Adventures While Not Looking

 Sometimes we have adventures, even life-changing ones, without realizing it. That is how the last few years have been for me and only recently has it occurred to me to return to this blog and muse on things.

I left the Imperial Valley Desert Museum. Covid-19 hit. When we were allowed to venture back out into the world I went back to working as a bookseller at Book Revue, one of the largest independent bookstores in the Northeast and where I had worked before going to grad school. Sadly, it became a victim of pandemic economics and closed. I helped open a new indie bookstore in Oyster Bay, Theodore's Books. When my parents decided they wanted to leave Long Island and move to Saratoga Springs, I decided to move with them. 

Any and all of these things could be long chapters full of stories, and they are. But they all also helped shape where I think my next professional adventure is going to go. Or at least, the adventure I want to take- whether it will be a success of not will be part of that adventure.

You've all seen that reading and writing have been as much a part of my life- both work and personal- as breathing. I helped my friend Harry Casey write, edit, and publish Geoglyphs of the Desert Southwest. I've been a beta reader for my friend Karen Odden for years now and grown and honed my skills as a developmental editor while talking to her about her books. I've written Core Documents for the IVDM and manuals for the Waterville Valley Historical Society.  I've been a copyeditor for the newspaper articles my team wrote when I worked at the IVDM. Now I've decided to make a new start in a new location and take Karen's advice. I'm going to become a freelance editor.

What does this mean? For me it means lots of work marketing myself as someone who knows what they are talking about in the realm of writing. I'm working with Amanda Stefansson and ShinerTalk Media to develop a professional looking website, which I hope will be finished and launched within a week or two. I have a business Instagram account (@annemorganedits) I'm working to develop and I'm debating with myself on creating a business Twitter or Facebook page. 

What does it mean for this blog? The focus will probably move away from museum exhibits (although not entirely!) and onto the adventures of building a business. If it works, if it doesn't. We will see! 

Ancient Adventures in London

"The Shield of Achilles" 1822. Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, from a design by John Flaxman

Last week I did something that- for me- is a bit crazy: I went on vacation.  A trip to London and Bath, a chance to visit with my good friend Kristin from Simmons College, and to explore some amazing new places- why not?

"Helen of Troy" ~1812. Antonio Canova

The adventure came about when I heard the British Museum was holding a temporary exhibit on Troy: myth and reality.  It started with "I wish I could see that" and eventually turned into "why not?".  Kristin was more than willing to go with me and we spent a day exploring the exhibit, as well as some of the Greek and Assyrian permanent exhibits the Museum displays.   Troy was a good exhibit, with pottery, statues, and paintings of different stories and interpretations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  The exhibit design kept things simple: interpretations were basic ones stating the myth being depicted.  What emphasis and interpretation the viewer wanted out of the experience was up to them.  Was this an art exhibit featuring fantastic statues and pottery?  Were we meant to think of the incredible impact these epic poems have had across the Western world's culture? Debate war and culture, genocide and regrowth (the exhibit did remind us that Aeneas left fallen Troy and went on to found Rome). A brief section at the end (Kristin overheard one visitor remark: "Women at the end. Nothing's changed") brought up the idea of women in the story, while rather neutrally leaving us to debate feminism and female influence in a patriarchal world over lunch in the museum's cafe.

Mithraeum inner temple

The next day continued our Roman Holiday with a trip to the London Mithraeum- a place I accidentally heard about online before my trip and was thrilled that Kristin was also up for seeing.  A reconstructed Roman temple to Mithras, a "faithful recreation of the ruin that was discovered in 1952-54" on a bomb site according to their publications, the Mithraeum highlights a selection of 600 extremely well preserved artifacts from the time period.  They used technology to cleverly help visitors engage with the wall of artifacts: visitors could pick up a tablet and find any artifact on the wall mirrored on the tablet's main page.  Tapping the image gave visitors more detailed explanations of what they were looking at, and meant that people could move around and see things without slowing going from one artifact label to another.  It also clearly engaged children who might otherwise not have been interested.  When ready you descend into a chamber where you can sit and listen to archaeologists giving recorded talks or you could explore the interactive displays that explained Mithras, what was known about the temple and the ceremonies, and pointed out specific designs carved into the stone that would have been part of the alter.  Going into the recreated temple itself you experienced a well done, brief interactive: visitors stand along the sides and watch as the changing lights create the effect of seeing columns, hearing people chanting and moving about, etc.

Centerpiece design of Mithraeum. Museum of London

While reading about the temple we noticed that the statues themselves were on display at the Museum of London. We were interested and walked over the find them.  The Roman exhibits have clearly not been updated in awhile, but overall stood the test of time.  Plenty of families were exploring the exhibits when we were there, although we found the area for Mithras pretty quiet.  Having gone from the Mithraeum itself to this exhibit was fascinating, and really let us get the entire feeling of the site and the life worshipers might have been living.




Note: This blog post is not attempting to analyze the exhibits, or museums, in professional terms- although I may come back and do that in another post. The Mithraeum in particular left me highly impressed in terms of professional exhibits.  This is simply a general post to let friends and family know what I've been up to, and maybe encourage others to explore these museums.

Launching a Book Tour

If you've been following this blog over the last few years then you may remember my ongoing project of digitizing and archiving the aerial photographs of Brawley native Harry Casey.  The project  was not just about an archival collection for the Imperial Valley Desert Museum (IVDM), though obviously that was a huge part of it.  It was also about highlighting these unique images for everyone to see- not only researchers but visitors, teachers, and archaeology enthusiasts across the globe- in the form of a book.  When Harry donated his photographs to the museum, he asked me to edit his research manuscript and help him get it published.







I worked with Harry and Sunbelt Publications for several years to ensure the manuscript met their professional standards, was as accurate as possible, and get it published.  Finally, this spring, Harry's dream (and mine!) came true and Geoglyphs of the Desert Southwest: Earthen Art as Viewed from Above was officially released April 13, 2019!

with Harry Casey, photographer and co-author

I traveled back to California for a book launch tour and ended up presenting to six different groups in the San Diego/Imperial Valley region in the space of a week.  Harry came out the the IVDM for the official launch and signed books, but was very adamant that I would be the one doing any public speaking, as that has never been something he was comfortable with and his health makes it difficult now.  

Being back at the IVDM and sharing the excitement of this project in its final, published form, was amazing.  The support shown by the staff, my colleagues, and board members, museum members, visitors, and friends, was one of the first times I really felt that the book was really finish and ready to go out into the world.  Besides a wonderful launch at the IVDM I presented to the San Diego Natural History Museum's Family Day, the San Diego Rock Art Association, the San Diego Association of Geologists, and the Colorado Desert Archaeology Society at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  Sunbelt Publications also set up an interview for me with KPBS Midday Edition radio host Maureen Cavanaugh.

With Maureen Cavanaugh doing an interview for KPBS Midday Edition

A week touring and promoting the book, helping spread the word about how amazing the deserts and people of Southern California are, was an incredible experience.  And more addicting than I expected: I'm already looking for my next research project to write about!

Interested in buying a copy of Geoglyphs of the Desert Southwest? It's available through Amazon.com, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Imperial Valley Desert Museum, or contacting me through email, Twitter, or this blog. Copies bought through me will be signed and I can personalize them if you'd like.

Exhibit Expo-ration

Marcie, David, and me discovering a shadowbox in Phoenix, built by a company out of Germany, showing a video from Imperial Valley

One of the most impactful parts of my experience at AAM's convention this year came not from professional sessions (although I went to many very good presentations) but on the Expo Floor.

If you've never been to a museum conference before, it is probably similar to any other professional conference in that one large area is given over to vendors so professionals can wander their booths and discover new trends and topics.  We all secretly go there the first time to see if any vendors are giving away good swag, but there is a quiet hope- unexpressed, like a wish, so that it might come true- that we will see one new idea that we can bring back to our museum.  This year's conference did not send me home with one new idea.  No, it was more a case of- what can we do first because there are so many ideas!

Marcie explores a VR world

The big trend being pushed this year by vendors was clearly AR and VR.  Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technology have been around for awhile, but are now becoming less expensive (comparatively) and are something that even smaller museums can begin to realistically experiment with.  Marcie and David tried out some of the VR, flying over New York City and walking on the moon.  Those experiences got us brainstorming on how to bring VR to our museum.  Would our visitors want to 'fly' over the Coyote Mountains or the Salton Sea?  Virtually walk Painted Gorge with the bighorn sheep?

Touchscreen graphic rail for exhibits- I want this!

It was exciting to see some technologies that we've been trying to incorporate and get to be very hands-on with them.  One of my personal favorites was a touchscreen tabletop computer that allows people to overlay maps, watch videos, and anything else you can think to upload onto it! The company now even has smaller touchscreens that would work as highly interactive rail panels in future exhibits.  One of the hardest things about building new exhibits is editing down text for a panel- imagine a setup that let people access as much or as little information as they wanted on a part of the exhibit they were looking at!

Walking on the moon- in Phoenix

People always tell you not to let yourself be limited- that if you can imagine it, it can happen.  The Expo Floor this year reminded me that if I can imagine it, someone can build it.  Never say 'can't'.  There is no 'can't'; there is only the limits of the human imagination. And even those boundaries are forever being pushed.  After all, 100 years ago, people said 'can't' to the idea of walking on the moon.

Virtual Reality: What you see vs what they experience

Presenting AAM 2018

(As is usual for me, it takes me a few days to decompress from going full blast at a conference and then I can start organizing my thoughts into blogs and ideas.  Not sure why, but it's how my brain seems to work- which is why this blog and the next few are coming to you a week after the conference!) 

Heritage Square, Phoenix AZ

May 6-9 was the annual American Alliance of Museums conference, held this year in Phoenix, Arizona.  I've been to many other conferences and presented at conferences over the years (I actually connected with the IVDM at my first Society of American Archivists conference just after grad school) but this was my first AAM convention.  I met some great people, attended some good sessions, got blown away every time I walked onto the Expo floor, and am now trying to piece it all together in 'real' life.





I was honored to be included on  a panel where I got to share my experience developing field trips from scratch alongside other small museums.

"Small Museums/Large Classrooms: Three Solutions for expanding field trips at your institution"

This session was moderated by Jennifer Hance, the Director of Education at Heritage Square in Phoenix.  She put out an email last year about the topic because she was looking for ideas on how to expand her field trip programs and wanted to see what other places had done.  Megan Murphy, Visitor Services and Interpretation Coordinator at Golden History Museum & Park, and Tiffani Egnor, Curator of Education at Chandler Museum, presented as well.  Unlike other conference presentations I've done, this one was more of a 'talk show' format instead of each person getting up and talking about their institution by themselves.  We didn't stand in front of a podium but took the mike and stood at the front of the stage to talk-granted, a little awkward when you're looking at notes to remind you of something you wanted to mention, but much more conducive to spontaneous thoughts and (I think) it encouraged the sense of connectedness we were trying to make with the audience. We probably had about 60 people attend out session and it was really encouraging the number of questions and feedback we got towards the end, and the number of people who stayed after the session to talk with us.  I loved getting to meet these incredible women, share ideas with them, and present with them!

Tiffani Egnor, Me, Jennifer Hance, & Megan Murphy- AAM Presenters!

I'm not going to repeat the entire session here, I don't think that's what people want from me at this blog. Though if you want the slides or more details, feel free to email me (ivdmuseum@gmail.com). Each of us presented on what I think were good ideas at our institutions, but the main messages we wanted to send were:

Hands-on, interactive- and in nature! 

• Don't be afraid to try new things.  Experiment.  If one idea doesn't work, get feedback from co-workers and teachers about how to turn it into something that does work. 
•  Don't talk at kids, talk to them.  Be interactive.  
• If you think it's boring, guaranteed the kids do to.  Don't be boring.  Learning is fun, and the more fun it is the more you learn and remember. 
• Start out with your grade learning objectives, but as you go along listen to what the kids are asking.  Be flexible.  As long as they are asking questions and being engaged, they are learning and you are succeeding in your field trip.

  

  Interactive is the key to a successful field trip!

  
  
  
  

Hiking to the Bottom of the Ocean

My view of the Coyote Mountains may be one of my all time favorites, and I love hiking in them, but this was the first time I've actually hiked up the mountains.

I knew going in this was a bit of a stretch for me- I tend to be one of those people who needs to slowly adjust to altitude, and I haven't been hiking much in the last year or so.  But I'd never done the famous hike to the bottom of the ocean before and the first day of Spring seemed like a good time to give it a try. I admit, by the time I got back down to the car my legs were pretty tired, but I wasn't nearly as wiped as I had expected to be- and the day after I was still capable of walking, so that seems like a win to me!

Unbeatable view of Imperial Valley

Trace fossils from when this was the bottom of the ocean

 When I'm out hiking, I always try to read up on some of the geology of the area I'll be in and while I almost never remember more than 1% of what I read before any given hike, even that little bit of information I manage to retain increases my appreciation for what I see along the way.   Hiking up the Coyote Mountains, for instance, you are going back 4-10 million years in time, and if you look (one of my excuses for always being slow) you can find amazing evidence remaining that 10 million years ago this entire part of California was a part of the ocean.  When kids come to the museum asking what dinosaurs we had here, we talk about whales, sharks, coral, and oysters.


The entire hike I marveled at the views: the rocks around me, the trace fossils of so many different shells, the fresh scat as evidence that bighorn sheep had recently passed this way- not to mention the breathtaking view of the valley when I turned and looked behind me.  It was a great reminder of why it is so important to get outside some days.  I was not only enjoying nature on a lovely first day of spring (and feeling sorry for my friends and family on the East Coast dealing with their fourth nor'easter in two weeks) but renewing my enthusiasm for the incredible history and geology of the area, and why I encourage visitors to the museum to go take a hike!

Next Step: Publishing

Getting the book on geoglyphs published will be my first publication available in bookstores, museums gift shops, and online- a lasting work that I hope will inspire a whole new generation of archaeologists, ethnographic research, and interest in the desert Southwest and the people who have lived there for thousands of years.  I'm working not only with Harry Casey, the photographer and author of the manuscript, but with Sunbelt Publications.

Sunbelt Publications produces "well-crafted, award-winning books" that "celebrate the relationship of the land and its people."  Their books help "to discover and conserve the natural, historical and cultural heritage of unique regions" and focus on California, the Southwest, and Baja California, Mexico.

What does that mean? It means I'm very lucky that they are interested in working with me to get this book published!

Now that the manuscript is ready, the photographs have been digitized, all that's left is to raise the money for publishing.  The entire process will cost $10,600.  I need to have the first half ($5,300) to Sunbelt by October 30.

So as a true 21st century, social media answer, I've started a GOFUNDME campaign! Any help you can give is amazing, whether that's donations or sharing the campaign with others who can help. Anyone who donates will be thanked in the book. 

Part of the famous 'Blythe Giants' complex 

Thank you all for your support as I work to make this dream a reality!

Project Completed! For now

Archiving, accessioning to PastPerfect, digitizing, & encapsulating photos and slides

It's hard to believe it's nearly the end of September already.  A month ago I began an intense digitization project at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum with the goal of scanning all photographs in the Harry Casey Collection that connected to geoglyphs.  In a collection of more than 8,000 individual images, I knew the bulk of them pertained to geoglyphs, but what did that mean? All 8,000? 7,000?





30 days, 230.5 hours, and 2 scanners later, the answer is 4,462.  That's the number of photographs scanned, although there were over 1,000 duplicate copies of individual images.

2 scanners worked hard on this project!

What's next? What was the point of becoming the Mad Scanner? I'll be working with photographer Harry Casey and Sunbelt Publications to put together Harry's manuscript with accompanying images for publication.  The museum will apply for grants to create an interactive digital exhibit based on the work.  After that? There are plenty more ideas waiting to be implemented- not to mention almost another 4,000 photographs of rock art, Nazca Lines, and desert plants waiting to be scanned and create exciting, interesting, and beautiful exhibits!

A special thanks to Dr. David Breeckner, Angelina Coble, and Marcie Rodriguez for all their help with this project!

Marcie examines a slide

Spot the Difference

Before coming back out to the desert I had assumed I would be working on the whole project by myself.  Very few volunteers want to drive out 30 miles or more to help deal with pictures for hours at a time.  And those who do, tend to spend summers away from the over 115 degrees that passes for normal weather in the Imperial Valley.  But I forgot: the very weather that keeps regular volunteers vacationing also means less traffic at the museum- making it slightly more likely that I could poach staff helpers for the project. They are getting something out of it too- practice with digitizing as well as added familiarity with PastPerfect and the collection.

A week into my large scale digitization project and I've got my co-workers (aka "volunteers") already pretty well trained.  Each geoglyph site gets all the pictures connected to that site laid out over several tables.  I've done a first run through on matching doubles of images but here it's a case of the more eyes (sometimes fresher than mine!) the better.  Once the images are sorted any slides are compared to the printed photos to see if there are any matches.  If so, they go together. If not, they stand alone.  My colleague Dr. David Breeckner compared it to the game "Spot the Difference" you see in the newspaper.  Two pictures are identical at first glance, but can you find the differences?

Dr. David Breeckner comparing images of a geoglyph site

Once the images are ready they are labelled with permanent Accession Numbers (AN) instead of the temporary ones they currently have.  Records are made for the PastPerfect database, images are scanned, then encapsulated, and placed in the newly labelled folders that will be their permanent home.

I know what you're thinking: if ever an archives project called for More Product Less Process, this sounds like the one!  Sadly, that's not entirely true.  The point of my particular month-long project is to digitize images for a book I'm editing for photographer Harry Casey.  One of the main points of interest for the book is not only the images, but the dates.  Casey photographed the same sites over a span of about 35 years and seeing the changes (both natural and man-made) to the sites over time is important (both for the book and for future researchers). As almost none of the printed images have dates on them, the slides (which almost all DO have dates) are essential.  Records with those dates, images and corresponding AN are a must.  So they might as well all happen at the same time.  Although I do admit that in the interest of time I'm not going into huge detail on the PastPerfect records- a future researcher can add notes to them past what I'm doing.

Marcie Rodriguez comparing slides and prints for the same image

We are becoming an increasingly well oiled machine, more efficient each day. As everyone sees what the process is, different volunteers take on different steps to make the process smoother instead of getting in each other's way.  So a big "Thank you!" to IVDM staff Marcie Rodriguez, Angelina Coble, and Dave Breeckner!

Independent Research Project and Me

 Between 2014 and 2015 I acquired for the museum a collection of nearly 10,000 photographic images.  Named after the photographer, the Harry Casey Collection is unbelievable cool- aerial photographs of geoglyphs over a span of 35 years. Many times you can see changes to sites as human interference and weather erosion have left their marks.  I don't know of any collection like this anywhere in the region, if not the country. It cries out for being digitized and finding ways to share with everyone.

But go back to my previous statement: there are nearly 10,000 images in the collection. Printed photographs, slides, negatives, contact sheets. They cover an uncountable number of individual sites (although by the end I will be able to count them) and multiple individual images per site. Needless to say, this was not a project that would be done in a day.  Over the last two years, as my other duties permit, I worked to create what archivists call "big bucket" groups.  In the case of this collection, those buckets were regional areas. Imperial County; the Colorado River, California region; the Colorado River, Arizona region; the Gila River region; the Mohave Desert; etc. Each individual site was separated into folders. And for awhile, that was sadly as far as it went.

After spending several months on furlough, I have come back the the IVDM as an independent researcher. I could afford to stay for one month.  All I would be doing was itemizing, identifying, digitizing, and encapsulating images.

The Goal: to completely digitize the entire collection, including creating PastPerfect records for each image and a finding aid

Potential End Project Results: of course there'll be a finding aid and all the images will be digitized for researchers. But let's think bigger than that. How about a touchscreen tabletop computer with all the images loaded onto it, some cool graphics and text and suddenly any visitor can spend hours in the museum checking them out! A version of that as a webpage for people who can't come to the museum? Only imagination (and technology) are the limits!

Can this be done in a month without me going insane? Or at least done in a month, sanity a possible casualty to the cause?

Stay tuned and we'll find out!

Iteration, Iteration

Angelina Coble with new desert tortoise test panels

If there is one thing I've learned working with Neal Hitch these past few years it is "iteration, iteration, iteration".  Did something work? How can it work better?  What can you tweak to get more interaction?  Did something not work? Why not? What can you change?

This week I designed the second generation of our test sign panels to see what people wanted in outdoor signage. I took all of the comments and feedback we received from visitors on the original roadrunner panels and made a set of panels that took these comments into account, while still asking visitors to think of what it was they liked in different signs.  

Some comments were the same across the test signs: everyone liked the habitat range maps, the footprint examples (despite my bad artist's rendition!), and some of the fun facts.  While most people were leaning towards the flip signs by the end of the first test, it was still mixed enough that I decided to test both single panel and flip signs again to get a larger audience feedback.  

Angelina Coble writing sign prompt

The biggest thing that I changed was to include audience prompts.  Apparently it wasn't obvious enough in the first round of test panels that we wanted visitors to give their opinions of the signs, or certain features they liked best about the different signs, even though we seeded comments on each of the boards to act as prompts.  So, this time I wrote out specific questions on the top of each sheet.  The hope is that this will further prompt visitors to give the opinions I'm interested in, that will play into future sign design.  Hopefully it will also help people to understand that they are being given options to choose which they like best, something that seems to not have always been clear in the first round.  Even when docents explained the roadrunner signs and encouraged people to write down specifically what they liked, often they would simply put "I like this one best", leaving it up to us to guess what it was they liked about a particular test sign.  Visitors who toured the exhibits on their own seemed less likely to write on the panels, suggesting further prompting was needed to encourage people.

Prompt for visitor engagement

 These early test signs are certainly basic in many ways.  I'm no graphic designer, and personally I think it shows.  I've mounted the panels on cardboard and people will use basic sharpies to write their thoughts on paper.  But I don't think that early iterations are necessarily about sharp designer looks.  They are about engaging visitors in any way possible, and encouraging both staff, volunteers, and visitors to think about the content they want in a finished product.  And then taking those comments, sharpening the test product, and trying it again until you've got exactly what people want.

Ceramic Re-housing Project

One side of IVDM's Visible Storage Exhibit. Local ceramic vessels

While there is probably no way to be completely "earthquake proof", we've been working to ensure that we minimize the risks to both our visitors and our collections.  Now that about half of the ceramics collection held here at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum are in a permanent Visible Storage exhibit, we can begin to re-house the remaining ollas.

When I came to the museum nearly four years ago, the collection of over 200 ceramic vessels (locally called "ollas") were all being held in a back storage room in climate controlled conditions.  The plan was to build an exhibit that would allow as many as possible to be put into an exhibit that would emphasize the importance of the vessels and ensure that the public benefitted from the collection through education and research.  The back storage room contains shelves bolted into the walls, each vessel was on a stand, and each shelf had barriers to prevent objects moving off the shelf in the event of an earthquake.

Gaylord archival fold-out box and padding

With almost half the collection now on display, this week we began a new project: putting the remaining ollas in safer housing.  We worked with Nancy Odegaard from Arizona State Museum and bought archival artifact boxes with slide-out trays and drop-out fronts.  Each of the smaller ceramic vessels would get a box, which would also be cushioned with non-reactive foam padding.

Edgar Bernal Sevilla applying label with photograph

Labels were made with not only information like the accession number, but also a photograph of the vessel.  Between images in the PastPerfect database and images on the labels, we are ensuring that minimal handling and moving of the artifacts will happen in the future.  Less handling and added cushioning increases the stability and safety of the vessels.  The boxes will also allow for more space-efficient storage, which will increase our artifact storage capacity as a whole.

Frank Salazar re-housing small ceramic 

Once back on the anchored shelves, shelf barriers are returned to cover the open sides of the shelf.  Until we can afford expensive shelving with fancy barriers or doors, this "poor museum's method" will increase the security and safety of those ceramics not on display.

New boxes on shelf, with labels, before shelf barriers. More space efficient & safer for ollas

The project is being done by myself; Frank J Salazar III, our Cultural Collections and Programs Manager; and staff member Angelina Coble.  Supplies for the project were funded through a National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance grant.    

Interpretive Planning & Roadrunners

One challenge every museum, gallery, visitor center, park, etc. has is: what do people want vs what do we think they want? Sometimes they are similar, but sometimes surprisingly different!

Over the last few months we've been working on our next 5 year strategic plan.  Everyone we've talked to wants to see walking trails, outdoor exhibits, art, interpretive panels, and learn about the geology, fauna, and flora of the region.  They want to know what they are looking at when they go out exploring on their own.  That connection between people and the desert has been at the heart of the new permanent exhibits we've designed.  Through different mediums, visitors interact with the desert inside the museum and learn more about what they see in their day to day lives.  Taking this theme outdoors is a perfect next step.

But what does that mean in practical terms? We know we want to develop easy walking trails that people can wander and explore on their own.  What do they want to learn about when they are outside? Is it the same as what we want them to take away from the experience?  Among the many plans are interpretive signs to identify native plants, their desert adaptations, and their cultural uses.  But what about local animals?

Local Greater Roadrunner

A roadrunner has recently moved into the museum neighborhood and become a big favorite on our Facebook page.  So it made sense to me to start thinking about animal signs inspired by our roadrunner.

Same info, 4 ways of presenting it. What do visitors want?

I have no illusions about my abilities as a graphic designer- I don't have any.  But that doesn't mean I can't start testing ideas to see what information our visitors want.  In fact, that's exactly what I should do before bringing in the graphic designers.

 A little roadrunner research later and I made 4 different versions of a sign.  All had most of the same information, with small changes. Two had a map of the Greater Roadrunner's range in North America, two didn't. Two were single panels, two were flip panels.   Which would people prefer?

Single panel with tracks. So far everyone likes the tracks idea

I invite all our visitors to look at the 'panels' and write their opinions on paper around the panel.  What do people like about each sign? After getting a decent visitor sample I'll be able to take these comments and adjust the panels accordingly.

 For example, only one of the panels includes pictures of roadrunner tracks.  That was something I was sure I wanted in the final interpretive panel, but would visitors want it too? So far the tracks have gotten the best response.

Single panel, no tracks. So far the least popular

What's been very interesting is how divided people are on the idea of single panel vs flip panel.










Some like the flip because it allows hands-on interaction as well as more space for more information.  Others hate the flip idea and just want a single panel they can glance at to see if they are interested.

Flip sign version 1- open to see what animal we're talking about

Which idea will win out? That's up to the visitors!

Flip sign version 2- picture on cover let's you decide if you want more info

Experiments with Beads and Ceramics

Visible Storage Cases, with ollas

Visible Storage Cases, before ollas

When designing an exhibit, there are innumerable details, concerns, and concepts to keep in mind. These range from what is best for the artifact to how best to convey the exhibit's message to the general public.   The Imperial Valley Desert Museum acts as the steward to a collection of over 200 ceramic artifacts, locally called ollas, from Imperial and eastern San Diego Counties.  An entire blog post can be devoted to the conversations on how the ollas should be displayed for cultural sensitivity and education purposes(and hopefully I will write that post soon).  This blog looks at the purely physical and conservation aspect of creating an exhibit for breakable ceramics in an earthquake prone area.  

From the beginning of the design phase, we knew we wanted to mount the ollas in a sand-like material that would absorb movement instead of placing them on any kind of stand or shelf. While that would allow a larger number to be put on display and create interesting visuals, the threat of earthquakes ensured that we wanted to keep the ceramics all on one level.  We knew we wanted the olla display to remind people of seeing them out in the desert, with a large photographic mural by Michael Field as the background to help create that illusion.  

Thanks to a Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, we were able to have Dr. Nancy Odegaard from the Arizona State Museum act as a consultant on this project.  The original idea of putting the ollas in sand, as they had been found in archaeological sites and would have most likely been placed while in use, was vetoed.  Sand posed a number of problems from a preservation standpoint. It's abrasive, and would over time interact with the ceramics, leaching minerals from the clay.  Eventually, Dr. Odegaard suggested smooth, non-reactive glass beads roughly the size of grains of sand.  Dr. Odegaard and Jessica Brody worked with Swarco Industries, which manufactures "reflective glass beads for reflective highway safety applications."  After seeing several samples, one variety of glass bead (FP96 Ty-III glass beads) was selected to be used as the base for the ollas.  A grant from the local Bureau of Land Management, the NEH Preservation Assistance grant, and a generous donation of materials from Swarco meant that the museum was able to get 120 square feet of beads to stand 1.5-2 inches deep (180 gallons of beads!) to become the olla base.

The case was built and installed by Weldon Exhibits, with a panoramic photograph by Michael Field in sepia tones as the background.  Director Neal Hitch built the individual plinths that would create slightly different heights for some ollas without placing them in danger from earthquakes.  Then came the careful and nerve-wracking process of moving ollas from the museum's storage room to their new home in the permanent exhibit- which Dr Hitch and I spent over a week doing after the museum was closed for the day.  The beads cushion the ollas well, and can be moved almost as easily as sand in order to create small depressions for individual ceramics to rest.  

The end result was that over 100 intact or nearly intact ollas were able to be moved from backroom storage to being on display for the first time in almost 40 years.  While I'm hoping we won't have to test the theory anytime soon, they are in the most earthquake safe display we could develop.  The surprising result was how amazing the cases look.  The beads reflect display lighting and seem to glow and sparkle, making the ollas look as if they are jewelry on display.  The beads manage to look similar to sand, creating the desired "natural" desert look. They also, in the words of one Kumeyaay elder, "sparkle like quartz.  Those of us that are old believe in magic and we see that in the sparkles." 

Close up of glass beads and small olla

Ollas on display with glass bead base.