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A lot depends on how big your museum is and how
big the exhibits you will be bringing in are.

I would say a minimum for a traveling exhibit hall
is 12 foot ceilings.  Less than that tends to obstruct
air flow and limit the ability to properly light an exhibit.

I was fortunate when I was with Pacific Science Center
to have 29 foot ceilings in an 8,000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit
hall.  We could do almost any kind of show from a small
art show (with temporary partitions installed) to a major
exhibit like Soviet Space where we brought in full size
spacecraft.  A nice feature was the lighting grids were
normally suspended at 14 feet, but could be raised up
to higher levels (manually) if the height of the exhibit
demanded it.  We also varied between regular light
fixtures that fit into the light track on the grids and
theatrical lighting to highlight exhibits like Whales:
Giants of the Deep.

The top 18 feet of the walls and the ceiling were painted
black to make it drop away if we had an exhibit that
only used the lower portion of the hall.

Hope this helps.

David Taylor
AHHA Museum Services
  "Now I Understand"
    (206) 363-8126
   e-mail:   [log in to unmask]
http://www.AHHA-MuseumServices.com




From: Tamara Schwarz <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 11:44:12 -0800
Subject: exhibit hall ceiling heights

Hello all,

I am curious about the ceiling height of your traveling exhibit hall(s).
We're finding that there is quite a range in requirements for traveling
exhibits, and that standard heights range from 9'6" to 15'.  What is yours,
and does it limit the types of traveling exhibits you can accommodate?

Replies off-list are fine.

Thanks,
Tamara Schwarz, Exhibits Manager
Chabot Space & Science Center


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