Latest work as Curator

It has been quite a while since my last post. In that time I've been busy working full-time at different institutions creating and collaborating on work in which I have been able to take pride. I would like to showcase some of it here. Each part of my work is presented here as the most recent at the top of this posting.

The following 4 Pictures are of a showcase exhibit for the Fort McMurray International Airport's new Observation Lounge that I produced as Curator of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame.  

This was installed in January 2015.

I was sent a draft of a educational wall panel that would be installed in the Observation Lounge that had images of bush pilots who had operated out of the area. From that I selected which artefacts I would use in the display area provided for me. I chose to tell a story combining an artefact with a corresponding photograph from the available archives. The hope was to bring the person and the artefact 'alive' in conjunction with each other.

The following was part of major project to replace the 30 year old Member exhibit panels which were too large for the exhibit space.  As a Hall of Fame, with new Members each year, it is easy to eventually run out of space, regardless of how big that space is.  In this case approximately 200 exhibits had to be reduced in size so the public could view them all.  The photos below show the solution derived at.  To the left can be seen the older style being replaced.

This was a very involved, multi-part process. After the panels themselves were produced and ready for installation, all the previous elements had to be removed - much easier said than done. The background was painted, then, velcro was used to hold the new Sintra board in place on the wood.

Much trial and error was involved, to get the process standardized.  

2014 panels created in time for the induction ceremony in May.

This is an example of one of the panels created for Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014. All the photos are from the Hall's archives and some had to be treated with Photoshop to remove signs of damage. 

The following 5 pictures are of some of the 5 sets of 6 panels I prepared, designed, and wrote for the City of Leduc, Alberta that are placed in their Walk of Generations Park.  They were installed in 2013.

The photos were pre-selected for me by members of  Leduc's Community in Bloom committee and from there I researched them, gathering as much information on them as I could, figured out how to place them in relation to each other, Photoshopped where needed, and wrote the captions based on the information I uncovered.

The following pictures are of the Entertainment - 1890 - 1940 exhibit I worked on at the Wetaskiwin Heritage Museum in 2012.  As of 2015, this exhibit is still in place.

This case originally had a tablet computer showing a loop of 5 silent movies. The curtains are genuine theatre curtain material and were set up exactly as designed in the 1920s with a painted backdrop. The sides and top of the case are glass to give a 'cross-section' view of the stage and 'wings'.

The exhibit was divided into various sections by different types of entertainment. These included types of theatre, including film...

 ...home entertainment, as seen in the case on the right,...

...festivals and Chautauquas, and not pictured, a case on bands within Wetaskiwin County and one on how picnicing fit into the entertainment scene.  

The following pictures are of other exhibits and elements I worked on to improve the overall feel of the Wetaskiwin Heritage Museum.

Pioneer of the Year and Women of Aspenland exhibits. These were recreated from cardboard and foam core, respectively, panels to Sintra board, redesigned on computer.

Sintra board panel the excerpts of letters from WWII soldiers from Wetaskiwin to a local family who sent care packages or 'comfort parcels'. To accompany the panel a mock up of a comfort parcel was created along with actual artefacts that would have been included, as well as instructions on how to complete a parcel from period magazines and newspapers.

For existing exhibits I designed and had printed Heading panels for each section of the museum.

A panel that I completed, started by a previous employee, as one of my 1st assignments when I arrived to work at this museum.