GHM EXHIBIT VISIT.

[1] THE VOICES EXHIBITION:

 In my personal opinion, the "Voices" exhibition is the most informative and interesting part of the museums offerings. Unlike most of the other exhibits, "Voices" featured many interactive features including video and sound. Although the geometry and arrangement is curvature in nature, the exhibit circulation is very simple to understand, with panels creating passageways to follow through to the end. The collaborative accounts from Greensboro citizens from many walks of life really spoke to the overall theme, It takes a little bit of everyone's story to create the novel that is the founding and building of Greensboro. Although the objects displayed, clothing, everyday artifacts, and photographs, were noteworthy and interesting, I believe the points at which you could hear a retelling of someone’s personal story made this exhibit speak to the viewer. The transition into this exhibit is also more successful than those of the rest of the museum, you begin in a dark space, lined with important quotes in Greensboro’s history. As you follow these along the wall, suddenly you find yourself in a larger room, beginning the actual exhibit. I believe other exhibits from the museum would be much more successful had they began this way. The unit to the whole is one of the prominent themes in this exhibit, bringing together many individual stories to tell the story of a singular place. Another effective tool in place in this exhibit was artificial lighting, which the museum employs to show hierarchy within the individual showcases. The lighting is shined specifically on important artifacts, photographs, and paintings (mostly along the walls) and the center is kept dark to move you towards the objects themselves, forcing the viewer to take the time to explore them. This was my favorite exhibit out of all the museum offered.

[2] THE PERIOD ROOMS AND POTTERY DISPLAY:

The period rooms and pottery display was closely my least favorite of all the exhibits. I found it difficult to understand the pottery’s existence in the historical context of Greensboro. The lighting was completely artificial and extremely dim, making it somewhat hard to read all of the information behind the display case glass. The exhibit, however, was symmetrical and balanced, being circular in nature, which resulted in simple circulation and use. I felt that I was able to view the entire exhibit without worrying if I had missed any of it. I found the period rooms to be much more compelling than the pottery, as if it outshined the objects with which is shared space. I was disappointed that the rooms were on the outskirts and were dimly lit, as if the pottery were much more important in terms of hierarchy. I thought the rooms themselves were intriguing and were extremely beneficial to more visual people, such as myself, in really aiding in getting into the mindset of historical Greensboro. The concept that I got from this exhibit was the exposing of ways that Greensboro went about establishing itself in the world. It was about explaining how early citizens of Greensboro drew on successful ideas from already established societies and integrated them into the making of their own new city. My suggestion for ease of experience would be pulling key points from the lengths of text to display as importance rather than expecting people to read textbooks of information and to remind them, lighting makes all the difference.

[3] THE "GATE CITY" EXHIBITION:

Being a visual person, the Gate City exhibition was by far my favorite exhibit throughout the museum. I felt that the surprise of walking right into this large recreation of this old town was extremely, yet pleasantly, unexpected. I felt the form and finish of this was compelling, each part of the exhibit unique to the space it was trying to recreate, giving the feeling of being blasted back through time. I also appreciated the mechanics of this exhibit, employing the use of motion censors to sense when viewers were in the room, thus triggering the voice of the characters to activate.  There were also many other interactive features to this exhibit such as tangible artifacts in the drugstore, movie showings, telephone connections, and a working classroom. The circulation of the space was well understood, circular in nature, a viewer can move around the town square from building to building with ease, certain not to miss anything. The lighting  was purely artificial, dim to recreate a summer night in the historic Gate City. The most compelling part of this exhibit was the fact that it is unexpected, as a viewer enters this part of the museum through a churchlike second story, one does not expect to find themselves in a hotel lobby, ready to step out into a recreation of 1900s Greensboro. I think the overall concept of this exhibit is to transport people to a time separate from their own, allowing them to tangibly experience and understand, in life size recreations, historic Greensboro.

[4] THE "DOWN HOME" EXHIBIT:

finish feels very temporary in nature. The exhibit is made up of a series of white display cases and other various objects. Although small, the tectonic and mechanic nature of the exhibit consisted of a few videos and an interactive kitchen. They used these features to give the viewer much of the information, considering the exhibit is traveling and it results in less to move. The lighting in this exhibit wasn't very specific, as it was not permanent, it felt as if they didn't put endless effort into creating the right lighting for the objects on display. The circulation and use of the space, although clear, was somewhat choppy and I found myself and my party constantly split over what to look at considering there were cases all along the walls and in the middle. In those terms, there was no real symmetry and balance in the Down Home exhibit, more of placing things where there was room and in the shape of the room itself. I felt the overall concept and theme of the Down Home exhibit was the integration and understanding of different religions into the population of Greensboro, in an effort to display how diverse and forward thinking we are as a city. Not my favorite exhibit but also not terrible considering that it was strictly temporary in nature.

[5] GIFT SHOP:

Initially, it's obvious that the gift shop is completely out of place. It is placed in between two existing exhibits, causing a break in the museum experience. Generally, gift shops should be placed at the end of the museum so that viewers can buy things that they have learned about throughout. The items available in the Greensboro Historic Museums gift shop vary from small trinkets to dolls, books, scarves, educational things, to jewelry. I think that most of the paraphernalia in the gift shop has some correlation to the museum and helps in a viewers understanding and experience of it, therefore the shop is successful in that respect. However, I'm curious to know how the profit margin was affected upon its move from lobby to its current location.

Voices Exhibit // Gate City Exhibit

Pottery Room Exhibit // Down Home Exhibit