Gallery Q Exhibition Design and Curating

Xiaotian Yang 2013.3.12

Gallery Q Exhibition design and curating

Xiaotian Yang 2013.3.12

Introduction

Currently I am working with a team at Johns Hopkins University to develop a

new campus space called Gallery Q. My thesis is separated into two parts:

Through the research and discussion with between different programs, faculties

and students, Firstly, I will looking at their needs, concerns, interests and

expectation of this gallery to help me understand about how to use this space to

match their various needs. I will design a framework to define the space and,

finally, build a sustainable model for them to continue in the future. Through the

new media and open interactive experience to embrace the advanced

technologies and different scientific fields, the space might change the way

students learn, faculty teach, researchers work, and designers collaborate.

In the second part of my thesis, I will curate an exhibition for this space that will open in the

spring of 2014(TBD).

Mission of Thesis

1. Intensify communication and interaction with a variety of programs at JHU.

2. Define / design Gallery Q to meet student’s needs.

3. Let outside community realize and be part of what is happening in Gallery Q.

Partners: TBD

Please see contact list

Goals

(Less to push students in certain directions than to work around what interests them)

1. Inspire JHU students/professors to use this space to modify their work and represent

their programs. In Gallery Q students will show the public what they have been doing

recently and arouse the audiences’ interest in different fields.

2. Encourage people to interact and contribute to the academic survey.

3. Establish a friendly, valuable and interesting space for the students by

offering a comfortable learning and meeting zone.

Exhibition Design

Impression: Friendly, Cool, Interesting and Comfortable

The space needs to be for all JHU students. Exhibition theme may change regularly but the

purpose is always to help students open a conversation with each other. This means no one

specific program will take a leading position forever.

A lot of elements should be considered such as the applications of the materials, color and

light to help build the friendly and cool impression of the space. The challenge will be to try a

hybrid between a lab and a gallery space, one that can accommodate a variety of display

techniques, conversations and discoveries.

Function: Flexible, Safe and Valuable

To meet different needs between different programs, all the panels, display cases, and desks

should be easily to change and move. Unlike traditional exhibition model, the theme of some

programs may require strong active participation (Mechanical Engineering or

Environmental Chemistry). The design will consider how to protect the exhibit in this open

space, but also offer a strong interactive experience.

Valuable

One important function of Gallery Q is to spread latest research results and share advanced

technologies around campus.

What kind of information will appear on the wall? What can students learn from the

exhibition? How to create a strong memory and attract them back to this space? (Gamming

System)

Is it possible through Gallery Q to change the students learning experience, faculty teaching

methods, researching process, and designers’ collaboration?

Current Rendering Draft

Programming (allow exhibit idea to grow from work at JHU)

1. Academic survey

In Gallery Q the process of dialogue and learning

experience is more important than show the outcome.

Audience will be invited to contribute to the research and

be asked if they have interest to join us or help us to

improve our work.

Example: “Please Touch” is collaboration with the Brain

Research Institute. This exhibition invites the audience to

interact with sculptures to record and analysis their

reaction. Different elements such as gender, hand size,

handedness will affect the reaction directly. This

interaction is a very rewarding experience to benefit both

the audience and exhibitor.

2. Dynamic recording

Students will be asked to record, collect and organize what they’ve learned,

and thought about. Like an Experiment Diary, they could share their interests,

concerns and challenges to the others who study in different programs.

This process will help the visitor easily understand the evolution course in

different program. This model could let the audience involved in each part

leave their comments to help inspire exhibiter to modify their work.

3. Academic Speaking (lecture hall)

Lectures will be an important part to help visitors get a better understanding

of the specific field more easily to reach the program. The topic will be

associated with the theme of the show. Speaker could be JHU students,

professors or some relevant experts. Of course it will be open to public.

4. Exhibition Tour around different universities

The show will be not only confined to Gallery Q. Through the traveling

exhibition, I am seeking a way to build a relationship with different

universities around Baltimore (like Morgan State University and University of

Maryland.) Students will not only stay within their program, but broaden

their perspectives from outside feedback. This kind of dialogue will

encourage academic exchange and facilitate collaboration and sharing of

experiences.

5. How to meet students’ needs

Students could submit

their proposal to use

this space.

One possible idea for exhibitions would be cooperating with the Woodrow

Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program. This program offers a

unique opportunity for Arts & Sciences students to engage in hands-on,

independent learning with top-level faculty mentors. During compete for the

scholarship; students will use different methods and space to represent their

work and idea. Gallery Q could be an ideal stage to help students present their

projects and reach a great audience.

6. Cooperation with MICA/art department in JHU

This collaboration will allow MICA/JHU art department students to look at the academic

matter JHU students take very seriously in a positive, fun, and creative way. Considering

different level of my audience, how to make the exhibition easily to understand and more

interesting? Relying on a process of visual communication or the other way to develop

the show, it will be a challenge for MICA students who are in graphic/social design

programs and the students who are in the art department to bring their unique way of

thinking, at the meantime use their skills to help promote science in publications,

websites, products and exhibitions.

Anticipated Audience(s)

First audience: Johns Hopkins University students/faculties

Second Audience: Outside community/Neighborhood

University like Johns Hopkins should, in the public interest, be accessible but she always

gives people a wrong impression that university campus is closed and hard to reach. Actually

Hopkins has a lot of projects and museums are accessible to the public. Through cooperate

with the Campus Visitor Center; Gallery Q will encourage the outside community feel free

back to visit the campus and seeking the way to benefit the neighborhood.

Community Engagement (TBD): On-Campus Visits: http://apply.jhu.edu/visit/visit.html

Accessibility

Accessible design will be an important topic to thinking in the show because people with

disabilities are a part of Gallery Q’s diverse audience.

As exhibition designers for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, they

have discovered that “consciously designing for people who have unique needs

and providing information in a variety of formats, creates exhibits that are more

engaging and accessible for everyone.”

Key words:

Exhibition Content/Exhibition Items/Label Text and Design/Interactive/Circulation

Route/Furniture/Lighting

1. Exhibition label information will be available within the gallery in alternative

formats (e.g. Braille, audio) for people who cannot read print.

2. Consider the people who using wheelchairs or other assistive devices (e.g.

canes, crutches); exhibition design would think the visitor must not be

blocked by display boards or other obstacles.

3. The circulation route would be well considered, clearly defined, and easy to

follow.(Gallery Q has two entrances, should consider where to start the visiting)

4. Cases and vitrines should be friendly and safety to any visitor.

5. The light from cases and on labels shall be considered for those visitors who

are seated as well as for those who are standing.

Marketing

Poster/ Email

Johns Hopkins Hospital/ University website

Facebook/twitter

Hopkins announcement

Brand design(er)

Publication(s)

Johns Hopkins Magazines

Brochure/Foldout

Catalogue (TBD) after confirm the program and theme

Sustainability

As a long-term mission, different programs will be invited to participate in the show. Each

semester Gallery Q will hold 2-3 new topic to share with others and these messages will

appear on the school magazine, website, catalogue and flyer. The exhibition will explore

different ways such as workshops, lectures and interactions to show the research results

based on student's achievements to share, educate, and inspire.

Assessment /Evaluation

Thesis Review Committee

George Ciscle:

George Ciscle has mounted groundbreaking exhibitions, created community arts programs,

and taught courses in the fine arts and humanities for over 40 years. He is currently

Curator-in-Residence at MICA, where he consults on the development of community-based

and public programming. He created the Exhibition Development Seminar, a course designed

to provide artists with the opportunity to learn all aspects of the process of producing an

exhibition.

In his work at MICA, George Ciscle is continuing a career that has evolved to concentrate

particularly on developing new models for connecting art, artists, and audiences. Teaching

art and theater at Baltimore's Cardinal Gibbons High School, Ciscle developed an

interdisciplinary pilot program that brought together faculty from art, theater, religion, and

other fields to teach a course that revealed the connections between art and culture at many

levels.

Jackie Oregan

Jacqueline O'Regan has been named Johns Hopkins' first curator of cultural properties, a

position that will address ways in which the university collects and manages its extensive

cultural resources.

O'Regan is responsible for objects that range widely from fine art and furniture to historical

teaching equipment, photographs, architecture, sculpture and the collections of Homewood

Museum and Evergreen Museum & Library. O'Regan has been curator of Evergreen since

2000.

Before coming to Evergreen Museum & Library, O'Regan was at the Baltimore Museum of Art,

where she worked as a conservation technician, conservation assistant and finally as

assistant conservator. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a

master of fine arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art's Hoffberger School of

Painting.

< http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/24sep07/24curators.html>

Elizabeth Rodin

JHU Faculty committee: TBD

I will set up a meeting schedule to join their class/workshop to learn and record what

happening during the class; this process would help me explore the interesting and valuable

thing in their class, and it may inspire me use variety methods to design the space and

showcase in next step.

Student Committee will invite around 5-10 students from different programs and set up

regular meeting to help me revise the thesis. Also the committee will exchange their

experience and opinion about their class, news, and recent events. I will keep tracking their

interest, concern and class content.

Contact List

Faculties:

Joan Freedman (Met at Feb 15)

Director, Digital Media Center (link with art department/ Printing Studio)

freedman@jhu.edu

http://digitalmedia.jhu.edu

Mike Reese (Met at Feb 15)

The Center for Educational Resources (Great resource link with Faculty)

Their apartment may move in the future

mreese@jhu.edu

Ami Cox (Met at Feb 22)

Director of Woodrow WilsonUndergraduate Research/Fellowship Program

Show strong interests, has specific needs/Waiting for response from her students

ami@jhu.edu

Kelleher Guerin/ Gregory Hager (on the list, waiting for response)

Director of Computer Center (Strong interactive program, huge screen)

Greg Hager is the professor’s whose lab is working on the Interactive Viz Wall.

Project - http://eng.jhu.edu/wse/magazine-winter-13/item/wall-of-discovery/.

Greg’s faculty page ishttp://www.cs.jhu.edu/~hager/

hager@cs.jhu.edu

Student committee

Hannah Weinberg Wolf, the curator of Please Touch

hweinbergwolf@gmail.com

Amanda Bass

Junior/majoring in Art History and minoring in Museums in Society

acbass14@gmail.com

Bianca Biberaj

Majoring in Art History and minoring in Museums in Society

bbiberaj@gmail.com

New list:

Stephen Campbell, Professor, History of Art, stephen.campbell@jhu.edu

Mitch Merback, Professor, History of Art, mmerbac1@jhu.edu

Rebecca Brown, Professor, History of Art, rmbrown@jhu.edu

Jane Guyer, Professor, Anthropology, jiguyer@jhu.edu

Herica Valladares, Professor, Classics, herica@jhu.edu

Robert Kargon, Professor, History of Science, kargon@jhu.edu

Linda DeLiberto, Professor, Film and Media Studies, lindadelibero@jhu.edu

Bernadette Wegenstein, Professor, Center for Advanced Media Studies, berna@jhu.edu

Steven Hsiao, Professor, Neuroscience, steven.hsiao@jhu.edu Wednesday 3 pm

Timeline

Feb 2013

March

1-20

Meet the faculty between different programs:

History of Art, Anthropology, Classics, Near Eastern Studies, History, History of Science, History of

Science , Film and Media Studies, Center for Advanced Media Studies, Neuroscience

-Participate workshop/class

-Build Student committee

-Start thinking the concept drawings

-Final proposal reviewed

April

-1 Submit draft concept drawings for the space and written plan for the gallery program

-2 Scientific poster design/ try to participate

-8 Respond to the drawings (JHU)

-14 Photography Gamers/ try to participate

-15 Submit concept drawings and written plan with changes to JHU (Evan)

-22 Respond to drawings (JHU)

May

-20 CAD, drawings to JHU; budget

-Start contact with MICA graphic designer/JHU art department student

Jun

-10Response to CAD Drawings

-17 Another round of CAD, concepts and plan to JHU, Budget

-24 Respond (JHU)

July-back to China

August

-Confirm the program and exhibition theme

-Collect the data from the program

-Students submit proposal

-Confirm the designer

-Confirm the Exhibition Design/CAD

September

-Bring the relationship with designer and JHU students

-Designer start work with students (for Poster)

-Response to proposal/revise

-Start contact furniture company/Decorating Agency？

October

-Designer work with students (poster)/ submit the draft poster

-Start with Branding/Publication/Catalogue (mood board/content)

-Shot list essayist for catalogue and fold out

-Confirm the student proposal

November

-Feedback for poster/revise

-Curator statement draft

-The draft list of Exhibits

-Designer start work on fold out/catalogue

December

-Designer continue working on fold out/catalogue

2014

January

-Confirm the poster

-Submit fold out/catalogue design draft, submit mock-up

-Students/Facilities review

February

-Submit fold out/catalogue design draft, submit mock-up

-Students/Facilities review

-Confirm the Exhibits

-Confirm the Catalogue/Fold out

-Send to Printer

March

-Installation

April

-Installation

May

-Opening

-Academic Speach

Preliminary Budget

- Please see attachment

Research

-past: students’ needs, concerns, interests and expectation of this gallery

-current: Please Touch evaluation/ build faculty/student committee

Contact faculties from different program

-future: Specific Program research, potential partner

“Gallery Q” Evaluation Form （Example）

Basic information:

1. I am a: JHU student JHU faculty Visitor

2. Name of your Program (Optional):

3. How frequently do you come to this space?

It’s my first time 1-5/month 5-10/month 10+/month

4. On average, how much time do you spend in this space?

0-15min 15-30min 30-60min 60+min

5. How did you learn about this space?

“Please Touch” Evaluation:

1. Please identify a feature of the show that you enjoyed the most.

2. Is there anything additional that you would like to see included in the exhibition in the future?

3. Do you have an idea for a project in this space? If so, could you describe it?

4. Would the availability of similar show encourage you return to this space with your

friends?

Yes No

Please Explain:

5. Please leave your comments:

Thank you for your feedback! It is essential for the continued quality of our education programs.

Curator Bio and Resume

Curatorial Practice MFA Summary

MICA's new MFA in Curatorial Practice will prepare students to take a responsible approach to

the expanding role curators play in creating a vibrant cultural life in the 21st century's global

society. Designed to forge connections among art, artists, and the community, the program's

collaborative and individual curatorial projects allow students to explore new methods of

exhibition presentation. This innovative graduate program is the first MFA in Curatorial Practice

in the United States.