Thursday, January 29, 2015

Water is Life Leak

-by the Interim Head Curator

We all know how crucial water is if you want to survive in the desert.  This week an experimental trail camera we set up on the museum property reminded us that even the smallest amount of water quickly becomes a welcome addition.  Even a leaky hose can support a thriving ecosystem.







Monday, January 26, 2015

Exhibit Text

For the last year, we have been working with Dean Weldon Exhibits to design and fabricate a permanent exhibit at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum. Today, we reviewed the final text panels for the first printing.

For six months we have been writing exhibit text. We have gone through prototyping and visitor evaluations. We had different groups of people come out the the museum and read the text out loud as fast as they could. This was to see how things read, and in fact this caught lots of issues.

On a panel about using natural materials as pigments for decorating ceramics 5 out of 6 readers read the word "plant" for the word "paint." This got corrected.

But today was about a final reading. Changing a "to" to a "for." Finding a sentence that used the word "might" twice.

I love the big ideas and the dreams. Now we are down to the details, and in a day or two we will be in print.