D models of the gallery with display and object placement. These images show perspectives, floor plans, elevation views and construction drawings of the gallery in preparation for construction and installation of the exhibit.
GALLERY PHOTOS
Photos of the completed installation. Saturated section colors with focused object lighting and recessed wall cases create an an intimate environment for viewing sacred and ritual objects from across Asia. Label rails at the front of platforms also act as a barrier for objects not in display cases.
PICTURING AMERICA
The Newark Museum
While working as an Exhibit Designer at the Newark Museum, I had the privilege to be the lead designer for the “Picturing America” exhibition. This permanent exhibit tells the chronological history of American Art using works from the Newark Museum's permanent collection, from the Colonial Period (1730) to present day. It was a groundbreaking exhibit that intermixed painting, sculpture, photography, decorative art, Native American art, audio, video and mixed media. The Museum received a 1.2 million dollar NEH grant for this project.
The exhibit covers two floors of the Museum's North Wing that includes 17 galleries with 15,000 sq ft of exhibition space. This was a two year project started in 1999 and opened in 2001, installed in two phases.
I worked with a team consisting of the Newark Museum's staff. The team included three curators, two educators, an assistant exhibit designer, a graphic designer and myself as well as architect Michael Graves. Graves had overseen the renovations of the Museum from 1987-1989.
Developing a storyline for “Picturing America” required a significant amount of research. The research I was responsible for included reviewing photographs and video from The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, historical paint colors, and gallery settings used during different periods throughout American history. Each gallery within the exhibition was designed to recreate a setting from the period being represented. An example of this includes “The Gilded Age” period, 1875-1900, a densely displayed salon style installation with deep red walls and decorative moldings to evoke the feeling of an opulent sitting room in a late Nineteenth Century home. Another example is “A Modern Art for a Modern Era: the 291 Gallery, America’s First Modern Art Gallery.” This gallery focuses on works by artists who were associated with Alfred Stieglitz’s pioneering “291 Gallery,” commonly referred to now as the Stieglitz's Gallery. This was the first intimate recreation of the 291 Gallery since it's closing in 1917, with wall shelving and pleated fabric wainscoting to display works.
Upon redesigning the galleries for “Picturing America,” I realized that the existing lighting system in some areas was not sufficient to light the objects properly. I worked closely with LSI Industries to develop and design a low profile lighting system that did not exist at the time and would have the flexibility to appropriately light the galleries without distracting from the architecture.
I also worked closely with the educators to develop three custom seated listening stations for the galleries and a comfortable home living room style resource area that included books, audio and video components. An intimate video presentation area was created to introduce the museum visitors to the overall scope of the exhibit's contents. I worked meticulously with a media company to produce a video that would allow the visitors to choose between English and Spanish as well as closed captioning in these languages.
During the year long installation period for these galleries, I supervised the quality of work done by general contractors, electricians, painters, preparators and a team of six art installers.
GALLERY PHOTOS
Photos of the completed installation. Varying wall and pedestals colors of each of the 17 galleries along with installation styles, visually suggest the time periods of which the artwork was created. Some images show interesting relationships between adjacent objects.
SketchUp Pro
3D model animations
Fly-over and fly-through gallery animations created with SketchUp Pro to see an overall plan with a brief animation through the gallery for a sense of spacial layout and object placement.
