attractive and "user friendly" to different audiences and differ- 

 ent exhibitors. Staff collaborate with curators and other project 

 team members to ensure that text, design, objects, and graphics 

 work together to create a cohesive, informative presentation. 



SITES continues to be OEC's major client. OEC designed, 

 edited, and produced numerous SITES exhibitions, including 

 The Flag in American Indian Art. We Shall Overcome: Photographs 

 from America's Civil Rights Era. The Art of Jack Delano, and 

 Women and Flight. (OEC staff responsible for The Art of Jack 

 Delano, an exhibition about documentary photographer Jack 

 Delano's portraits of the life and people of Puerto Rico, 

 traveled to Old San Juan to consult with Banco Popular, the 

 exhibition's sponsor and first venue. Women and Flight required 

 close collaboration with the National Air and Space Museum, 

 which was the exhibition's first venue.) 



OEC developed new uses for the small-exhibition format 

 (which it designed in 1995 in collaboration with SITES and 

 the State Humanities Council). One example is the Barn 

 Again! exhibition in collaboration with SITES. The four 

 copies OEC prepared of Barn Again! are giving underserved 

 communities affordable access to an exhibition about barn- 

 building in the United States. Another example, a collabora- 

 tive effort with SITES and the NMNH, is Vanishing 

 Amphibians, which offers a general scientific overview of the 

 world's frog population as well as an appeal for conservation. 

 OEC has begun consulting with STRI about developing a 

 Spanish traveling version of the exhibition. Other exhibits OEC 

 has considered for adaptation to the small-exhibition format are 

 the SITES exhibitions The Jazz Age m Fans. 1914— 1940 and Mar- 

 oon Cultures (to be adapted from a Folklife Festival presentation). 



OEC's collaboration with NMAH continued with develop- 

 ment, design, and editing services for Between a Rock and a 

 Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops. 1820— Present, one 

 of an ongoing program of NMAH exhibitions on the history 

 of work. Drawing on its extensive experience with traveling 

 exhibitions, OEC also advised NMAH staff on the traveling 

 aspects of the show, which represents NMAH's first traveling 

 exhibition under its own auspices. 



OEC continued to provide exhibition support to the Smith- 

 sonian International Gallery (IG). For American Voices: Latino 

 Photographers in the United States. OEC worked with an outside 

 registrar and outside designers, oversaw design and fabrication 

 contracts, edited and produced graphic panels, and installed the 

 exhibition. Other IG projects that required OEC development 

 and production were Strong Hearts and The Jewels ofLalique, 



OEC worked with a relatively new client — the Center for 

 African American History and Culture (CAAHC) — on a number 

 of exhibition projects in its Arts and Industries Building exhibit 

 space. These included Life on the Road: The Photographs of Milt Hin- 

 ton, Caribbean Visions, and The Jazz Age in Pans, 1914—1940. 



OEC continued to provide a full range of exhibition services — 

 from conceptual development to design, production, and 

 installation — for SI Libraries' Dibner Library exhibition gal- 

 lery. For Audubon and the Smithsonian, the OEC design/editing 

 team worked closely with NMAH curator Helena Wright and 



the SI Libraries to establish a focus and framework for this 

 multilayered exhibition. The exhibition garnered positive 

 media coverage, including a full-page review with color 

 photograph in Time magazine. 



OEC developed, designed, and prepared promotional 

 signage for the Visitor Information and Associates' Reception 

 Center (VIARC) desk in the SI Building. It also redesigned 

 the VIARC main desk in the SI Building to accommodate 

 visitors in wheelchairs. 



Modelmaking 



The opening of the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, 

 Gems, and Minerals at NMNH capped a two-and-a-half-year 

 OEC modelmaking effort. Major modelmaking components 

 of the renovated space include three full-size dioramas of 

 mines in Arizona, Missouri, and Virginia; a Coyote Creek 

 Fault trench peel and model; a model of a pyroplastic flow 

 from Crater Lake; a recreation of a San Diego tourmaline pocket; 

 and an eight-foot-diameter model of the Moon. OEC's work 

 was based on extensive on-site research, photographs, 

 sketches, and ongoing experimentation with modelmaking 

 materials and techniques. OEC also worked with the Special 

 Exhibits office at NMNH and curatorial staff to design the 

 Feather Focus case for the NMNH lobby. 



OEC managers met with representatives of the U.S. Holo- 

 caust Memorial Museum to discuss the prospect of providing 

 modelmaking and graphic production services. OEC agreed to 

 create reproductions of an armband and a desk calendar, both 

 belonging to the police in the Jewish ghetto of Kovno, 

 Lithuania, and which will appear in an upcoming exhibition. 



Fabrication 



OEC oversaw the installation of American Voices: Latino Photog- 

 raphers in the United States and Strong Hearts (IG); Women and 

 Flight (NASM); Audubon and the Smithsonian (Dibner Library, 

 NMAH); Life on the Road: The Photographs of Milt Hinton. 

 Caribbean Visions: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, and The 

 Jazz Age in Paris, 1914-1940 (all at the Arts and Industries 

 Building); and Yup'ik Masks (George Gustav Heye Center of 

 the National Museum of the American Indian in New York 

 City; OEC also built large exhibit cases for this exhibition). 



Exchange/Outreach/Training Programs 



Staff trained various museum personnel throughout the In- 

 stitution in methods of designing and producing high- 

 quality, low -cost, accessible exhibits. Among continuing work 

 was training staff from the MOVE department at NMNH in 

 objects processing, handling, and shipping as well as design 

 and fabrication of crates to assist in their move to the SI 

 Museum Support Center in Suitland, Md. 



As part of its program of educational outreach, OEC con- 

 tinued to train volunteers and interns from all over the 

 United States and abroad. Two retired government employees 

 working as VIARC volunteers helped OEC develop a formula 



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