This is the final installment on the development of Crossroads: Meeting of Art and Science which opened to the public at the Reeves ASK Science Center on September 22, 2007. I served as the lead curator (or organizer) for this exhibition and these are my observations on the development and implementation process:

Wow. The Crossroads exhibition opened at the Reeves ASK Science Center last weekend. The exhibition was ushered in with a splendid offering of appetizers and desserts at the Members’ Reception on Friday, September 21, 2007. The reception was set to start at 5 p.m. Moments before the opening, there was a frenzy of activity taking place: staff members and volunteers could be seen vacuuming the carpet, adding ice to a large bucket that would keep cold the Braun’s ice cream, pouring lemonade, affixing vinyl text to numerous walls, nailing a large text panel to The Flip Side station, testing the electronic components of a large microscope, experimenting with the activities, and anticipating how the exhibition would be received.

The event was fantastic. 112 guests attended and, best of all, most stayed for a long time. My favorite moments included watching the museum educators interacting with the visitors and watching children wholeheartedly engaged in the activity stations.

The challenging process of pulling together an exhibition in 4.5 months, with a limited budget, and very busy staff members had reached its conclusion in a satisfying manner. The evening was full of celebratory hugs, smiles, and congratulatory wishes.

Not all of the exhibition details could be tended to before the opening, but the necessary finishing touches are minor and will take place in the upcoming weeks. Some more wall text here, a little paint there.

On Monday there was a walk-through of the exhibition with staff members and docents. We received great suggestions on how to complement the activity stations.

Looking back on the last 4.5 months, I’ve learned that it takes a large group of talented and generous people to create an exhibition. The exhibition team included eight curators who conceptualized, designed, developed, built, and implemented the exhibition and its related programs and activities; the Marketing team who took care of our graphic and publicity needs and who built our webpage; bilingual staff members who translated exhibition text into Spanish; community volunteers who edited exhibition text and translated it into Hmong; our Membership team who sent out invitations and put on the excellent reception; donors who provided flowers and wood samples for our activity stations and food for our reception; the downtown County Library staff who helped us select titles for our library; our front line staff who fielded inquiries and helped spread the word about the exhibition; community members who donated their time and expertise to our video project; staff members who helped dream up the station and exhibition titles; our operations and maintenance crew who helped prepare the exhibition space; volunteers who helped staff the reception; and, staff and community members who contributed in countless other ways.

The Crossroads exhibition is an evolving creation. We hope our community of visitors will contribute ideas and suggestions on how to grow and improve upon our art and science exhibition. My heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who has already been a part of this unique and thought-provoking exhibition. I hope to see you at Crossroads sometime in the near future. And please send us your comments and suggestions.

Posted by Teresa España, Director of Education and Interpretation.