Saturday, October 2, 2010

The Big Idea

What's the big idea? That is what our next MM Team meeting will be looking at.

"Good exhibits focus on a limited topic, communicate their messages, and have personal meaning for the audience. A Big Idea is a sentence - a statement - of what the exhibit is about. It says what is going on using a subject, an action, and a consequence. It is not vague or confusing …. When the majority of visitors can easily, cheerfully and unhesitatingly answer the question, 'What is this exhibit about?.' there is good evidence for comprehension and significance." (Taken from "What's the BIG idea?" by Beverly Serrell.

Here are three BIG IDEAS that I will be sharing on Tuesday with the MM Team and I look forward to seeing the ideas they came up with for this homework assignment.

1) Michael's Museum is a look at the joy and magic of life, asking you to visit the value of "small objects" in your family's world of experience and learning.

2) Michael's Museum: Experience & Play, Explore and Learn, Enjoy and Share, Enter a small world of joy and magic.

3) Michael's Museum provides a backdrop for intergenerational family interaction, sharing, learning, and play through exploring the beauty, joy, and magic of "small objects."

2 comments:

jyourist said...

So size does matter?

Michael Horvich said...

Never said it didn't;-) The MMTeam is playing with scale. For example: 1) Lots of little donors to raise big support, 2) A BIG idea for LITTLE items, 3) A HUGE opening reception for a collection of SMALL things. One of the team members hoped that MM would become an ICONIC experience for visitors to CCM, How's that for big? Finally, Barbara Mahany in her follow up Chicago Tribune article on MM said, "Here is a man who loves littles, dreaming quite largely in scale."