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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Paul,

I LOVE working in a museum right now with a shop (and fabricators).   
It brings the fabrication team into the creative process, makes me  
feel like a team leader instead of a taskmaster for contractors, and  
imprints us uniquely onto the exhibits.

It's also a lot of fun (see these recent pics at http:// 
www.flickr.com/photos/ninaksimon/).

Interestingly, Bryan Kennedy has applied this same argument to having  
in-house programmers and web developers.  Why have contractors create  
our content products--virtual and real--instead of having that be  
part of our core function?  I didn't "get" the virtual argument until  
I started thinking of it truly as analogous (and interrelated) to  
exhibits.  The same arguments against keeping in-house programmers-- 
too expensive, too specialized--are used to eliminate shops and  
fabricators.

Bryan wrote about it here: http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2008/04/ 
guest-post-from-museums-and-web-bryan.html

Nina



On May 13, 2008, at 11:12 AM, Paul Orselli wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> ********************************************************************** 
> *******
>
> For an article I'm writing about museum buildings and exhibit  
> development, I'm trying to get responses from people about whether  
> the museum they work for (or museums they've helped create) have  
> exhibit workshops (that is, staff-only spaces dedicated to building  
> and repairing exhibit components.)
>
> You can view this post for context: <http://blog.orselli.net/>
>
> Feel free to respond on or off list, or via the blog comments section.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Paul Orselli, President and Chief Instigator
>
> Paul Orselli Workshop (POW!)
> 1684 Victoria Street
> Baldwin, NY  11510
>
> <http://www.orselli.net>
>
> (516) 223-1043  voice
> (516) 238-2797  mobile
>
> Do you know about ExhibiTricks?
> <http://blog.orselli.net>
>
> ********************************************************************** 
> *
> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers  
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

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