Thursday, July 23, 2015

Memories of Migration: New Mexico, Part 4

Putting Out the Welcome Mat
Exhibit Design Class students from New Mexico Highlands University's Center for Cultural Technology had a big challenge in prototyping the rural education and outreach component for Memories of Migration. One point made to them early on from our evaluator, Brian Crockett, was that banners on the outside of museums are the single most effective strategy for attracting visitors. This engendered an intense conversation about the lack of visibility of their venue, the Las Vegas Citizens' Committee for Historic Preservation (LVCCHP), even for people walking down the sidewalk, and what could be done about it.  The ideas that they came up with are replicable and adaptable for any venue.   
To create a feeling of welcome, the students designed banners and a sandwich board sign to attract passersby. 



They created an interactive house to display in the window of the storefront location. Much thought went into the design of the house to relate to the historic architecture of the town. From the sidewalk pedestrians saw silhouettes in the windows depicting family members in different rooms engaged in different activities. The windows lit up at night. The scenes were also visible from inside the exhibit, as seen here.




Also visible from outside and inside was a fingerpost sign. Instead of arrows pointing to destinations, the arrows pointed the way to exploring the migration theme: “Are you from here?”  “Where are you from?”  “How did you get here?” “Where is home?” “What did you bring with you?” What did you leave behind?”



The students were allowed to rearrange LVCCHP's existing exhibits, and maps were rehung with labels that tied them to the migration theme. 




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