Are There Hidden "Easter Eggs" In A Museum Near You?

I'm away in Paris for Easter, so I thought ExhibiTricks readers might enjoy this seasonal post!

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Museum designers often add "Easter Eggs" to their work.  But not the brightly dyed or chocolate-y varieties --- these are more akin to the hidden "Easter Eggs" that you may stumble across (or deliberately search out) inside video games, crossword puzzles, or DVDs.

For visitors, it's fun to feel like you've found a little "secret" inside a museum building or exhibition, and for designers it's a little "trick" to reward visitors for carefully observing and examining things inside the museum.

"Exhibits as advent calendars" as Dan Spock has observed (to mix religious holiday metaphors a bit!)  So here are a few of my favorite museum easter eggs:


• Secret Elves at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Artist Kent R. Pendleton worked on many of the Museum's dioramas, but supposedly he wasn't allowed to sign his name to his work.  Instead, Pendleton included little "elfin" figures hidden throughout many of the displays.  There's a great blog posting (with video) about Pendleton's retro easter eggs!

• The Magic House Mouse:  The "Magic House" Children's Museum outside St. Louis has some wonderful exhibits, but one of my favorite "hidden gems" is the tiny decorated mouse hole near the baseboards in one of the galleries.  If you were just whizzing around you might not ever see it, but if you're willing to get down on your hands and knees you might see (as in the photo below) a "presidential" mouse:

• The "Hidden Tunnel" at Casa Loma:  Casa Loma is a gigantic historic house outside Toronto that is filled with enough crazy details to keep even little kids interested during the self-guided tours.  One  of the things I remember from a family visit (nearly 40 years ago!) was the cool secret tunnel, nearly 100 feet long, that was hidden behind a pivoting wall section (just like in all those scary movies --- but this was real!)  that led to the Casa's underground wine cellar:

Of course some museums, like The City Museum, also in St. Louis, or the Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A., are practically interlocking collections of "easter eggs" or in-jokes, but that's certainly one aspect that makes them so popular.

What are some of your most memorable "Museum Easter Eggs"?  Let us know in the "Comments Section" below!

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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Brad's Grocery Store Vegetable Displays

You have to admire someone who takes a "simple" job and turns it into a creative outlet.  Such is the case with Brad, a semi-anonymous grocery store worker from the city of Madison in Wisconsin.

I came across Brad's story, and examples of his work, through the food-related offshoot (called "Gastro Obscura") of the website Atlas Obscura.

For Pi Day!

One thing that resonated for me about Brad's vegetable creations was how he took a task that might have seemed mundane or even drudgery and turned it into a positive creative outlet.  I think there's a good inspirational lesson there for any museum/exhibit/design worker!

I also appreciated how positive customer feedback pushed Brad to keep up with his creative vegetable displays.  To quote Brad:

Compared to past jobs, “doing this work was the first time people would stop, smile, and give me nice comments on the beauty of my work.”

So as you move through your own creative tasks and challenges, take some time to find the beauty in your own endeavors.

Check out the Gastro Obscura article about Brad, and follow him on Instagram to see even more examples of his vegetable artistry.

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

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A Book For Everyone Who Works With Creative People

It's somehow always surprising to me that not everyone who runs a museum works well with creative people.

Bonnie Siegler's new book,  Dear Client: This Book Will Teach You How to Get What You Want from Creative People, may well be the perfect gift for those folks struggling to get the best results out of their creative relationships.

The tone of the book is set from the very first quote, attributed to Steve Jobs: "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."

In a visually compelling presentation, Siegler, a graphic designer, lays out 66 pithy tips for working with creative people.  

Here are a few of my favorites:

No. 5  Have Clarity of Purpose

As Siegler mentions in her book, if you have more than three priorities, you really don't have any.

No. 8  Decide Who Will Decide

Creative vision is NOT a group activity. Choose one person who will be the decider and/or tie-breaker.

No. 20  Be Up Front About Money

Trust us with your budget parameters --- it will make us feel like we're on the same side.

No. 49  Don't Let Data Drive Your Decisions

I love what Siegler says here -- data doesn't leave room for the most unquantifiable of qualities: vision.  

People will always respond to the familiar in a way that can be recorded.  But how do you crunch the numbers on something new and remarkable?

There are many other excellent takeaways in Dear Client: This Book Will Teach You How to Get What You Want from Creative People.

In fact, you may want to purchase two copies --- one for yourself, and one for your next client!

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Small Spaces in Big Museums

On a recent visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston with my family, it wasn't just the big exhibition galleries and art that impressed me, but also some smaller, more intimate, exhibition spaces.

In particular, the Musical Instruments gallery was a perfect "right-sized" museum experience.  As you can see by the section of museum map from the MFA below, the space is barely bigger than the nearby ticketing desk area.

However, while small, every aspect of the Musical Instruments gallery was polished to jewel-like perfection.

To begin with, the space was slightly off the main entrance and easily missed if you were rushing into some of the special exhibition galleries.  Unlike most of the galleries in the MFA, Musical Instruments was sealed by a heavy glass door that blocked out the sound from the rest of the museum.  This was highlighted by the soft music playing inside the gallery --- very appropriate considering the subject of the gallery's contents!

The instruments on display were unusual and interesting (like the ceremonial trombone pictured at the top of this post) and because the space was small, with only a few other people inside, it rewarded careful observation and concentration.  Minute details that might otherwise be glossed over in the hustle-and-bustle of larger MFA galleries, were instead admired and appreciated.

The Musical Instruments gallery experience felt like an exhibit oasis in the middle of the MFA.  As a visitor, I appreciated the respite and felt recharged to explore some of the bigger, busier galleries.

So here's to small museum spaces!  How might you add a small or quiet moment to your museum or to your next exhibit project?



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