Keepin' It Real for Rhinos

A while back, in our “Chillin’ with the Rhinos” post (see our archive to follow-up!), we told you about what it might be like to really get inside Lincoln Park Zoo…

In this particular entry, we explained that “unless you're a visiting scientist, or working on behalf of science, animal welfare or conservation, it's nearly impossible to get behind the scenes on a summer day at Lincoln Park Zoo. “

Well…in a way we were right, and in a way we were down right wrong. Since we posted “Chillin’ with the Rhinos” in 2010, we have continued to work with the rhinos at LPZ, and we have made many changes! While you still can’t get behind the scenes and actually meet the beasts, you can do the next best thing and get a closer look at the giant black rhinoceros now on exhibit at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Just this spring the interactive exhibit designed by Museum Explorer opened at the Zoo, providing visitors with a fantastic opportunity to learn all about what it takes to care for this nearly extinct wild animal.

The zoo recently renovated the former Elephant Yard (the premier north exhibit yard) with an expansive Black Rhinoceros Exhibit and African landscape. This newly enhanced habitat is more than twice the size of the former rhinoceros exhibit, and provides enormous flexibility for breeding and housing a family group of this highly endangered species, while highlighting the zoo’s important mission to protect these animals in their native habitats. And in order to help enhance visitor understanding and in an effort to build a bridge between visitor and zoo-keeper, Museum Explorer worked with the Zoo’s education department to design an interactive component. Camera shaped spotting scopes allow visitors to watch and observe the rhinos closely, much like scientists in the field do. This feature also teaches visitors how programs at the zoo are designed, while learning how to preserve these great animals in the wild.

The exhibit features interesting tidbits about personalized Black Rhino care, including how to file its giant toe nails, that it takes a bucket of hand lotion a day to keep its skin in top flight condition and that vitamins are as much a part of its diet as they are ours.

The Black Rhino Display also features the not-so-elegant but absolutely essential part of zoo-keeping – CLEAN UP time. Did you know that the average full-grown male Black Rhino will deposit 80 to 100 pounds of dung a day? Five poops a day…that’s 20 pounds a crack--pun intended! Our new exhibit gives you a chance to see if you can measure up and muscle up to the task of being a Zookeeper. Just grab the handle of the shovel and you can put your shoulder against a 20 lb weight, equal to one trip to the Rhino Restroom….if you know what I mean!

While features such as these keep the exhibit fun and interactive, the message behind it all is communicating to the public what kind of work it takes to keep a rhino alive in the wild. Right here at Lincoln Park Zoo and at zoos everywhere, biologists, zoologists, even museum people are constantly working to ensure that animals like the Black Rhino will survive in nature due in part to efforts put forth by programs and researchers that work at places like LPZ.


Oh…ooops…and before we forget! Even though you still can’t reach out and touch the Rhinos directly, we have provided a full sized completely to scale realistic and touchable version of the Rhino for people to enjoy. Now you can get up close in personal with a Rhino from tip of the horn to end of its tail. See our pictures for a sneak peek!

Timelines

The museum business is a whacky racket, but it is a wonderful industry because ultimately we’re all contributing to something bigger than ourselves and our careers. Not least among us in this business are “Museum People,” who play an important role and make the day-to-day grind possible.

Everyone is aware of the typical “Museum Person” profile: that extroverted individual with a liberal fashion sense who possesses a flair for the poetic or dramatic moment during a meeting or at a conference--the stars of the museum business. This typecast typically includes curators, donors, art students, and so on--but there are so many other unsung “Museum People” …people that are so important and so dedicated but are not always recognizable as such. Sometimes they don’t even think of themselves as Museum people and might even reject the title! Regardless, people who do not come from these typical typecasts and backgrounds, who nevertheless dedicate their time and effort to bettering the museum world are truly Museum People. Even if through nontraditional means, if they give a lot of themselves to museums, they care and tangible rewards are not necessarily their motivation,they are invaluable Museum People.

Museum Explorer is losing a true “Museum Person.” Though regrettable, it is actually a happy occasion as one of our co-workers moves on to another job, back to work in the ‘Real World’ after a stint in the museum world for the past several years. Although her time in our business was short-lived, there isn’t a person out there who deserves the title of “Museum Person” more than Liz.

Like a lot of folks who move on or move back to the real-world after time served in the Museum World, it is not always easy to explain what goes on in our special not-for-profit realm. But having Liz on board for almost three years was worthwhile and a great benefit to our little troop of Museum-Lifers here at Museum Explorer. We learned a lot during our timeline together.

Liz served Museum Explorer a project estimator and budget manager. Prior to Liz’s arrival we managed our schedules and project budgets on our own, and we did fairly well--or at least so we thought. But when Liz arrived on the scene, taking a job with us after being bumped from the real-world during the economic crisis, we gained a real pro who took over and taught us many valuable lessons, things that are now in place and making us better at what we do every day.

Project Management is not just a skill, it’s an art form. Getting things lined up, laying out a timeline for the design team and for the clients, letting clients know what is what and when is when can make a project golden on both sides of the fence. The savvy client appreciates being skillfully directed and we, Museum X, we felt more comfortable and confident knowing a bit more about what was coming and when it was due.

Thanks Liz for teaching us how to stay on task and how to manage our process. Thanks Liz for getting on the phone and talking and sometimes taking on those tough clients. Thanks Liz for being a part of our timeline if for only a short time… and most of all Liz, thanks for being a ‘Museum Person.’

Good Luck!

Spreading the word about carts

On March 3, 2011, Rich Faron of Museum Explorer teamed up with Heidi Moisan of Chicago History Museum to lead a roundtable discussion at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Smithsonian educators gathered to hear Rich and Heidi's presentation "Wheeling Visitors In: Customizing Carts to Connect with Audiences."

One of the roundtable attendees channeled her enthusiasm into a lovely blog entry, which we share with you here. Thanks to Jennifer Brundage, National Outreach Manager for Smithsonian Affiliations, for her kind observations!

How to Connect with Audiences in Real-Time Situations? Use CARTS!

Public programmers in museums today face huge challenges. With reduced staff and shrinking budgets, they must nevertheless manage a public trust and an institutional commitment to provide visitors with content, relevance and inspiration. For any given exhibit or event, they're expected to creatively:

• Invite exploration and inquiry

• Target audience interests

• Appeal to awareness

• Inspire personal connections

• Engage visitor curiosity

• Encourage interactive learning

• Facilitate discovery and sharing

• Drive attendance

• Develop repeat visitors

• Enhance the bottom line

For museums, zoos and aquariums, the stakes are high. We all understand the real mission: create new market segments and donor interest through aggressive advertising and outreach so we can capture the imaginations of a discriminating public that has ever-increasing options for how to spend leisure hours and dwindling dollars.

To meet these challenges head-on, museum exhibition and education departments have run a nonstop race for the past 25 years or so, looking for new ways to educate--but also to entertain and retain--the people who visit museums. And there's no end in sight. Because museums need a steady stream of visitors and the revenue they generate, we're pretty sure that exhibitions and the related educational programming will serve as the primary public attraction well into the 21st century.

In order to keep exhibits and programs feeling up-to-date, educators, exhibitors and programmers have had to identify new tools and innovative ways of presenting refreshing, open-ended experiences day in and day out. Lots of them are experimenting with flexible program delivery methods like activity carts.

Carts answer the question of how to provide more activities for visitors while addressing that long bulleted list of expectations. Beyond relating museum mission messages to local school curricula, carts are family-focused, visitor-friendly and interactive. They can move from place to place. They're simple. They're affordable. They're fun.

Maybe the best thing about carts is that they're based on one of the oldest and most reliable forms of audience engagement: direct, one-on-one human contact. A museum visitor meets a museum staff person face-to-face--on the floor, close to the habitat, in front of the painting, next to the tank.

Great exhibits and their related programs inspire audiences to forge personal links with what they see and experience, inviting them to connect with new ideas in memorable ways. Carts help this happen. They bring staff and objects to the museum floor, providing self-contained platforms for open-ended, immediate exchange with audiences. By putting staff, objects and new ideas into direct proximity with visitors, carts become platforms for meaningful conversation.

Museum Explorer has developed a host of program carts for museums and zoos alike. Visitors and museum professionals couldn't be more pleased with the results. In addition, we were invited to present our work with carts at a Smithsonian Institution roundtable this spring. Watch for more details to come!

Speak Up For Museums!

If you've read the latest issue of Museum magazine, what you're about to read here will be old news. If you don't get Museum or haven't gotten around to reading it yet, here's a quick project for you.

The American Association of Museums is holding its third annual Museums Advocacy Day on February 28 and March 1. On February 28, a lot of people who care about museums will gather in Washington, DC, to learn effective ways to make the case for museums with members of Congress. On March 1, these "citizen-advocates" will actually meet with members of Congress to let them know how their legislative decisions will affect the museum community.

We can't all travel to Washington to participate in Museums Advocacy Day. But anyone who loves a museum of any size or shape can speak up for museums. Let your voice be heard! Here's how:

1. Go to speakupformuseums.org.

2. Enter your ZIP code in the "Contact Congress" box at the upper right side of the home page.

3. You may need to enter your street address and city on the next page.

4. When you arrive at the Advocacy page, you will see links to your elected officials. You will also see a link on that page for "Issues." Click here for a list of letters on a variety of topics important to museums today. (Our favorites: Why I Love Museums and Museums are Critical Partners in Education.)

5. When you click on the letter of your choice, you will be asked to enter your contact information. When you click the button to "Review Your Message(s)," the text of the letter will appear.

6. Personalize the letter as you wish. Hit the send button, and your letter will land in the inbox of a legislator whose decisions will affect the future of our museums and our communities.

Speak up, and speak often. Let your senators and representatives know how important museums are to you--and why.

When exhibit planning intersects with community dreams

Earlier this month Museum Explorer was recognized as part of a team from the Evanston History Center that won an Award of Excellence for Exhibitions from the Illinois Association of Museums. The award-winning exhibit, "Lifting as We Climb: Evanston Women and the Creation of a Community," presents and celebrates women and women's organizations in Evanston's history. We were grateful to learn that IAM made particular note of the team's "excellent planning process" and the "remarkable record of women's achievement" that the exhibit documents and displays.

We love being recognized for an "excellent planning process." Yet no amount of excellent planning holds water without complete support from the client museum. We were privileged to work closely on this project with EHC archivist Lori Osborne, who served as exhibit curator, and EHC director Eden Pearlman. At the Evanston History Center, Eden Pearlman has created and continues to nurture a collaborative environment that elicits the very best effort each team member has to offer.

Even more important than any planning process is this. In the last 10 years there has been much discussion about how museums need to serve their communities. In our opinion, these communities aren't just neighborhoods, or lines drawn on a map. Instead, community is mapped on the mind--a set of common interests and perspectives. Good museums, like the EHC, help focus interests not just in external content areas like art, science, and history, but also in internal realms such as identity, self-worth, and self-actualization.

Museums serve communities by helping visitors realize goals. Could a new age for museums be at hand, as various political groups, commercial ventures, and cultural bodies begin to see that the act of exhibit development itself can catalyze mutual interest and cooperation? As everyday people learn that exhibits can excite and inspire a local community, exhibit development becomes a tool through which communities can consolidate knowledge, cultural energy, and material wealth to achieve a common agenda.

The Evanston Women's History Project and its exhibit, "Lifting as We Climb," does just that. While the Evanston History Center is a small museum with a tight resources and a small, hardworking staff, they are playing the big game with big success, in ways that great--and greatly endowed--museums can only dream about.

When it all works out

How often do things work out just the way you want them to, with a minimum of fuss and bother? In the museum exhibit business, there's usually no shortage of haggling and hand wringing between the revelation of an idea and the Big Opening. But every once in a while we get lucky.

The new reading rail on the pedestrian bridge overlooking the pond at Cafe Brauer, at Lincoln Park Zoo, is one of those lucky projects. Step 1: A simple idea. People walking across the bridge see the gorgeous Chicago skyline in the background. Let's put a "map" of the skyline right at their fingertips so they know what they're looking at. Step 2: Museum Explorer creates concept drawings.

Step 3: Chicago Architecture Foundation generously shares existing graphics files with the metal fabricator so no one has to re-invent the wheel, i.e., create new scale measurements and drawings for each building. Step 4: The metal fabricator builds the reading rail just the way we drew it.

Step 5: Bingo! People love it.

The bridge over the pond is part of the larger Nature Boardwalk project at Lincoln Park Zoo. Catch up on Nature Boardwalk news and see great photos of plants and animals that live there: check out the blog written by Vicky Hunt, the zoo's coordinator of wildlife management. Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune wrote a recent column about Nature Boardwalk; take a look at it here.

Or better yet, hop on the train or the bus and head out to Lincoln Park Zoo, wander around, and see the Nature Boardwalk--and much more--for yourself. Can't beat the admission price: it's free.