Behind the Scenes Look at the Michigan Historical Center

Last Thursday our class went to the Michigan Historical Center for the second time. I thought that this visit was very informative and helpful for our project on I-496. On our first visit, we didn't really explore the museum's exhibits. This time we got to walk through a couple and talk to Maria Leiby about how they were constructed and some of the problems that staff faced when designing the exhibits. I think this was helpful for our class because it gives us some background knowledge when we are working on our project. It raised some questions that we will have to negotiate as a group - what are we including, what are we not including, what are our goals for the exhibit, who is our audience...

I really enjoyed seeing the room where a lot of the artwork was constructed for the museum. It is incredible what people can create and restore and it made me realize how much work goes into creating an exhibit in a museum. It is so much more than just thinking of an idea and constructing it. You need to plan and design and create from scratch. It seems we have a lot of work ahead of us, but like the MHC staff said, all the work is done in groups so everyone helps each other.