Week 4: September 9th and 11th

     Good afternoon everybody! This week was a rather exciting one at the lighthouse since I was afforded the opportunity to go hands-on with some of the museum's collection in order to begin developing some future exhibits for the Constance D. Hunter Historic Pacetti Hotel. This was quite exciting for me because  not only was I getting to learn first-hand how museum curators designed exhibits, but I actually got to be a part of that design process.

    We began by tackling the biggest challenge before us on Monday. On the second floor of the Pacetti Hotel is a room that the museum staff wanted to turn into the Pacetti Hotel's "Visible Storage Room" which would showcase the large collection of artifacts from the hotel that the museum did not fit with another exhibit. The room will be blocked off with a plexiglass door so that visitors to the museum can look into the room and see the various pieces of furniture and knick-knacks in the collection without being able to enter the room. However, before that can happen, Felipe, Holly, and I took to the task of organizing this room, cleaning out modern clutter, making sure the shelves looked organized and the most eye-catching and interesting pieces were visible from the doorway.

    This experience was very fun for a number of reasons. One, I got to go through a number of interesting artifacts and make sure that the most interesting ones got to be prominently displayed. But, I also got to learn about some important things that need to be kept in mind when you're designing a museum exhibit. For one, not only do artifacts on display need to be visible, but they need to be visible for every visitor who may come into a museum. You don't want small writing or fine details to be up too high where a shorter person or a child would be unable to see it, but you also don't want those things to be too far down where a very tall person might have to crouch down to be able to see them. Playing with the location of items and the angle at which those items rest is an important step in making sure a museum exhibit is accessible to everyone. With that in mind, it is important to remember where your guests will be standing when they view an exhibit. In the case of the "Visible Storage Room" of the Pacetti Hotel, guests will be unable to enter the room and view the items up close, so it was important to constantly return to the doorway of the room in order to get a feel for what guests could and could not see and what sorts of things people's eyes were drawn too. 

    While organizing this room, Felipe and the Lighthouse's Programs Manager, Zach taught us about the important teamwork the two of them use to make sure that both the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and the Pacetti Hotel are at the best they can be. Felipe as the curator creates his vision for what he wants to the museum exhibits be and how they educate the guests about the history of these places and Zach as the Programs Manager relays that education to the guests through tours and a variety of fun activities to see what the guests respond to and what they do not. Then Felipe and Zach work together to come up with the best ways to educate and entertain the guests that visit based on the feedback they have both collected.

    Continuing on with our museum exhibit designing, Wednesday Holly and I got to begin working on an entirely new exhibit while updating an existing one. With some empty closets present on the second floor of the Pacetti Hotel, Felipe wanted to create some new exhibits to feature in these closets. We began with what we took to calling the "Recreation" exhibit first, which Felipe decided should feature some of the cards and boardgames found at the Hotel since they are currently on display behind a roped-off section of the Hotel's living room. People were very interested in them, but their distance from the guests made them difficult to see, so Felipe decided that they should have their own exhibit upstairs where guests could see them much better. So Holly and I removed the cards and games from the living room exhibit and updated it with some of the various figurines we had found in the "Visible Storage Room" on Monday. Then we got to work on the "Recreation" exhibit. We spent time making sure the fine details of both the cards and their boxes were visible to guests, and we opened up many of the board games to display their game boards and the various pieces required to play. We made the display visually appealing by showing off the colorful artwork featured on the board game boxes and by angling things so that the display looks more natural and less cookie-cutter which Felipe told us was important when designing exhibits that you want to feel real. 

    And that was my week, with the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Pacetti Hotel. Overall, this was my favorite week so far. Getting to actually put together displays and learn firsthand what things you need to remember when you're designing an exhibit was very cool. It was a nice change of pace after spending a lot time in PastPerfect. I definitely look forward to the coming weeks as we get more experience and more time to design some of the other exhibits Felipe has planned for the Hotel. Until next week everyone!