Taking an exhibit on the road is always an adventure. Once you have prepared and packed and shipped the objects you actually have to install them at your new venue. Depending on the size and location of the museum you are taking your work to you could be working with a large crew or just a few people.
Overseeing the installation of the Thaw material at Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) was made easy for Eva and I by the large, welcoming, and proficient crew assigned to the task. Here at home at Fenimore Art Museum we have a smaller staff and are used to doing much of the work ourselves. At CMA there is someone to curate the show, someone to design the exhibit, someone to oversee objects, a crew to make mounts, a crew to install artwork, someone for making the labels, and someone to do the lighting. And I am probably missing someone in the vast array of folks that make their exhibits happen. It was amazing to see all of these different elements coordinated and brought together for a stunning final product.
(Southwest Gallery almost complete)
As with all exhibit installations, there were snafus along the way. The appropriate parties calmly put their heads together and came up with smart solutions that were then quickly and expertly executed by the appropriate team member.
With Thaw now installed it’s time for me to put my designer/installer/graphics hats all back on and get to work on our spring exhibits here at home. It was wonderful to have such a big team to pull the exhibit together with in Cleveland, but I do look forward to working with our little home crew to make Fenimore shine for our April 1 opening.
(CMA lighting designer, Mark, works on a tricky northwest coast case)
No comments:
Post a Comment