Design & Reproduction Services
Carnegie Science Center has designed and built hundreds of individual exhibit components, both for ourselves and for peer institutions across the country. These have been our own conceptions, reproductions of existing pieces we have in our galleries, or client-specified pieces.
Exhibit Library
Our library of exhibits available for production span a range of science content topics, from sound and light to the physics of flight and energy transfer.
Interactivity styles range from non-electric basic physics activities, to the latest high-tech full body interactives. With over half a million visitors per year, our exhibits have been field tested by literally millions of hands, young and old. We stand ready to reproduce some of our best pieces for your institution – both “as is,” or modified to fit any design look or theme.
Master Planning
The expertise which makes Carnegie Science Center one of the country’s most successful science centers can be brought to bear on your projects, from individual exhibits to full-fledged exhibitions. Including everything from site planning, content evaluation and selection, exhibit brainstorming and final selection, down to gallery traffic flow, interactive text writing, and production.
Carnegie Science Center employs a full in-house production staff and uses an exhibit development, production, and operation process that provides guidelines and procedures for the creation, operation and maintenance of exhibitions. This team and process, developed by CSC’s exhibits staff, along with educators and family advisory teams has allowed CSC to successfully produce over 75,000 ft.² of exhibitions, both permanent and traveling.
Development
Our exhibit development process requires participation, review and approval from many different departments in order to provide your visitors with the very best experience. Included on each exhibition team are professionals from the field, plus teachers and families representing our primary target audience. We will make your exhibition relevant and accessible to a diverse population, which leads to the audience ownership and empowerment that results in maximum engagement, enjoyment, and learning. Educationally, we can match your exhibit content with local, regional and national science standards, as well as make recommendations and/or write text copy, and provided teacher guides for your distribution and use.
Design
Our design team can work with everything from a napkin sketch through isometric and 3-D imaging to create the final fabrication shop drawings for your piece. Our design capability ranges from simple mechanical interactives to the engineering of complex electromechanical systems. For new exhibits, a prototype is almost always constructed to evaluate visitor interaction, engineering issues, ADA compliance, and design feasibility. Our team can also provide full graphics and text panel production services based on your content and exhibition design style or one recommended by us. Exhibit design is a critical element ensuring safety in security of exhibitions. We design exhibitions to be nearly indestructible, using quality materials available and with multiple safety features built in. Prior to approving any exhibition component for construction, it must pass 33 safety checks to final design review.
Carnegie Science Center’s fabrication shop houses a full complement of equipment, including a full machine and metal-working area, CNC router and other equipment to build nearly any structure. We have on-site machinists, electronics experts, and cabinetmakers handling a range of fabrication jobs, either designed here at CSC or from client-provided fabrication drawings. We have extensive experience with wood, metal, fiberglass and various plastic and acrylic materials.
For more information, contact:
Dennis Bateman
Director, Exhibit & Theater Experiences
Office: 412.237.3367