Exhibits Case Studies

Madison Children's Museum

100 State Street
M adison, WI 53703

608.256.6445 (p)
608.268.1398 (f)
John Robinson (contact)
jrobinson@madisonchildrensmuseum.org (e)

http://www.madisonchildrensmuseum.org

• Institutional Sustainability Mission
• Sustainability Guidelines for Contractors
• Learning from Leopold and Seuss, (pdf) Brenda Baker (Madison Children’s Museum), Guest Editor, Hand to Hand, volume 20, Spring 2006
• Seeing Green, (pdf) Jeremy Schoolfield, Fun World, The International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions, June 2005
• "The Sustainable Museum: It's Not Easy Being Green," (pdf) Brenda Baker and John Robinson, Hand to Hand, volume 14, Winter 2000

Hmong at Heart

Project Size: 1,000 sq. ft.
Project Budget: $750,000 (10 venue traveling exhibit)

Exhibit/Project Description:
Hmong at Heart is a 1,000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit on the recent history and culture of the Hmong people featuring three mini-environments: a Hmong village in Laos, a refugee camp in Thailand and a typical Hmong American home, along with an informational introductory area. The exhibit is one of seven currently traveling as part of the ACM and Freeman Foundation's Asian Exhibits Initiative. The project allowed the Museum to experiment with many new, sustainable building materials as we created environments and components that echoed the traditional building materials and techniques employed by the Hmong.

Factors Affecting Decision to "Go Green":
Working with the traditional building materials and techniques of the Hmong people provided opportunity to learn about new sustainable materials such as bamboo, woven bamboo sheathing, rattan, elephant grass. While less comprehensively green than other recent MCM projects, Hmong at Heart remains an important step along the way to a more sustainable Madison Children's Museum.

Awards or honors:
The exhibit won the American Folklore Society's 2004 Dorothy Howard Prize for Folklore and Education.

Distinguishing green features:

• Sustainably harvested wood component construction
• Sealed construction plywood is V.O.C.-free
• Zero-V.O.C. paints and stains used throughout
• Structural Bamboo construction
• Woven bamboo wall coverings
• Wool area rugs
• Natural elephant grass thatch

Green products used:

• Safecoat paints and sealers
• Livos stains
• Sustainable, regionally harvested bamboo 

Piece of advice for others regarding project:
While not completely free from conventional materials, Hmong at Heart remains an important step along the way to a more sustainable MCM. Potential projects will always hold unique challenges for the emerging green designer but each will also offer opportunities to experiment and learn. Hmong at Heart allowed our team to learn a great deal about working with bamboo, an increasingly inexpensive and highly sustainable building material.

New or Upcoming Green Projects:
Since the opening of Bridges, MCM has continued renovating other galleries and incorporating more sustainable practices into all of our exhibit development and operational strategies. As we prepare to expand into a new and larger facility we will bring our sustainability mission to the design process for both the building and all new exhibits.