This is a continuing report on the development of the "art-science lab," which will debut at the Temporary Reeves ASK Science Center on September 22, 2007. I'm serving as the lead curator (or organizer) for this exhibition and these are my observations on the development and implementation process:

In July the “lab” curators met with the entire Met staff over pizza to cover in detail the concepts behind the “art-science lab.” The staff was able to ask questions and make suggestions. Several weeks later the curators met with the Education Advisory Committee (EAC), composed of Board of Trustee members and professionals from the community for the same purposes. Both meetings were helpful to us. The exhibition is made up of many complex entities and each consultation helped clarify questions I didn’t even know I had about the “lab.”

In our regular weekly curatorial meetings, each component of the lab (library, art gallery, mind map, woodcut station, plant dissection station, pattern station, video documentary, camera obscura) was gone over in great detail. We’d report on progress and challenges, and get feedback from the rest of the development team on how to proceed. Some of the challenges were due to our shortened timeline, busy work schedules, the inability to contact the person needed, and/or secure donated supplies. I have to admit that some of my enjoyment of the exhibition development process is due to the team’s ability to patiently and creatively problem-solve.

Throughout July and August we continued working on station implementation details, began writing exhibition text panels, secured speakers for a lecture series, met with the Met’s Marketing department to discuss the color and graphic scheme, formed a partnership with the Fresno County Library to complement the exhibition’s library, discussed and planned school tour plans and activity ideas, and secured an editor and Spanish and Hmong translators for the exhibition text.

In late July, the entire Met staff met again over root beer floats to brainstorm about a title for the exhibition and names for each of the main activity stations. It was a fun and exhausting process (perhaps the exhaustion was due to our sugar crashes). Late last month (August), the Marketing department made the final selections. Our exhibition has been officially titled, “Crossroads: The Meeting of Art and Science.” The stations have been named, “Flower Power” (flower dissection), “The Flip Side” (camera obscura), “Mindscape” (mind map), “Shifting Shapes” (patterns), and “Ink it up!” (woodcut). Last week, the postcard announcements for our exhibition were printed. It’s very exciting to see everything coming together and to see how each department of the Met works together to make it happen. We have a lot of deadlines to meet in the next few weeks. Find out how it all turns out in my upcoming blog entry.

Posted by Teresa España, Director of Education and Interpretation. You can reach her at teresae@fresnomet.org.