Sunday, April 3, 2011

Un(der)sung Projects and The GBER Re-boot


Most of the museums in the world are classified as "small" but you would never know it from the disproportionate notice and publicity their bigger museum "cousins" receive.   I've written before about how funders and professional museum organizations might give more "aid and comfort" to those small(er) institutions that don't usually end up on the AAM or ASTC or ACM letterhead.

ExhibiTricks has also previously featured a few exemplary projects from "smaller" places that haven't always shown up in the NY Times or been splashed around the Twitter-verse:

The LEGO® Millyard Project at the SEE Science Center that combined community volunteers and over 3 million LEGO bricks to recreate and help tell the story of the historic Amoskeag Millyard.

The Play Project at the Providence Children's Museum that got their local communities thinking about the "power of play" as well as the museum as a resource for playing and play resources.

• As well as several "small" community-minded art exhibits like the White Plains project or the work of the Acadiana Center for the Arts.

So, I'd like to do my "small" (natch!) part to highlight some more interesting and creative projects coming out from small(er) museums and organizations.  If you know of such Un(der)sung Projects, please leave a message I can follow up on in the "Comments Section" below, or send me an email message directly briefly describing the project or exhibition. 

I'll follow-up with postings here on ExhibiTricks (and my Twitter and Facebook streams) about these "Smaller Is Better" efforts in order to provide a little recognition, but also to, hopefully, provide awareness and encouragement for other small places doing great stuff during these tough times.


On a tangential note, I'd like to mention that I've completed another round of additions and HTML "nips and tucks" to The Great Big Exhibit Resource List  (or GBER for short.)

The GBER is a compendium of trusted resources for museum exhibit developers, designers, and educators looking for the "stuff" to make their programs of exhibitions successful.   Everything from "Fake Foods" to "Extrusions" and "Scent Machines" is there for the browsing along with quick links to websites and company contact info.

Check out the new, improved GBER re-boot and let me know what you think --- and whether there are some of your favorite resources we should add to the List!






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