IDA-HOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Idaho State Museum Takes Home Top Honors
The new exhibits at the Idaho State Museum are rocking visitors and bringing home the hardware. The American Alliance of Museums gave its Big Burn multimedia experience a Silver Muse Award at its 2019 annual meeting. The American Association for State and Local History awarded ISM’s Idaho: The Land and Its People its highest accolade, the 2019 Award of Excellence. Way to go Idahoooo!!!
“It was always important to think about this in the simplest of terms: doing it right. It’s truly about doing it right….
We all have a story. All of our stories are important…. We all matter.” —Janet Gallimore, ISHS Executive Director
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”
Bright Lights For Mississippi Civil Rights
This Little Light of Mine earned a Silver Medal for Best Museum Environment at the 2018 Experience Design & Technology Awards. The award came on the heels of MCRM earning a 2018 Award of Merit from the American Association for State & Local History. Two of the museums theater experiences—Freedom Summer and Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner—earned Muse Awards at the 2018 American Alliance of Museums annual meeting. Interiors + Sources Magazine spotlighted the MCRM as one of the most impactful museums in the country.
"Going through the museum of my history, I wept. Because I felt the blows. I felt the bullets. I felt the tears. I felt the cries.
But I also sensed the hope." —Myrlie Evers-Williams, 9 December 2017
Master Planning
Why are you doing this? Who is it for? What is it about? How will you measure success?
Master Planning gets to the heart of a project’s mission, audience, and message. Interview staff and stakeholders. Review collections and site conditions. Read. Craft a Vision Statement that expresses the spirit of the project, sparks conversation, fosters participation. Read some more. Create a conceptual framework for the Big Idea with sufficient substance and form to serve as a roadmap. Dream … but don’t forget the maintenance crew. Read some more.
Interpretive Design
What’s important to say? What do visitors think? What’s possible? Success lies at the confluence.
Great exhibits start as sparkling statements, thematic outlines, brainstormed lists, bubble diagrams and pencil sketches that swirl in concentric arcs around that sweet spot. As the work of developers, curators, designers, architects, graphic designers, media producers and others advances from concept to detail, the team collectively hones the focus. The process is fueled by passion, poetry and persistence. In the end, you return to the story. Does the experience tell the tale? Does it strike a chord in visitors? Is it sustainable?
Recent Projects
Jubilation! The Fisk Jubilee Singers: Ambassadors on a Sacred journey
National Museum of African American Music, Nashville, Tennessee
Design with Hilferty & Associates
In progress
Old Idaho Penitentiary
Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, Idaho
Interpretive & Experience Master Plan
2021-22
Idaho State History Museum
Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, Idaho
Design with Andrew Merriell & Associates
2014-18
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi
Design with Hilferty & Associates
2012-17
University of Illinois Alumni Welcome Center
UI Alumni Association, Champaign, Illinois
Design with RhodesWorks, LTD
2015-2016
"Remembering Pearl Harbor," Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
Hyde Park, New York
Theater Treatment/Script with Monadnock Media
2015-2016
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University, Dickinson, South Dakota
Interpretive Master Plan with Hilferty & Associates
2014-2015
Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Visitor Center
Friends of the C&TSRR, Chama, New Mexico
Concept Design with Andrew Merriell & Associates
2011-2012
Flints HIlls Discovery Center
Interpretive Experiences for the City of Manhattan, Kansas
Master Plan and Design with Hilferty & Associates
2009-2010
"This is Our Home," Bosque Redondo Memorial
New Mexico State Monuments, Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Concept Plan with New Mexico State Museum Resources
2008
Amazing Maize: How a Mutant Plant Came to Dominate the World
Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana
Design with RhodesWorks LTD
2008
Navajo Code Talkers
Southwest Indian Foundation Cultural Center, Gallup, New Mexico
Concept Design with Andrew Merriell & Associates
2008
Alaska’s Native Peoples
Arctic Studies Center, Anchorage, Alaska
Content Research for Multimedia Production by Donna Lawrence Productions
2007-2008
Earlier Work @ Hilferty & Associates
The Ohio Statehouse ⬥Columbus, Ohio ⬥2007-2008
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area Visitor Center ⬥Las Vegas, Nevada ⬥2005-2008
Cahokia Mounds World Heritage Site Master Plan ⬥Collinsville, Illinois ⬥2007
Drake Well Museum ⬥Titusville, Pennsylvania ⬥2006-07
Hanford Reach National Monument Heritage & Visitor Center ⬥Richland, Washington ⬥2004-2007
National Historic Trails Center Master Plan ⬥Independence, Missouri ⬥2005
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Visitor & Education Center ⬥Atlanta, Georgia ⬥2001-2004
Napa Valley Museum ⬥Yountville, California ⬥2002-2003
American West Heritage Center Master Plan ⬥Logan Utah ⬥2002
PulseNet, Temporary Exhibit, CDC-Global Health Odyssey ⬥Atlanta, Georgia ⬥2001-02
University of Illinois, Intercollegiate Athletic Campus Interpretive Master Plan ⬥Champaign, Illinois ⬥2001
New York State Museum Interpretive Master Plan ⬥Albany, New York ⬥1999-2000
Chicago Historical Society Interpretive Master Plan ⬥Chicago, Illinois ⬥1998
Lewis and Clark State Historic Site ⬥Hartford, Illinois ⬥1999-02
Penn State University All-Sports Museum ⬥State College, Pennsylvania ⬥2000-01
Orange County Regional History Center ⬥Orlando, Florida ⬥1999
Indiana State Museum ⬥Indianapolis, Indiana ⬥1997-98
Chippewa Valley Museum Projects
The Price of Bread & Rubber ⬥Temporary Exhibit ⬥1997
Chippewa Valley Potluck ⬥Object Theater ⬥1997
It’s About Time ⬥Temporary Exhibit ⬥1997
Thrills & Chills: Adventures in Ice and Snow ⬥Temporary Exhibit ⬥1996
Normalcy Never Again: Eau Claire and Its Neighbors in the 1920s ⬥Eight Satellite Exhibits ⬥1995
Freedom in Her Sights: The Modern Woman of Eau Claire, 1918-32 ⬥Temporary Exhibit ⬥1994
Hmong in America: Journey from a Secret War ⬥Five Satellite Panel Exhibits and Programs in Five U.S. cities ⬥1994
Hmong in America: Refugees from a Secret War ⬥Temporary Exhibit ⬥1993
Settlement & Survival: Building Towns in the Chippewa Valley ⬥Permanent Exhibit ⬥1992
Paths of the People: Ojibwe in the Chippewa Valley ⬥Permanent Exhibit ⬥1991
At Work in Chippewa Falls ⬥Satellite Panel Exhibit ⬥1991
Images of Old and New: S. O. Lund, Norwegian-American Artist ⬥Temporary Exhibit ⬥1990