Launching Ponds and Streams Installation at Children's Museum of South Dakota

Gallery hall view from second level balcony at CMSD.

After a couple of conference calls with the staff at Children's Museum of South Dakota over the past few months, I finally spent the day on-site meeting staff and planning our new collaborative installation project for Summer 2015!  Very happy to have such supportive partners in the development of a new exhibit space and community-based installation themed in PONDS and STREAMS.  It is CMSD's and my personal goal to maintain a blog about the project detailing its development with artifacts, documents, images and reflections.  

   My visit began with a tour of the museum and its exhibit spaces.  Since the museum I work for, Children's Museum of Southern MN, is not yet open or complete, I loved walking through exhibits filled with children and families!  CMSD is filled with a collection of varied exhibit spaces and experience.  Since it is the dead of WINTER, we did not explore their outdoor prairie play space which includes multiple dino digs and TWO animatronic t-rexes. 

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CMSD leadership staff and I spent the day outlining a timeline and parameters of the project in terms of its education/community partnerships, design elements and contractual details.  I was very excited to hear about the possible community partnerships which could include the local Game, Fish and Parks departments, Wildlife and Fisheries programs at South Dakota State University, Reggio Emilia preschools, YMCA Summer Camps and the local public library.  Beginning in March, CMSD will begin focus groups with local early education programs using Visual Thinking Strategies, a method initiated by teacher-facilitated discussions of art images and documented to have a cascading positive effect on both teachers and students. CMSD staff is trained in this facilitation method and I am eager to learn more about the method and its use as a tool to assess learning and critical thinking around art and concepts for young children.  


  We also saw the space where the Ponds/Streams exhibit will live June-August 2015. Its called the Here Today Gone Tomorrow gallery and it contains two spaces- an open space and a walled gallery space.  Here are some blurry photos I snapped.

By 5pm our team identified some key project elements and directions for the installation.  I look forward to our ongoing conversations about the project! 
    I am excited to work in a new and different way with this museum project.  Typically, I show up and present something.  In this project, the museum is a partner in development and execution of the installation.  More details to come soon!