A Grassroots Effort - Smithsonian Exhibits

After a long winter, it looks like spring is finally here. What better way to celebrate than by visiting Smithsonian Gardens?

Smithsonian Gardens creates and manages the Smithsonian’s outdoor gardens, interiorscapes, and horticulture-related collections and exhibits. It is a “museum without walls” and one of the few gardens to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).

Smithsonian Gardens oversees more than a dozen gardens.

Recently, Smithsonian Exhibits worked with Smithsonian Gardens to develop an interpretive master plan for their new exhibition series, which will tie together all of their gardens with a single theme. The theme for 2019–2020 is Habitat.

An interpretive master plan identifies the exhibition’s stakeholders and target audiences, outlines key goals and objectives, establishes an interpretive hierarchy, and provides a road map forward for launching a new exhibition.

One of the first steps in the process was to identify the exhibition’s “big idea” or overarching message. For Habitat, the big idea is “Protecting habitats protects life.”

This was truly a grassroots effort, involving the entire Smithsonian Gardens staff, including educators, horticulturists, and landscape architects. Staff members were invited to come up with proposals for exhibits, which were included in the final interpretive master plan.

Images collected by Smithsonian Gardens’ staff provided inspiration for the individual exhibits.

Exhibit concepts include sculptural elements and other structures that mimic natural habitats.

Horticulturist James Gagliardi leads SIE’s team on a tour of the gardens.

As part of the project, SIE’s senior exhibit graphic designer Madeline Wan worked with Smithsonian Gardens to develop a logo for the Habitat exhibition that evoked the idea of habitats as homes.

The Habitat logo will appear on all of the exhibition’s materials.

SIE exhibit developer/writer John Powell (yours truly) reviews a map of the proposed exhibits with the IMP team.

One of the most exciting parts of Smithsonian Gardens’ exhibition series is that it connects and unifies many different parts of the Smithsonian. Being “One Smithsonian” is a key goal of the Smithsonian’s new strategic plan.

A map showing the proposed Habitat exhibits, which will be spread across the National Mall and at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.

The final IMP was launched at the Smithsonian Institution Exhibits Share Fair in February.

You can read the final IMP on Smithsonian Gardens’ website here.

Habitat will launch in 2019 at a garden near you. In the meantime, get outside and enjoy the spring flowers!