Office of Exhibits Central

The Art of African Exploration

Starting in December 2008 visitors to the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) get the chance to view rare illustrated books highlighting European explorations of Africa in the 1800s. The Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL), through a donation from the Folger Foundation, is building and installing two exhibition cases in NMNH’s lobby that will showcase the Libraries’ vast collections of books.

Damage from light is an important consideration when deciding how to exhibit rare books. Light damage is both permanent and cumulative, so the exhibition will display volumes on a rotating basis. The exhibit will also include works on paper and manuscripts that relate to African exploration. Members of the OEC Design/Editing unit met with the Libraries in March to view the books in person and start planning the exhibit.

Lynn Kawaratani, Bart McGarry, and Alicia Jager are the OEC designers working on this exhibition. Jager is designing the graphics while Kawaratani and McGarry design the three-dimensional layout with small-scale paper models of the cases and books. Kawaratani stressed the advantages of using the paper models to design this exhibit instead of a computer, such as the ability to verify the book rotations and easily present the vision to the client.

photo: McGarry and Kawaratani arrange books in the scale model.

Interview with Janette Pitts, OEC Management Service Specialist

Q: What exactly does a management service specialist do?
A: Another way of describing my position would be an “administrative officer” or “office manager.” Basically, I manage the office.

Q: What kinds of responsibilities does managing an office include?
A: I process personnel actions such as hiring and terminating staff, updating staff personnel files, writing position descriptions, and setting up training for staff. Timecards, travel requests, and purchase orders are all processed through me. I provide services to all of OEC staff and clients within and outside of the Institution. I work closely with a variety of offices in the Institution that handle staff and financial affairs. My goal is to provide excellent customer care to all of OEC staff and clients by making sure their needs are met to their expectation in a timely manner.

Q: How long have you worked at OEC and why did you decide to start working here?
A: I’ve been working here since 1996. I started out as a management support assistant. A friend who was working here told me that OEC needed some help. They contracted me to work with them for thirty days. Somewhere along the line, those thirty days turned into twelve years of employment!

Q: What kind of training and/or experience did you have before coming to OEC?
A: I worked at a large health insurance company for twenty-three years prior to coming to the Smithsonian. There I worked as an enrollment specialist, claim processor, unit leader, and customer service representative. I have had various training in leadership skills, how to manage time and people, the federal policy and regulations pertaining to procurement, travel, and many other topics.

Q: What is your favorite part of the job?
A: I love working with people. In my job, I spend a lot of time working with the staff of OEC. Also, I get a behind-the-scenes look at how exhibits come together prior to being put on display in a museum.

Q: What is a challenge you have had to face?
A: One challenge is adjusting to changes as they come down through the Institution and communicating those changes to the staff. Changes startle some people, so my job is to reassure and assist staff as they adapt to the changes.

Developing a Greek Currency Exhibit

Classically Greek: Coins and Bank Notes from Antiquity to Today, the newest exhibit in the Smithsonian Castle, gives insight into the development of the history of Greece through the images on its currency.

The objects used in this exhibit come from the National Bank of Greece and the Welfare Foundation for Social and Cultural Affairs (KIKPE), also in Greece.  Before the artifacts arrived from Greece, OEC designer Alicia Jager used images of the objects to design a layout and panels for the display. She used gold and silver hues to maintain a classic tone throughout the fourteen panels used in the exhibit.

OEC writer/editor Rosemary Regan rewrote the script for the show sent from Athens from a larger exhibit, which presented several challenges. The original exhibit was more specific about modern Greek history, so Regan reworked the script to present a broader view of Greek history to be more accessible to a non-Greek audience. Regan also had to add some information about figures from Ancient Greece and Greek mythology that the average visitor in America might not know about, but which did not need explanation in Greece.

The team at OEC worked with the numismatic collection staff at the National Museum of American History and the organizations in Greece to confirm details about the exhibition.  Ellen Dorn, OEC director of Special Exhibitions, has collaborated with teams from other countries in the past. Dorn described that two of the biggest issues with working internationally are time differences and shipping issues, but then explained:

All in all though, there’s not a huge difference in dealing with museums here or outside of the US…[e]ven though there are some differences when dealing with lenders in other countries, the safety of the objects always take priority, no matter if they're coming from a lender within or from outside of the US.

This exhibit can be seen in the Schermer Hall of the Castle and will be on display until June 10, 2008.

top photo: Jager puts the finishing touches on a label.

bottom photo: Graphics panels and display cases containing Greek coins and bank notes

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SI Community Art

Smithsonian Institution employees are used to working behind-the-scenes, but they have a chance to show off their own artwork to the public at Artists at Work: The Smithsonian Community Art Show 2008. The exhibit opened on March 27 and will be on display through May 18 at the S. Dillon Ripley Center Concourse.

Over 170 Smithsonian staff, volunteers, interns, and fellows submitted over 170 entries to a jury who picked 71 final pieces for exhibition. The entries include art of various media from fabric to clay to photography. Once the pieces were selected, OEC designer Bart McGarry came up with a layout for the gallery using the preliminary measurements supplied by the artists. OEC fabrication specialists Robert Perantoni and Richard Gould did a final measurement of the pieces and installed them in the Ripley Center.

This staff art show is sponsored by the Smithsonian Community Committee (SCC). Throughout the year, OEC collaborates with the SCC on various activities, including a photography contest and a summer picnic.

top photo: Gould, McGarry, and OEC project manager Betsy Robinson decide on the placement of a photograph.
left photo: Perantoni makes sure a piece of art is level.

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Interview with Harry Adams, OEC Specialist in Artifact and Exhibit Packing

Q: What do you do here at OEC?
A: I make sure that the various parts of exhibits, including artifacts, are packed safely and securely. I design, layout, and build the crates that will be used to pack exhibits for travel.

Q: Have you had a favorite project so far?
A: I once had to figure out how best to pack an 8-10 inch sandpiper. The box I made folded up around the bird like a lily and supported the body from underneath. Then I made a cap that went on top to secure everything.

When I had just started working at OEC, I impressed my supervisor by finding an innovative way to pack a set of powder-filled glass vials that were placed upside-down into a board. George Washington Carver made this display in order to hold some of the compounds he had synthesized. Instead of just cavity packing it (embedding it in foam), I made a box with a double box lid similar to a tackle box or doctor’s satchel. The bottom plate holding the vials sat embedded in foam in the bottom of the box and the two parts of the lid closed around the vials, giving them support.

Q: Your most challenging project?
A: The First Ladies exhibit was challenging because it required packing many different types of artifacts. We built crates with foam-filled drawers in order to handle the variety of objects. The crates were so nice they almost could have been furniture!

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: Besides the variety of projects that I get to work on, I enjoy finding solutions to the challenges of artifact packing. It is always challenging because the objects vary so much, from large to very delicate.

Q: How did you get started in this business?
A: I graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Philosophy, but I took several courses in woodworking for fun while I was in college and high school. After college, I was apprenticed at a cabinet shop and then I got a job teaching woodworking for a couple of years. When I came to OEC in 1990, I was assigned the specialty of packing where I joined a team with two other packers. Here, I received my initial training. Now, I am the only packer and I do roughly the same amount of work as all three of us did before.

I’ve taken several graduate courses at George Washington University in registrarial work (caring for museums), and several courses given by the Smithsonian in packing and artifact care. I also look at what other packers do to see what works and what doesn’t.

Crating Elements

The exhibitions that OEC designs and produces need to arrive at their destinations safely. This is especially crucial with traveling exhibits, like the ones we make for Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES), because these objects are handled more frequently than those in permanent exhibits.

SITES registrars Ruth Trevarrow, Cheryl Washer, and Juana Dahlan were at OEC recently packing up Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes and The Dancer Within. One of their main goals is to ensure that objects travel safely and are easy to remove from the packing. This includes thinking about whether the person unpacking the objects may hurt their back by bending over too far to remove a heavy object and also making the process to remove an object simple and easy-to-understand.

Harry Adams, OEC specialist in artifact and exhibit packing, uses the crate specifications document sent to him by SITES to design and build crates for the objects and accompanying labels or cases. For Beyond, Adams made what Trevarrow calls “the Cadillac of crates.”

To protect the large, heavy framed photographs, Adams made crates with felt-lined slots the photographs could easily slide into. The photographs are so large they need to be stored vertically so the crates will fit through the doors of all the exhibition venues. The photographs used for Dancer are smaller and due to the manner in which they are mounted, they need to travel lying flat. They are placed in foam trays that are then stacked on top of each other in the crate.

Collaboration and good communication between the registrars, designers, and the crate makers is necessary to produce crates that will be easy to use and best protect the objects inside.

top photo: Trevarrow slides a Beyond photograph out of the crate.
middle photo: Packed Beyond crates
bottom photo: Adams arranges foam trays made by Tim Smith.

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Orchid Conceptualization

Elegant Evolution. Orchids through Time. New Finds: Ancient Orchids. Darwin’s Orchids.

These are all proposed titles for Horticulture Services Division’s orchid exhibition, opening in January 2009 in the special exhibits gallery at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). NMNH’s Department of Botany is working with Horticulture to craft an exhibit that displays both the beauty of the orchids with information about the biology behind them.

The central part of the exhibit will feature fossilized pollinia from a 10 – 15 million year old orchid preserved on the back of an extinct species of stingless bee encased in amber. The fossil was found in the Dominican Republic in 2000 and is the first orchid fossil ever to be discovered, which is integral to scientists who study orchid evolution. Charles Darwin’s work on orchid reproduction and evolution will be featured in this exhibition, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of his The Origin of Species and his 150th birthday.

This exhibit is moving from the conceptualization phase to the design and scripting phase of production. In March, both the initial design concept and draft script will be ready for review.

A challenge of this exhibit is that OEC is moving into new facilities this summer, when our shops would normally be busy building the exhibitions components. Horticulture will then be moving their greenhouses to a new site after the exhibit closes in April 2009.

photo by Ariel Ressler

“Green” Desks for the Castle Officers

OEC employees have been hard at work designing and building new officer desks for the entrances to the Smithsonian Castle. OEC exhibit designers Bart McGarry and Lynn Kawaratani interviewed the security officers, who are currently stationed at tables, to figure out how the new desks could best meet their ergonomic and functional needs. McGarry and Kawaratani designed two desks with enough space to store wheelchairs, two with lockboxes to provide a space for confiscated items, and two planters to open up the space and provide a place for Horticulture Services Division to display some of their plants while limiting access to the Great Hall to only the security entrances.

In the Fabrication department at OEC, Stoy Popovich is building the desks and planters out of walnut. Part of the wood used is recycled from an old Smithsonian Institution project and the rest is walnut veneer over recycled medium-density fiberboard (MDF). These materials were used as a part of the effort to make this a green project by conserving resources and using environmentally safe products.

After Popovich cuts the wood, makes the decorative moldings, and sands it to a smooth finish, Walter Skinner, OEC’s finisher, is in charge of staining and finishing the wood. He is using Fuhr Industrial water-based products that emit no odors and no gasses; the strongest products possible that are still environmentally safe. The finish consists of a conditioner, the stain, a sanding sealer, and two to three layers of a clear top coat. Each process requires a day of drying time.

In two to three weeks, Popovich will install marble tops on the desks and they will be ready for use by the guards at the Castle.

top photo: Popovich working on the molding for one of the desks.
bottom photo: Skinner finishing the staining process on parts of a desk.

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Interview with Howard Clemenko, OEC Mountmaker

Q: Can you describe the first things you consider when making a mount?
A: Well, the first thing we say is, “Oh, I can’t do it!” (laughs) No, the first thing we need to know is whether the object we’re mounting is a prop or an artifact. An artifact is an object that is or will be accessioned. These are given a number and put into or are already a part of a permanent collection. If it’s an artifact, we have to make a mount that will protect and preserve it. If the object is a prop, then almost anything can be used to mount it. We usually don’t need to worry about destroying it because it won’t be used afterwards. Then, depending on what type of environment the object will be in, the look the client wants, and the support the object needs, we work on fashioning a mount.

I use “we” because I make mounts with the help of other people. Everyone in the model shop at OEC is capable of making mounts and some people bring valuable experience in certain types of mount making to the jobs. For example, Natalie has more experience than I do making mannequins. Jon and Danny have more experience than I with props.

Q: What materials do you typically use to make the mounts?
A: Well, if we’re working with an artifact, we can’t use wood or any other natural material in case this would attract creatures, decay, and/or interact chemically with the artifact. I often use brass, stainless steel, or manmade plastics. Steel can be used as well, but only for a short period of time; otherwise it will start to rust. If we’re mounting a prop, we can use whatever material we think will work best because we don’t have to worry about preserving the object.

Q: Do you make all the mounts here at OEC?
A: Sometimes, the object is so fragile that it can’t be transported to OEC. In that case, I have to travel to the site to make the mount. I can’t take all my tools with me so I have to be more resourceful with what I use to create the mounts, which can be fun!

Q: How long have you worked at OEC? And where did you work before?
A: I have been at OEC four years. I worked at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology for thirteen years as their principle Mountmaker before I retired. I worked only with artifacts there, so when I came to OEC, I had to learn how to make mounts for props.

Q: Why did you decide to work here?
A: After I retired from the University of Pennsylvania, I had friends living in Rockville who convinced me to come live next to them. I looked for part-time work starting with the National Museum of the American Indian because I heard they were looking for mountmakers. I never got through to talk to them and I ended up speaking with Lora Collins here at OEC, who had just lost her principle mountmaker, ironically, to the Museum of the American Indian. That is how I started working here.

Q: What’s your favorite part of the job? What’s the most challenging?
A: The variety of objects and projects I get to work on. All of the projects are challenging. But I’d say the biggest challenge is keeping up with the people I work with. They’re young, brilliant, and so creative. They’re just amazing.

Q: Have you had a favorite project so far?
A: No; I like them all for different reasons. Jim Henson’s Fantastic World was fun, First Ladies was fun – but both for completely different reasons! I also enjoyed doing the electronics for the Polio interactive displays and the rain showers for the exhibit Orchids: Take a Walk on the Wild Side.

Q: How did you decide you wanted to be a mountmaker?
A: A friend of a friend asked me to make some mounts for several large African pieces. I managed to make the mounts without destroying the pieces even though I knew virtually nothing about mountmaking and less than that about conservation. As a result, I was asked to do some more mounts for friends of his. At the time, I had my own business designing and building interiors for children’s rooms and private playgrounds. A friend told me about an opening at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. I applied for the job of Mountmaker and was hired.

Q: What kind of training did you go through?
A: I took a course in mountmaking after I had been making mounts for a year or so. Virginia Greene, the head conservator at Penn and her assistant Lynn Grant were most helpful over the years teaching me the things that good conservation methodology required. Slowly I developed approaches that produced mounts that were lighter, stronger and less obtrusive.

Q: Family?
A: I have three children and seven grandchildren. Everyone here knows my grandchildren as “Howard’s Mob” because I put one of those old-fasioned sepia photos of them in the break room.

photo: Clemenko shows where the artifact he is holding will be located in an exhibit.

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One of Clemenko's mounting jobs at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Framing the Dance

The spirit of dance is a difficult thing to capture on film, but photographer Rose Eichenbaum has undertaken that challenge in The Dancer Within, a new traveling exhibit produced by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

The exhibition’s first stop will be at the Ypsilanti District Library in Ypsilanti, Michigan beginning April 2008. The show will finish traveling around the U.S. in April 2010.

OEC Graphic Specialist Nancy Post is matting and framing forty-eight of Eichenbaum’s photos. To create a mat for a photograph, she first cuts the outside of the 8-ply mats to fit the 24 by 28-inch metal frames. Then, because the size of the individual photograph varies, an inside “window” is cut in the matting to the dimensions of the photograph.

Each photograph needs two mats to display a photograph: the first with the window to display the photo and the second to hold the photo in place with adhesive. The two sheets are then attached with linen tape at the top to make a hinge to keep them from moving around in the frame. Post puts acrylic on the front to protect the photograph and corrugated plastic on the back to protect it before placing the matted photograph into the frame and tightening the attached wooden brace to hold it in place.

Once the photographs have all been matted and framed, they will be packed into crates to prepare for travel.

photo: Post secures a photograph in its frame.

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