Section 1: Designing for Play Section 2: What is an Exhibit Master Plan? Section 3: Budget Planning Section 4: Glossary of Exhibit Terms

What is an Exhibit Master Plan? An Exhibit Master Plan is a vision - in words and illustrations – of the exhibits for your new museum. The Exhibit Master Plan articulates the themes, goals, and educational value of the proposed exhibits, and directs the integration of the Museum’s purposes into design functionality. At the same time as it serves as a blueprint for design, the Exhibit Master Plan also contains general information for prospective donors, references for grant writing, a roadmap for program planning and an educationally sound outline for launching strong partnerships with schools and other cultural institutions. The Exhibit Master Plan is a document that integrates the museum’s mission, vision, and priorities. As the foundation document for the museum, the Exhibit Master Plan guides the museum’s upcoming development and supports orderly, coordinated growth. The master plan is used to guide future decisions, thus helping the museum to be a unique and site-specific institution. Master Planning is distinctly different from design. The Exhibit Master Plan is the first step in realizing a museum dream. Design and design documents come later, and make it all happen. The Exhibit Master Plan is the outcome of a series of comprehensive and collaborative community meetings held with community leaders, current board and staff and children. The meetings capture the community’s dreams and aspirations for their children’s museum. All those good ideas inform the planning, which serves as the basis for exhibit design, and maps out the museum’s commitment to children, families, and the process of learning interactively. The exhibits are based soundly on the principles of child development and both informal and formal educational theories. The exhibits are designed to meet the developmental needs of children, with supporting activities for visitors of all ages. Imagining, problem solving, discovery, and open-ended exploration are encouraged, and objects and interactive components are presented in meaningful contexts. The exhibits are multi-disciplinary in that they integrate information from a variety of formal curricular areas (science, math, social studies, language and cultural arts). In developing the content of the exhibits, careful attention is paid to the state Educational Standards, so that all exhibits are furthering the goals of formal education, in the best informal learning environment possible. In addition, all the exhibit areas actively encourage early literacy experiences by fostering book and print awareness, a sense of story, and the motivation to read in a language-rich environment. Adult’s involvement in their child’s learning is an important consideration in determining exhibits and exhibit content. Elements of intrinsic interest to adults are included in every environment. By engaging adults at a variety of levels, the museum visit is enriching for everyone, ensuring that this is a museum where everyone plays – and learns! The Exhibit Master Plan is a critically important first step on your journey to opening a new museum. It generates enthusiasm and understanding for your project, and provides inspiration and knowledge that this new museum will be an essential part of your community’s future. For an example of one of my master plans, go to the Nevada Discovery Museum website and click on the link at the bottom of the page. http://www.nvdm.org/master.pdf © Mary Sinker 2007