Grant-Writing
I chose this skill because grant writing is a crucial and desirable talent in most museums. I did not have any prior background in grant applications or in any type of financial writing. I therefore needed to make up for my lack of experience by reading and researching the process. During the first two weeks of our class, I emailed Michael Allison and Donna Jared, two of the directors at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, for advice and educational resources on grant-writing. Mr. Allison responded with a list of several recommendations for further research, including the Colorado Grants Guide, GrantsWatch and GrantHub newsletters, and Grants.gov. Unfortunately, several of these resources require memberships in order to access them.
Mrs. Jared did not have any information for me, but forwarded my request on to Lucien Meadows, the museum’s Foundation & Agency Relations Coordinator. Mr. Meadows was kind enough to provide me with several of the resources that he uses for training interns in grant-writing. The most helpful of these documents were instructions for writing a letter of inquiry (How to Write a Letter of Inquiry), an eCivis strategy guide for writing high-performance proposals (High Performance Proposal Strategies), and a helpful graphic outlining the different stages of the grant-writing process. The letter of inquiry document briefly lays out the skeletal framework of a standard introductory letter from museum institutions to grant foundations. It details the standard composition for correspondence and lists topics for grant applicants to emphasize, such as project missions, estimated costs, and expenditure plans. The eCivis document also gives guidelines for framing a proposal, emphasizing five “high performance elements” to center an application around (specifically impact, scalability, capacity building, sustainability and cost-effectiveness). The infographic document is less helpful for writing a proposal, but provides a clear road map of the typical grant process, illuminating the standard chronology of an application approval and the information on the roles of involved parties. All of these documents added to my holistic knowledge grant proposals by giving me a clear idea of what to emphasize and focus my efforts towards. Mr. Meadows also emailed me a few lengthy documents on how to use program logic models when writing about institutions, though he (correctly) noted that such information might not be entirely relevant for my purposes.
On January 23, I began researching different grants to apply for. I primarily examined the opportunities offered by the Bohemian Foundation, a Fort Collins agency that provides funding for local cultural events and institutions. I looked into their Community Event Fund, taking all of the relevant information regarding the grant’s application requirements and rules. The Community Event fund offers financial support for activities that encourage community-building and would likely work for our exhibit if we had enough time to meet the application date. I also researched the Bohemian Foundation’s other grant, the Pharos Fund. Lucien Meadows gave me some helpful information regarding the Museum of Discovery’s history in applying for these grants, recommending that I visit the Foundation in person in order to more accurately assess their requirements and regulations. I recorded all my findings (Bohemian Foundation Grant) on a Google document and shared them with the rest of the grant-writing team, though nothing seemed to come of it. Still, this early research was a good way for me to get an idea of what grant foundations usually look for.
On February 1, Carly Boerrigter and I met with Catherine Kane, the grant specialist for the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. Our meeting was brief but informative. Ms. Kane instructed us in how to navigate through the various levels of bureaucracy within different grant foundations. In addition to providing us with a few more learning resources, she also offered financial advice which benefited the exhibit’s budgetary team. I told her that I was concerned about the viability of applying at the Bohemian Foundation, and she responded by giving me information on a few smaller grants, including the Lilla B. Morgan Fund and the Fort Fund. Carly and I each had a set of questions prepared for Ms. Kane, and I recorded all of the answers and shared them with the rest of the team (Meeting with Catherine Kane). This meeting was extremely helpful, and I was glad to discuss the challenges of grant-writing with a specialist. Ms. Kane has agreed to further help us with the application process once we decide on a grant.
My follow-up research on the Fort Fund leads me to conclude that it may be a feasible route to take if we still desire to get actual funding. Time is quickly running out if we are to meet the deadline, however. I am gradually realizing how lengthy the grant-application process is and am more pessimistic about successfully obtaining financial aid. I intend to fill out a “fake” application in order to at least simulate the application process, but I would personally prefer to achieve an actual grant. Overall, however, I have learned a great deal about the labyrinthine nature of the application process, and am mostly pleased with my input, though I feel that the team has delayed taking the next step for too long.
Update for Final Evaluation:
Most of the progress I had made on grant writing stalled once the class entered the Design and Fabrication phases of the project. Any feasible window for pursuing a real grant application quickly closed once we began to assemble the exhibit itself. After the April 6 opening, I began to gradually revisit some of the materials I had gained from FCMoD and also acquired a few more. Dr. Cauvin recommended that I look into a grant-writing guide by Sonya D. Lovine called Taking Public History for Granted. Lovine’s work is very comprehensive, though the application structure of the grant I ended up applying for ultimately restricted some of its resourcefulness (for example, I did not end up needing to include important structural components such as an attention-grabbing title or a list of appendices). Nonetheless, Lovine’s advice was still generally helpful, especially in reminding me to always write in a manner that directly appeals to the specific goals of the grant foundation. The materials from FCMoD, especially the eCivis guide, were also fairly helpful during the writing process. While less detailed than Lovine, they gave me some important points to focus on in my application, primarily in describing how the exhibit would specifically impact the local community.
I had initially toyed with the possibility of applying for the Fort Fund grant, but as I researched it, I realized that it might not be the best fit. The Fort Fund emphasizes an attraction’s ability to draw in tourists and promote local art, which is not the main focus of our project. I therefore applied for the Pharos Fund, which stresses the importance of community engagement and collaboration. Given the cooperative intentions of our exhibit, that seemed like an appropriate grant to pursue. Using the recommendations from my sources, I wrote up a mock-application using the text-box format employed by the Bohemian Foundation. This restrictive application process hindered my ability to write a lengthy standard-structure grant, but its focused questions helped me stay on point in my answers.
After finishing the proposal, I took the draft back to Catherine Kane on April 26. Ms. Kane approved of my responses and offered suggestions, which I later implemented. She also walked me through the remainder of the grant application process, explaining where I would normally submit a proposal and how long the procedure would take. My final proposal draft also includes some of the extra documentation that is typically required for the Pharos Fund. I still would have preferred to submit a real grant application, but I feel confident about my abilities to successfully draft a proposal.
Collection Management
Although I downloaded PastPerfect in early February and watched a few online tutorials for it, most of my collection management work began during our first history harvest on February 10. I served on a small team that recorded potential objects for the exhibit. I gathered information regarding three sets of objects (a hymnal, a synagogue’s photograph collection, and a pair of family portraits) and later shared the data with the class via Google Drive.
I intend to learn how real collection managers utilize PastPerfect in greater detail in order to get a better idea of the program’s strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully, PastPerfect Software has a detailed YouTube channel with numerous instructional videos on how to operate the program, and I am gradually progressing through their material. The channel contains beginner videos for navigating the software and adding new items, the latter of which has provided me with useful suggestions for ways to categorize objects at future history harvests. These particular videos are short, but give a basic overview of PastPerfect’s fundamental operations, as well as some of the common procedures used by its practitioners. More advanced materials and online seminars exist on the channel, and I will continue to peruse their content, though I doubt this exhibit will require much advanced knowledge on the subject.
Update for Final Evaluation:
One of my main objectives following the last evaluation was the mere creation of an entry in PastPerfect. Now that we have received a few objects, I have successfully done so. I first experimented with PastPerfect in early March by creating my own entries with files in the program’s existing database. I initially populated metadata fields with my own information, though I gradually learned more about how to properly organize these records by reading official manuals on the subject. Although I am still learning more about how to appropriately utilize Dublin Core in this database, the program itself seems fairly straightforward. The rosary beads on loan from the Museo de las Tres Colonias contained enough relevant information for me to try to make a legitimate entry, and I populated its identification fields with as much data as was available. This particular group skill did not require as much time as the others, though I tried to integrate it wherever possible. For instance, I edited our history harvest forms to include some of the core organizational criteria used in Past Perfect.
Mount and Display
Initial activities for this skill-set centered around building an inventory of available mounting equipment at Global Village Museum. Jillian Lobner assisted me in the inventory process, and each of us took precise measurements and counts of all the shelves and display cases offered to us. We later converted our notes into a digital document complete with photographs of each unit. I am keeping note of which display cases will be most useful for the final exhibit, though my judgments hinge on whether we receive any objects to actually display. Knowing what Global Village can provide will greatly inform the exhibit layout process.
Most remaining work on Mount and Display must wait until after further History Harvests have been conducted. The group members for this skill have informed each other of which tools and workspaces they can provide for when we begin the fabrication process. In the meantime, I am gathering construction resources and researching materials that may be useful for the exhibit. The Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums has a very helpful guide for collections and exhibition construction materials. Although I have prior experience working with several of the items listed here, such as Foam Cor and MDF, this document has introduced me to several different tools and supplies that I want to experiment with. Furthermore, CWAM’s guide also contains an extensive list of Colorado-based and national suppliers for each material.
Update for Final Evaluation:
My activities on the Mount and Display team grew much more frequent between the first evaluation and the exhibit opening. Most work for this skill began after we returned from break in mid-March, though I started to investigate possible materials we could use once construction began. I referenced the CWAM materials guide to see if Global Village Museum had any of the more specialized items listed, but aside from foam-cor, I did not find much available. One idea that I wanted to implement was the use of removable vinyl decals for wall and floor use, as these decorations could add to the atmosphere of the exhibit. On April 6, I entered into email correspondence with Sierra Tamkun, the lead graphic designer at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery to get some recommendations for where to buy some rolls. None of the locations she mentioned to me fit within our budget, but Sierra later agreed to let me use FCMoD’s vinyl cutting machine if I managed to acquire some material.
Work began in earnest in late March. By April 27 I had found a reasonable supply of vinyl and ordered it. In the meantime, the Mount and Display team began to experiment with various placements for display cases and photographs. Drawing upon discussions from our lectures and recommendations from Stellers Gallery, I set about placing prints of the gallery’s photos along the hallway around a mid-point line of 60 inches (as opposed to Stellers’ 58 inch suggestion). After measuring out consistent spacing between each photo, Dustin and I mounted many of the frames.
During the final days of March, I designed a flip-up repeat photography panel for the visitor and audiences team. Dustin and I constructed the panel out of a 3′ x 4′ sheet of particle board, which we then attached to the front wall of our exhibit. Standard construction techniques were required to safely attach it to the wall, but we easily secured it by drilling it into the studs. In addition to this task, I also helped some team members deal with obstacles posed by the museum’s glass display cases. One notable instance involved the case containing our collection of expensive Native American artifacts. Rather than make the case flush against the wall, we desired to angle it so that it would become more noticeable to guests. Unfortunately, by doing so, we left the back of the case exposed to the public. Museumdisplaycase.com is a resource containing several helpful suggestions for improving security measures, but our cabinet was too simplistic in design to implement any of the ones I studied. In the end we heavily taped the back panels of the case, which appeared to dissuade any would-be thieves.
The bulk of my activities during the exhibit construction process mainly focused on mounting wall-based objects (mainly photos and labels). This is largely what I did between April 4 and April 6, with the evening of April 5 being entirely composed of installing wall-vinyl quotes. The process of mounting these was long and methodical. I was familiar with putting up vinyl from previous museum experiences, but found it helpful to review the standard preparation and installation procedures. The act of mounting these quotes continued until literally minutes before the official opening on April 6, but the end result appears worth the trouble.
On the whole I am very pleased with the work I did on the Mount and Display team. The construction process occupied an intense but relatively short amount of time compared to some other group-skills. I found it very helpful to also be a member of the exhibit layout team, since that crossover gave me more freedom to quickly rearrange items if necessary.
Exhibit Layout
Exhibit Layout is an area in which I am very excited to develop my skills. My work in this area began during our first visit to Global Village Museum on January 23. I stayed behind after class so I could record the dimensions of the available gallery space with a tape measure. Various obstacles and obstructions were taken into account. I shared a modified version of the Global Village floorplan (with my measurements included) with the rest of the group.
Shortly after measuring the gallery space, I started work on a SketchUp blueprint of our exhibit area. My progress on this blueprint had been erratic since recording the initial measurements, but I eventually converted it into a three-dimensional model in late February. I am not finished refining the design, but I am pleased with the accuracy of this somewhat rudimentary construction. With a digital model of the Global Village gallery space in hand, the exhibit layout team can visualize how the exhibit itself can take shape. Having a clear way of exploring the physical possibilities of the gallery will also greatly aid us in the more difficult task of using the space to frame a narrative for the objects. As we move forward, I want to continue to refine my SketchUp abilities. The program is very helpful for visualizing the spatial layout of a gallery, but I am dissatisfied with the crudity of my models. Thankfully the Trimble company, SketchUp’s creator, has website that features numerous tutorials and book recommendations for developing one’s skills in building realistic models of spaces and displays. MasterSketchup.com also contains numerous lengthy tutorials for realistic construction and increased building speed.
Update for Final Evaluation:
As with Mount and Display, my activities on Exhibit Layout escalated in the weeks before the exhibit opened. Most of the intense work occurred throughout March, and primarily focused around my continued work on the Sketchup document of the Global Village interior. Using a tutorial, I learned how to add some visual depth to my schematic by constructing glass display case models to populate the space with. With this handy and increasingly realistic blueprint, the exhibit layout team and I started to experiment with different layouts of pictures, labels, and cases. Sometimes I would sketch out drawings of potential patterns and then integrate them into the document in order to get a better idea of how the end result would look.
A serious challenge soon faced the exhibit layout team as we neared the deadline. In early March, we were tasked with determining how the narrative of the exhibit would take shape. The confines of our museum space limited our possibilities for visitor flow, and we quickly decided that a linear, single-direction path through the exhibit would be the most efficient way to experience it. While I developed a visual pathway in Sketchup (which would be actualized through vinyl footprints in the real exhibit), the team debated the benefits of presenting our individual subtopics in a chronological fashion or a thematic one. Design professor Saul Carliner advocates for a thematic approach when presenting a complex subject matter, and I felt that that method offered much more flexibility in the presentation of the overall narrative. Additionally, I completed the Sketchup document on April 2.
By March 20, we had developed a broad layout of the exhibit. The museum’s central hallway allowed us to structure a thematic storyline within the confines of two chronological points – the distant past and the present day, panels of which would bookend the entrance and exit to the exhibit. Less than a week before the opening, I found a way to bridge the remaining subtopics (which were composed of photographs) into a logical and somewhat cohesive sequence. I do not think many museum guests perceived the connections between each subtopic, but the end result seemed less jarring than what a purely chronological approach may have offered.
Graphic Design
I began formulating ideas for logos on January 21, though my progress was hindered by the general lack of a clear vision for the exhibit itself. I researched several commonly accepted symbols of immigration like monarch butterflies and immigration papers, but had trouble conveying the concept’s connection to Fort Collins in a purely visual medium. I am currently experimenting with combining images of Horsetooth Rock with more general immigration symbology. I have a few variants of a logo featuring a monarch butterfly on the Rock, but I am still frustrated by how to convey the complexity of our exhibit topic in the form of a simple image.
I temporarily suspended my work on the logo in early February to prepare a flyer for our charrette and history harvest. Kim Selinske, my partner on the Graphic Design team, provided me with a rough outline of the flyer, which I imported into Illustrator and Photoshop. I drew a silhouette of the Rocky Mountains for the document’s background imagery and stylized the preexisting text into something more aesthetically pleasing. I also modified a digital outline of Horsetooth Rock that Kim gave me and integrated it into the silhouette. I then produced monochromatic and inverted versions of the flyer for black and white prints and sent the results to Kim, who then shared the images with the class. I am pleased with the end result of the flyer and am currently working on alternate versions of it for future harvests. I have also modified the image for social media use, specifically as a logo for our Instagram account. My one reservation regarding the flyers is that their imagery does not imply anything about immigration. I will be more selective when drawing up flyers for the exhibit itself.
Although I have experience with most of the different programs in Adobe Design Suite, my preferred platform for image creation and editing is Adobe Photoshop. I want to increase my versatility by mastering other programs during this project, especially Adobe Illustrator, the dominant graphic design platform. I initially tried to use Illustrator for the History Harvest flyers, but my inexperience quickly hindered my efforts, so I reverted to Photoshop. I intend to predominately use Illustrator for media regarding the final exhibit, but I need to research how to utilize it effectively. Adobe itself offers detailed instructions on how to master the basics of the program on its website, though I may need to consult graphic design blogs and websites for more nuanced lessons. I also intend to contact the graphic design team at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery for technical advice and information on graphic design theory. Elizabeth Bogle’s Museum Exhibition Planning and Design proves to be another valuable resource for theoretical instruction, especially for understanding how to achieve high accessibility with museum labels. Bogle breaks down the composition of several types of museum labels and explains how to balance out text and imagery in ways calculated to keep visitors’ attention. I am still studying this book, but it will be very useful for when we begin to build the physical exhibit.
Update for Final Evaluation:
I am satisfied with the progress I made in graphic design. I remained just as busy after my first evaluation as I was before it, though I am more pleased with my more recent work. After many more unsuccessful attempts to develop a suitable logo for our project, on March 6 I finally found a agreeable option in the form of passport stamp imagery. By using an online tutorial, I made a stamp logo in Photoshop that seemed to convey the general idea of moving to a new place. After some brief experiments, I settled on a blue stamp over a faux letter background (a design aesthetic that we would also use for our exhibit banners). This shade of blue eventually dominated all of our subsequent labels and became a core color of the exhibit itself.
I helped to a lesser degree in designing labels and panels, though I did find Susan Bogle’s discussion of label aesthetics in Museum Exhibition Planning and Design to be fairly informative, especially in terms of understanding their impact on general audiences. Overall I found more value in Beverly Serrell’s Exhibit Labels. Not only is her book more comprehensive regarding labels, but I found Serrell’s detailed breakdown of fonts notably useful when trying to determine the visual look of the vinyl quotes. I ended up using a sans serif font choice, which was much easier to read when plastered on a wall. Her book also briefly touches on vinyl lettering itself, and gave me some resourceful suggestions regarding the minimum size at which I should cut the letters.
Not every aspect of graphic design went smoothly during the last half of the semester. Firstly, I greatly overestimated my ability to master Adobe Illustrator in such a short amount of time. Although I briefly experimented with Illustrator and free design software like GIMP, I primarily worked on expanding my range with Photoshop. Second, I committed a very notable blunder in the production of one of our primary advertising posters. Although I was very meticulous in achieving the final design of the image, I overlooked a critical spelling error in the center of the picture (the fact that I had misspelled “museum” of all words made the error particularly galling). I corrected this mistake soon after being notified of it, but was too late to prevent the spread of several incorrect prints. This was a good learning experience though, and I will be more careful in the future.
Visitor and Audiences
Until late February, little progress had unfolded for this group-skill. Other skill-building processes took preference during the early months of the exhibit. Visitor and audience analysis generally progressed on an unplanned, informal basis during these early weeks. As we started to engage more directly with different immigrant communities in Fort Collins, I tried to gauge the general opinions and sentiments of the people we spoke with (such as Jerry Gavaldon).
On February 20, the class appeared to reach a consensus on what topics the exhibit was going to focus on. Now the visitor and audience team is going to start making a more pointed and deliberate effort to brainstorm methods of engaging patrons through the exhibit. I regret not giving this skill as much focus as I should have until this point, but intend to play a more active role in tailoring the exhibit towards a more clearly-understood audience.
The visitor and audiences team finally assembled for a brainstorming session on February 26 (Visitor and Engagement Proposals). Our primary objective was to formulate ideas for interactive visitor activities. I came up with a few suggestions that we may pursue, such as an activity in which patrons would be presented with a single suitcase and a variety of different items. The items would range from the purely practical (common clothes, shoes, etc.) to less useful, but more culturally emblematic objects (heirlooms, traditional clothing). Visitors would be prompted to prioritize which objects they want to bring and would broadly simulate some of the decisions that historical immigrants had to make. Will one focus on the continuation and maintenance of one’s traditional culture, or will the visitor’s choices reflect a greater emphasis on starting over in a new land? I also proposed the fabrication of a large panel board featuring a series of flip-up panels with modern and archival photographs on them. The board will function like as an interactive guessing game, with the photos depicting different historical sites associated with immigration. We intend to link this activity with the related walking tour currently being assembled by other teams.
Now that we are shifting more towards a focus on the visitor experience, I am learning more about how to use museums as an active space for engaging with the Fort Collins community. The Gensler Research firm has a helpful report on audience interaction called Engage: The Future of Museums, which contains recommendations on how to turn museums into dynamic, visitor-centered learning sites. The report stresses the importance of developing thought-provoking programs that clearly communicate the museum’s mission both inside and outside of the institution itself. I will incorporate some of their more notable suggestions into my future audience activities, such as exploring a variety of engagement styles ranging from the quiet and receptive to the loud and creative. Furthermore, the report contains examples of ways in which different museums throughout the world try to cater to an increasingly diverse set of audiences. Sometimes this process is as simple as including multiple languages for exhibits, though all the subjects generally tried to reduce feelings of exclusion among their communities. Since our project heavily relies on collaboration and participation with members of the Fort Collins community, these strategies will be particularly crucial to implement.
Update for Final Evaluation:
Although I am content with most of my progress in my group-skills, Visitor and Audiences is the area in which I have made the least headway. I was fairly focused on visitor engagement throughout much of the semester, and suggested a few methods for increasing the exhibit’s interactivity during the visitor team’s brainstorming session in late February. Two of my ideas, the weigh-a-beet game and the repeat photography board, grew to be fairly popular attractions on opening night, and apparently continue to garner attention. Despite the success of these interactives, I do not think that I have appropriately followed them up with sufficient analysis or visitor evaluation. Sources like Marianna Adams’ lengthy statistical report on different variations of engagement and evaluation are extremely beneficial to my understanding of how to gauge the depth of visitor interactions with our exhibit. However, I do not think I gave myself enough time to flesh out that aspect of this particular group-skill.
