Thursday, November 7, 2019

An Adler Planetarium Survey of Visitors and Supporters conducted in 2018 by Cygnus Applied Research Inc., showed that 32.8% of guests responded they came to the Adler to learn about our artifacts. 62% reported attending for Sky Shows, and 50.9% reported wanting a hands-on experience. While the Adler is working to create larger changes to address these survey results, new exhibits can be a great opportunity to directly address the issues above. They allow a museum or institution to create a new, fresh, and interactive experience for a more diverse, young adult audience. However, time and budget can often restrict our ability to meet these challenges. Keeping these challenges in mind, the Adler Collections Department worked with Zooniverse team members from the Adler’s Department of Citizen Science and with the Guest Experience team to create a new interactive for the upcoming “Chicago’s Night Sky” exhibition, opening in November 2019. In this panel, we will look at the creation of the “Mapping Historic Skies” in-gallery experience from our various points of view: as subject matter experts, interactive designers, and visitor experience representatives.

Session Type60-Minute Session (Professional Forum or Hands-on Demonstration)

Chatham House RuleNo

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants will be able to gauge visitor data to create content for audiences, turn large data sets into crowdsourcing projects while identifying reasonable goals for these projects. We will also hope to inspire the use of an existing platform for exhibition work, while focusing on the development of interactive workflows that engage both guests and the institution's mission. Participants will also see best practices for interdepartmental collaboration, and fitting an interactive within a larger exhibition narrative.

Speakers

Session Leader : Jessica BrodeFrank, Digital Collections Access Manager, Adler Planetarium

Co-Presenter : Samantha Blickhan, Humanities Research Lead/ IMLS Postdoctoral Fellow, Zooniverse/Adler Planetarium

Co-Presenter : Michael Stellfox, Guest Experience Admin & Project Manager, Adler Planetarium