In cooperation with the West Virginia Railroad Museum, which is opening here (Elkins, WV) this spring with an exhibit celebrating the Virginian Railway, as the executive director of the American Society of Railway Artists (ASRA), I arranged with a local gallery/frame shop to feature a dozen works showing how ASRA members have portrayed railroading in West Virginia.
In a similar vein, I am working with a group that is part of the Allegheny Highlands (Rail) Trail - a 26-mile long portion of of the former Western Maryland Railway's route north out of Elkins - to create 10 trail signs that also feature one work of art on each sign. The signs are intended to illustrate key railroading activity along the trail, all evidence of which has mostly disappeared since the route was abandoned over 30 years ago.
To me, it is important for arts and preservation efforts to partner in as many ways as possible to create a total that is greater than the sum of the parts. To that end, ASRA members' work is integral to a rail-themed literacy program being developed for national distribution, and with a local organization that is maintaining art education in the schools as budget cutbacks have decimated those programs.
I welcome hearing of other such partnering efforts.
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James Porterfield
Director
Elkins WV
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-28-2015 08:54 AM
From: Kevin Coffee
Subject: Exhibits at bus stops? What about other public places outside of museums?
Interesting and good. FYI:
The New York Hall of Science developed a series of exhibits at bus stops and other locations around that city in late 1980s, early 1990s that might be of interest. Martin Weiss may know all about it.
and of course several science centers beyond the west coast in the US have experimented with exhibits and/or public programs in shopping malls or similar off-main-site locations.
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Kevin Coffee
Chicago IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-27-2015 07:16 PM
From: Kyrie Kellett
Subject: Exhibits at bus stops? What about other public places outside of museums?
Hot off the presses! Check out the "think piece" that my colleagues and I at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) have just completed about creating exhibits for non-museum public places such as bus stops and train stations.
Tripping Over Science: Taking STEM Exhibits Outside of the Museum
http://programs.omsi.edu/sites/default/files/Science_on_the_Move.pdf
This think piece is about why and how museums and other informal education institutions could (and maybe should) be placing novel, engaging exhibits where people are likely to encounter them unexpectedly in everyday places. (It focuses on STEM--science, technology, engineering, and math--exhibits, but it's relevant to all types of museum disciplines.) It is based on OMSI's findings and experiences during the NSF-funded Pathways project, Science on the Move. For this project, OMSI used a design-based research approach to create prototype exhibits and develop a "theory of action" describing how people engage with unexpected STEM exhibits at busy bus/train stops.
Please take a look and share your experiences with this type of work. We'd love to get more museum people talking about this idea.
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Kyrie Kellett
Senior Exhibit Developer
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Portland OR
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