Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh Exhibit Design

An excellent starting point for understanding the philosophy of the museum was the following text provided in 2016 by Rebecca Grabman.

Mission Statement

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh provides innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity, and curiosity.

Philosophy: Play with Real Stuff

The Museum’s “play with real stuff” design philosophy promotes an organizational commitment to the use of authentic materials and processes in its exhibits and overall design. Intrinsic to this approach is a deep respect for the Museum’s visitors, and the belief that a well-designed environment that utilizes sustainable and quality materials, affords visitors, children and adults alike, a comfortable and empowering museum experience.

Design Principles

  • Design process: When designing visitor experiences, the Museum employs the design process of collaborative ideation, iteration, and reflection. Frequent prototyping of designed experiences is the essential characteristic of the Museum’s approach to exhibit development.
  • Sustainability: Sustainable practices that reduce cost and environmental impact of exhibits are implemented through the choice of products and materials, the intended use of the experience over its lifespan, and potential for re-use or repurposing.
  • Flexibility: Elements of the space (furniture, materials, tools, etc.) are constructed in a way that allows for varied use, reconfiguration, and repurposing. Museum experiences encourage flexible thinking and allow for emergent outcomes, where visitors are encouraged to experiment, discover and determine their own path of exploration.
  • Universal Design & Accessibility: Applied to museum experiences, universal design is the design of components and environments that are usable by all people without the need for adaptation or specialized design. Universal design principles are integrated into all exhibit design, including hands-on interactive components, signage, and programming.
  • Multi-Layered: Visitor experiences at the Museum are designed to allow for repeated and varied use by visitors. Exhibits enable frequent visitors to experience familiar exhibits anew, and encourage visitors of any age to engage in experimentation and discovery.
  • Shared Experience: Experiences designed by the Museum purposefully encourage a shared interactive experience between visitors. This sharing is often between parents and children or among visiting children of diverse ages.
  • Simple and Intuitive: The Museum works to create exhibits that, through simple and straightforward design, enable intuitive engagement and use by visitors of all ages. This becomes a functional as well as aesthetic principle of practice, allowing the Museum to keep instructional signage to a minimum, and as a result, broaden visitor interpretative use and accessibility.
  • Tough Enough: Designed for the explicit audience of children and families, all exhibit elements within the Museum are built to be robust and able to withstand extensive and aggressive visitor use.

Original Document

These principles and a history of the museum can be found on the following document supplied by the Museum: History and Design Philosophy Handout - CMP.pdf

Museum Spaces

The museum has a number of spaces potentially available for projects. The visitor information page includes a floor map. The following outlines some of the pros and cons of each option:

  1. MAKESHOP
    • Access to outlets
    • Mediocre lighting
    • Limited access to overhead support
  2. Studio
    • Natural light
    • Restricted access to outlets
  3. Garage
    • Noisy
    • Some outlet possibilities
    • Lots of movement around / overhead
  4. Buhl Hallway
    • Usually very dark
    • Dependent on current Tough Art installation
  5. Nursery
    • Must be appropriate for very young visitors
    • Somewhat limited electrical access
  6. Waterplay
    • Not good for non-waterproof projects
  7. Cafe
    • Not within an exhibit space, but lots of foot traffic
    • Best at table-height rather than floor
  8. Theater
    • Dependent on the current installation/guest performers
    • Must not be too loud on a Saturday morning
    • Much larger space
  9. Backyard / Garden / Outside
    • Warm weather only (spring/summer)
    • No outlets
    • Large potential space
    • Cannot control the weather

Precedents and Resources

Over the past ten years, the Museum has hosted many artists in the Tough Art residency program to make new pieces for museum visitors. Each Fall is a new Tough Art exhibit. The Museum has a short Tough Art video explaining the program.

The Fred Rogers Center is working to develop technology appropriate for early childhood through research programs and fellowships.

Glossary

As we engage with the Museum, we will discover the particular terms and phrases which can shape our approach.

visitor
The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum is meant for all ages; the mission statement doesn’t specifically mention children. But the majority of children visiting are in the 3-5 year old range, so many exhibits are geared for young children and their parents or guardians.
intergenerational engagement
The interactions between children and their parents and grandparents.
facilitate
(fill this in)
complexify
The opposite of simplify: a process where the visitor chooses to engage more deeply, ask more questions, discover more, and find out complex properties which were not initially visible.
low walls, high ceilings
Providing easy points of entry for engagement, but high potential for long-term exploration.