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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Yes we have a pretty nice shop here at the museum. It is almost 1000 sq
ft and we can build a few exhibits in it as well as repair existing
ones. We have an additional 2500 sq ft shop and small warehouse off
site where we can build an entire gallery of stuff. To put this in
context the actual museum is 19200 sq ft (7100 of exhibits.)
Austin has an institutional history of creating and building many of its
own exhibits. We also at one point had a much larger exhibit staff
(~5-6). Currently it is a department of 3, including myself and one
person half time on facility. We design, build, install and maintain
exhibits as well as handle travelling exhibits and facility maintenance.
It's a whole lot for a small team.
What worries me is not just how many museums have no shop but how many
have no exhibit staff. And I have seen a few museums with shops that
are sitting unused because staff was eliminated. I strongly believe a
participation in the creative process should be part of every museum's
mission. Every museum no matter how small can add something great.
There are new museums that have tried to just "buy one of everything"
and then open the doors with no maintenance staff. Very quickly they
find they can't print enough "out of order" signs.
Erich Rose
Exhibit Manager
Austin Children's Museum
201 Colorado Street
Austin, TX 78701
512-472-2499 x207, fax 512-472-2495
[log in to unmask], www.austinkids.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Orselli
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Does Your Museum Have A Workshop?
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>
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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.
The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
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To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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