During my Summer 2022 Internship at the Discovery Center at Murfree Spring, I worked on developing concepts for exhibit refurbishments based on their narrative and thematic elements. I developed these ideas by observing how the guests interacted with the different exhibit components and then provided suggestions on how to enhance the exhibits based on these observations and the space allotted for each exhibit. I also created pitch presentations for each exhibit which I presented to the museum staff. Working at the Discovery Center was an absolutely incredible experience that taught me so much about exhibit and experience development.
Farm to Table
The Cottage sits on the main floor of the museum. The small building evokes the feeling of a small house, furnished with a kitchen set, a play washer and dryer, and baby dolls. It creates a space for guests to act out or participate in narrative events around family structures and homemaking. While The Cottage is very popular with museum guests, it poses a few problems that the museum staff wanted to address.
- The Cottage was built on a seven-inch platform, so it is not accessible to guests with mobility challenges.
- The size and structure of The Cottage limit the interaction between the child guest and their guardian. Since it is so small, parents and guardians cannot accompany their children into the building and have to wait on a bench outside until their child is done playing.
- The building and play components are very old. The interior furniture is worn and needs to be replaced, and the exterior color scheme is outdated.
Something that I noticed while observing the space is that The Cottage is in very close proximity to a separate exhibit, The Market. The Market is comprised of two food stands stocked with food manipulatives and a manually operated conveyer belt. The two exhibits are separated by only about nine feet of space, which makes them seem narratively linked instead of two distinct exhibits. This is how most guests interpret the exhibits as well, as much of the food from The Market gets moved into The Cottage as guests are playing. This presents another challenge; when all the manipulatives are removed from The Market, there isn’t anything left to interact with.
One block = One square foot
My primary goal for this area was to create a narrative cohesion between these two exhibits by combining them into one since the guests already treat the two exhibits as one due to their proximity to one another. My first idea was to draw on the “Farmer Market” theme to create a farming area and transform The Cottage into some sort of barn or animal care center. However, after discussing this idea with my supervisors, they expressed that they had hoped to incorporate some sort of food service element into The Cottage renovation so that the guests could “serve” their creations to their guardians. This would type of interaction would make the guardian an active participant in the exhibit.
With this feedback, I modified my concept to transform The Cottage into a Farm to Table Kitchen.
For the proposed exhibit, the side of the building would be opened up to allow for the installation of a ramp up into the building to make it fully accessible. The front of the building would also be altered to include a large cutout window and bar-style table where guardians will be able to sit and observe their children working in the kitchen and then be served the “meal” that has been “prepared” for them. The interior of the building would also be renovated to include cabinets and cooking space.
The Farmer’s Market portion of the exhibit would be condensed and moved about nine more feet away from The Kitchen area to create a larger space in between the conveyor belt and the building. This larger floor space would be for the new exhibit components – an interactive garden area where guests can plant and harvest fruits and vegetables.
The narrative concept for this area would be that guests could plant or harvest different foods from The Garden. After harvesting the foods, guests could either take them to stock up or purchase from The Farmer Market. The guests could also take the foods into The Kitchen and use them to prepare a meal either from their imagination or by following visual and textual recipe cards. The pretend cooking component in The Kitchen also compliments the cooking programming that the Discovery Center hosts in their real, full-sized kitchen.
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors is an exhibit created to bring components of Tennessee wildlife into the museum. One of the most unique features of this exhibit is the Firefly Mural, which shows the different lighting patterns of local fireflies. Currently, the whole exhibit area has extremely low engagement, and guests hardly notice or use the custom Firefly Wall. My primary goal for this area was to add elements that would increase engagement and linger time, while also reinforcing the thematic element of fireflies throughout the rest of exhibit space.
During my observations, I noticed many guests completely skipping over the Firefly Mural. Upon interview, some guests expressed they simply didn’t notice the interactive element of the mural. My solution to this issue would be to add distinct signage for the mural to draw the guest’s attention to the area and hint at the interactive element. I also suggested adding scaled-up models of each of the fireflies behind their designated sign and button. Ideally, these models would contain a touch-activated bioluminescent element as well to add another interactive component to the exhibit.
To reinforce the theme of fireflies, and thus create more cohesion in this exhibit area, I also suggested the addition of a microscope station for the exhibit. Currently, there are two other areas in the exhibit area that are seldom used – a picnic table containing a Tennessee nature board game, and a small tent with nothing inside. Either of these areas could host a microscope station complete with insects local to Tennesee (including fireflies) encased in clear acrylic. The microscope station would also appeal to the older guests who visit the Discovery Center, fulfilling one of the current goals of the museum.
My other suggestions for this area were other hands-on activities that would provide the guests with more opportunities to make or do something in this area. These suggestions included: an animal habitat area, where guests could learn about and construct a beaver dam similar to the one outside in the wetlands; a fossil rubbing and magnifying glass station; and a fishing activity added to the boat, where guests could fish for and measure fish modeled after those local to Tennessee. Each of these activities would contribute to the evoked narrative of participating in activities in the Tennessee Great Outdoors.
Wheels Exhibit
The current Wheels exhibit at the Discovery Center was due to be updated in the future but was fast-tracked after a community organization showed interest in sponsoring a refurbishment/remodel of the exhibit. The Discovery Center staff asked me to do some preliminary research and planning to present to the interested sponsor.
The current exhibit area focuses on cars, simple machines, and trains. The exhibit area contains some awkwardly placed air ducts that affect the layout of the exhibit components. The train and car exhibits spill into one another, there is no clear guest throughline, and it is difficult to monitor multiple children from one stationary area. The Wheels Exhibit is much less popular with guests, possibly due to the limited number of manipulative and interactive components.
I started this project by first researching other children’s museums that have exhibits about cars to determine what types of exhibit components are popular in similar exhibits and how those exhibits structure their physical spaces and narrative elements.
During this research phase, I started to see that car exhibits generally fell into two narrative categories: exhibits based on engineering components and exhibits based on the car service industry. Engineering-based exhibits typically featured ramps of different shapes and textures, interior car components (such as the engine and steering systems), and the opportunity to design either a model or virtual car. Service industry-based exhibits usually included things like a walk-through car wash and a model car with interactive components like tires and air filters that the guests could change. The Discovery Center staff wanted to incorporate both engineering and service industry elements within a unified exhibit, but wondered how this could be achieved with narrative cohesion in the given space.
I started by mapping out the current floorplan of the exhibit to get idea for the physical space we had to work with. The floorplan demonstrates just how disjointed the current exhibit space feels. The museum staff expressed that they would like to remove the car under the glass and wall of model cars, since guests aren’t able to interact with either of these elements. The staff was also considering removing the simple machine component since the remodel would incorporate newer engineering elements.
In this floor plan, I re-imaged the space by removing the simple machine and car wall. I also removed the car under glass and moved the produce truck to that space. This floor plan opens up the area next to and behind the current service center. I proposed using the back corner as the location for service-industry components, such as the walk-through car wash, and the front area for the engineering components like ramps and car components.
For the second floorplan, I also removed the L-shaped wall and coal mountain structure. This floorplan represents a complete overhaul of the exhibit area. I wanted to provide multiple options for the space so the plan could be modified depending on the sponsor’s investment in the project. With coal mountain removed, there is enough space for both the train table and the model train in the Train Exhibit area. This creates an entirely open space, in which the car wash could be installed toward the front, next to the service center, and the back could be dedicated to the ramps and other engineering activities.
By restructuring the physical exhibit area and including new components, it would be possible to create an emergent narrative where the guests can take on the role of an engineer or service technician.
Tiny Town
Tiny Town is the area of the Discovery Center that is reserved for the smallest guests (under the age of five) and is themed after a small town. Its current iteration includes a small grocery store, doctor’s office, post office, workshop, and music store. Each section is stocked with manipulatives and activities that really lend to the emergent narrative structure of the exhibit. Children can pretend to work in a variety of professions or to be a patron of the stores.
Similar to The Cottage, Tiny Town presents some challenges that the staff is hoping to address:
- While the area is reserved for guests under five, older guests will frequently make their into the exhibit, which intimidates families with small children from making use of the space
- The grocery store area is the most popular component of the exhibit, but it is too small to accommodate multiple guests
- A large tree is installed in the middle of the town which detracts from the theme and makes it difficult for guardians to monitor their children throughout the exhibit
- The front left corner of the exhibit also detracts from the narrative of the exhibit because it is completely unthemed.
Photo courtesy of Discovery Center website.
The museum staff already decided that they wanted to move the doctor’s office into the music store location to allow for the expansion of the grocery store and that the large tree would be removed.
With the staff’s previous decisions in mind, I created the following floorplan to show how the space could be reworked to still include all of the current thematic elements, but also incorporate new elements that would reinforce and add to the Tiny Town theme. These new elements would include a Town Center, a Corner Park area including a music component, a flower rendering cart, and the option to expand the town with an additional store (shown in orange).
The designated Town Center would replace the large tree, resolving the current sightline issue. The space could be themed similarly to what is seen at Pretend City in Irvine, California. The Town City at Pretend City has the added bonus of including child-sized vehicles, which could easily be incorporated into the Discovery Center. This element would specifically add to the interactivity of the space.
I also recommended theming the front-left corner as a park, so Tiny Town would still have an element of nature and a component that encouraged gross motor skill development. This could be something similar to the City Tree House created by Boss Display, pictured below. Ideally, the park would also include some sort of musical component Tiny Town would retain a musical element even with the retheming of the music store to the doctor’s office.
In order to help differentiate the space from the rest of the museum, I also suggested adding new signage at the entrance of Tiny Town. The current sign hangs from the ceiling and is incredibly difficult to see (some members of the staff even mentioned they had never noticed the current signage before). The use of special signage in this area would accomplish several things. First, it would represent the narrative shift into the town – passing under the sign represents entering not just a museum space, but a small town. The signage would also help distinguish this area from the rest of the museum, which would ideally help families to mentally distinguish the area and adhere to the age restriction.
