Museum Techmuse

American Visionary Art Museum Opening

The Jim Rouse Visionary Center opened this weekend – a major new facility for AVAM as it expands its visionary mission to include programs, classrooms, and large format exhibits. And I’m very pleased to participate with an installation of Storytelling Kiosk (look for it on the second floor, as you enter from the elevators), gathering stories from visitors about what they can do to improve their communities.

One of the highlights for me at the opening: showing the kiosk to sculptor Andrew Logan who flew in from London. His six foot Cosmic Egg sculpture provided the basis for our opening animation. This is one of the true pleasures of working in the museum field: the Cosmic Egg became the center of my focus for weeks as we build the story gathering program around its metaphor of birth and creation. (Reminds me of the time I focused on the Smithsonian National Zoo’s giant pandas for two weeks, logging over 12 hours of panda footage to create the Zoo’s CD-ROM. I still see the image of a panda sometimes when I close my eyes.)

I’m appreciate to AVAM for the opportunity to make their visionary mission part of my life.

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Winning NAI's 1st Place Multimedia Program

We were very pleased to win 1st place in the Website and Multimedia Category in NAI's (National Association for Interpretation) annual media competition. The award was for our development of Smithsonian's National Zoo's Conservation Central website.

Some of the comments from judges:

"...an environmental education site which utilizes all of Tilden's/Cable and Beck's principles of interpretation, and thus converts it into a great interpretive product"

"The graphics and visual elements are colorful and engaging. The first person interpretation is a great tool (Zoo employees and guide narrations). A perfect balance of learning through fun -- so much fun you don't realize you are learning."

American Visionary Art Museum Birthday

Once again, the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore has blown me away. If you’ve never been there, there has been an enthusiastic buzz in the museum community about this museum. Others outside the museum community are noting it as well: it was listed in Travel/Holiday magazine as in the top 5 must see museums in the country.

But, I have a more personal connection to the Museum. I was down there last week to install a Storytelling Kiosk in the new Jim Rouse Visionary Center which will open in a couple weeks. Rebecca Hoffberger, the Founder and Director, quite perceptively figured out that it was my birthday. And, at the funders’ VIP brunch the next morning, during an inspiring performance by pioneering gospel singer Mavelyn Statham, Rebecca asked Mavelyn to lead the audience of fifty in a gospel rendition of “Happy Birthday” to me while I stood up front.

On this particular Storytelling Kiosk, we feature an image of the Cosmic Egg, a sculpture by Andrew Logan featured at the new visionary center. We recorded stories from people who talked about Jim Rouse’s vision: bigger and bolder than we ever thought possible. Bigger, bolder, and cosmic – not a bad way to begin another year.