UPDATE 12/07/10: Management, Programming, Gift Shop

Busy day for Michael's Museum at The Chicago Children's Museum today.


MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

This morning Natalie and Louise presented the Michael’s Museum executive summary to the Management Committee.  Everyone continues to be very enthusiastic about the project.  An interesting note is that as management gets more familiar with the project their questions get more specific and and involved. Everyone liked the tag line – A Curious Collection of Tiny Treasures, so we will go with that. Amy commented that per the Public Space team work, Michael’s Museum reflects the “mind body provocation” tactic:  the visitor encounters the unexpected within Public spaces; stimulates inquiry and kindles wonder, fuels the imagination, and challenges mind and body experiences”

PROGRAMMING SUB-TEAM
Today the Programming Sub-Team (Katie, Natalie, and Michael) met to talk about what kinds of activities and hands on experiences visitors to Michael's Museum would have. We reviewed the "plan" of the space and looked at how activities would be interspersed throughout the exhibit. We talked about the function of the "Curator's Desk" and how visitors could "pretend to be in charge" of Michael's Museum via various activities at that point. We discussed the importance of having pieces of the collection at all heights on the wall so little, bigger, and adult visitors could comfortably enjoy investigating the collections. We also talked about having "safe stools" for kids to stand on to get a closer look at things in the exhibit.


GIFT SHOP SUB-TEAM
Michael and Jasime, manager of the Gift Shop, met to discuss a Michael's Museum presence in the Gift Shop. Besides specific suggestions about the type of items the shop could sell that would be part of the "Tiny Treasure" experience, we discussed the buyers involvement from the third party that runs the gift shop for The Chicago Children's Museum. We also talked about the mechanics of displaying and merchandising to make the MM Corner visible and inviting. Finally we discussed the possibilities of creating product on our own that reflects Michael's Museum.

Meeting Update: November 16, 2010

This was the next to last meeting for "Concept Design" and before Thanksgiving. The majority of the meeting was spent looking at and talking about Jenny's colorful elevation drawings and sketches with sample furniture in place.


After what looked like much thought about design possibilities, Jenny really captured what the inside of MM@CCM might look like but wanted suggestions for the entrance/outside which she considered a difficult element of the design that was not quite right, in mid-stream, but having promise. 


It is always EASY to suggest corrections once the ROUGH DRAFT has been written by someone else. So it was with Jenny's presentation. Hopefully the group's feedback has helped Jenny as she returns to the drawing board to pull out more wonderful ideas from her creative supply!

Meeting Update: October 26, 2010

At the beginning of our meetings, each member of the team brings in a "small item" to share with the group. Adult SHOW AND TELL. I wish you could see the faces of my fellow team mates as they tell about their little object, how they got it, what it means to them. Truly joy and magic. 


During the focus of this meeting, Katie passed a basket of small cards each of which contained a picture of a person or group of people: all ages, all ethnicities, all types. Team members studied the pictures they selected and then we took turns "telling the story" of what these "museum visitors" did while they were visiting Michael's Museum. The stories were varied, beautiful, engaging.


About mid way through the stories I had tears running down my face as I realized the potential impact could have on all of these people. I never intended for this to happen. I never intended for MM@CCM to happen. It was just something I enjoyed doing: COLLECTING. 


Now here we are, the MM@CCM Team, as we build the "Magical, Joyful, Amazing, Amusing, Astounding" experience that will be available to thousands of children and adults who visit CCM.


I am moved beyond words. That's why the tears came.

Meeting Update: October 21, 2010

Our two hour meeting flew! We shared our small trinkets at the beginning of the meeting, went over the visitor surveys gathered by Ben, and did a "Brainstorming Web" describing what the "Entrance Experience" might be like. For seven minutes we wrote one word ideas (or maybe just a few words) on slips of paper. Next we generated some general categories, sorted our paper slips by category, and Katie wrote them all down on the dry erase board. Finally we each received six or seven stickers to note the items that we liked most strongly. An interesting and prolific list of ideas surfaced through the process. The team is almost at the half way mark of "Concept Development."