CONCEPTUAL EXHIBITRY

SOCIAL value of museums

During my tenure at the Franklin Institute, I found myself asking what will students and visitors of the future want from a world that is already bristling with digital synaptic excitement.

While part of the Exhibits department there, I helped design an initiative to capitalize on the cultural value of our Franklin-themed museum and called it the Junto. In hopes of spurring the same egalitarian, social and historical values as Ben did.

We determined there are 4 values every exhibit should model. These values are interdependent to the exhibit experience but one is the driving factor. These values create a cohesive visitor experience that delivers something unmistakably crucial to the museum's cultural and the visitor's understanding. Then we came up with exemplary models of each value. 

The Light & Dark exhibit here allows visitors to PLAY with light in two different experiences. One side uses large windows and crystals to create enormous rainbows, while a darkened room let's visitors create amazing long-exposure photos with color wands.

Museums are posed to be the trusted, tangible resource for learners of all ages and backgrounds, but this must be an active goal of an institution. It demands resources and experimentation to identify the social value of a cultural "third place".

The answer is of course kinaesthetic experiences that have no digital analogue, but there are two types-- social and personal. Museums traditionally followed the model of individual learning via an instructional tool, like an explosion maybe or maybe just a block of wood.