The Project: Future Museum for the Milwaukee Public Museum, Thinc Design (Opening 2027)

Tracing its roots back to 1884, the Milwaukee Public Museum is among the nation’s oldest and most beloved natural history museums. It is also Wisconsin’s most visited museum. Beginning in 2021, Thinc Design joined with Ennead Architects to reimagine a new building and exhibit experience that would replace the institution’s aging downtown Milwaukee facility. Over the last three+ years, we have worked closely with Museum staff and community members to produce a one-of-kind, immersive museum experience that will transform how people engage with local, regional, and global history.

My Role: Head of Content and Senior Curator, Thinc Design

I have been responsible for leading all aspects of content development for this tremendous project, from Concept Design, through Schematic Design, Detailed Design, Control Documentation, and now fabrications and install. This role requires a demanding balance between big-picture thinking and unwavering attention to detail. Through monthly visits in and around Milwaukee and Wisconsin, I have helped to foster crucial relationships between the Museum and members of the public, the press, and existing and prospective donors. I have worked with a robust curatorial team and other subjects specialists to identify thousands of objects for display out of a collection of four million artifacts and specimens, and conducted in depth scholarly research to support objects’ and specimens’ interpretation. In addition, I have worked with Thinc’s multidisciplinary team to develop an exciting menu of media and interactive experiences that meet universal design standards, while also leading staff and community workshops, and tracking project goals and timelines. Finally, I am responsible for developing exhibit scripts for all permanent galleries, including interpretive graphic panels and hundreds of unique object labels.

Critical to any 21st museum, I have championed accessible and inclusive design standards across the project, and pushed ethically-responsible approaches to the display and interpretation of material culture belonging to Indigenous communities worldwide.

Learn more here.

The Project: Showstoppers! Thinc Design (2021)

In the summer of 2021, as theatrical venues cautiously re-opened in the wake of COVID-19 shutdowns, Thinc Design partnered with the Costume Industry Coalition (CIC) to create an exhibit spotlighting the dressmakers, tailors, haberdashers, and many other costume makers who make live entertainment, TV, and film possible.

Showcasing over 100 iconic costumes from Broadway, ballet, opera, cruise ships, television, and film, Showstoppers! offered visitors an immersive look into costume maker’s workshops, up-close access to authentic costumes, and live demonstrations. The show raised charitable funds for 56 independent businesses and artisans in and around New York City who had been crippled by COVID-19 closures, and was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Global Futures Design Awards.

My Role: Interpretive Planner and Content Lead

Working on a lightning-fast timeline and a meager budget, I oversaw and executed every element of the exhibit’s content from start to finish. Whether fashioning the exhibit’s interpretive vision, conducting fact-finding site visits and on-camera interviews, or drafting and editing the exhibit’s interpretive copy, I collaborated closely with 3D and graphic designers, the media production crew, as well as CIC members themselves. I also offered hands-on support during the exhibit’s install to ensure that all costumes, media, lighting, and interpretive signage was installed correctly and to a high standard.

Click here to read the New York Times Review.

The Project: Jordan: Land of Innovation, Continuity and Change, Thinc Design, (2017)

The Jordan Museum (Amman, Jordan) is the capital city’s leading cultural institution for the preservation and interpretation of the region’s ancient and complex past. In 2017, Jordan’s Year of Science, the Museum undertook a different kind of exhibit that would attract new audiences—especially students—and focus public attention on a legacy of creative problem-solving that has characterized the people of this region for millennia. Featuring a selection of the Museum’s remarkable ancient artifacts, the spatial narratives focus on five themes that are acutely relevant now as they were in the past: water, food, energy, communication, and cultural identity. Media and hands-on interactives invite visitors to explore these critical aspects of modern life and to consider how their own decisions and behaviors may impact Jordan’s future.

My Role: Interpretive Planner and Content Developer

As Thinc Design’s Content Lead on this project, I was responsible for shaping all elements of the exhibit’s interpretive content from inception to completion. My responsibilities included drafting and executing the exhibit’s Interpretive Plan, working closely with the Museum’s curatorial staff to select stories and artifacts, and concepting and drafting media briefs for interactive experiences that would bring thousands of years of Jordanian innovation to life. To supplement the Museum’s in-house expertise, I also conducted interviews with present-day Jordanian scientists, engineers, and innovators. The project required me to work in collaboration with Thinc’s 3D designers, graphic designers, and content coordinators, as well as with our subcontractors, partners, and primary client, Her Royal Highness, Princess Sumaya bint Hassan. I also authored the interpretive text for the exhibit, and worked closely with a team of translators to translate the text into Arabic.

The Project: Master Plan for the Philadelphia Zoo, Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG) with Thinc Design (2018)

For over 155 years, the Philadelphia Zoo – America’s first zoo – has connected people with animals to create meaningful and memorable experiences. However, the Zoo’s evolving urban environment, combined with its increasing need for environmentally and fiscally sustainable facilities demanded a more versatile campus. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Thinc Design teamed up to dream a wholly new approach to the Zoo’s current site. We proposed an expansive vision, which considered forward-looking technological infrastructure, universal accessibility, visitor flow, and planning for day-to-day operations and events. Moreover, the plan that put the resident animals’ welfare and visiting humans’ comfort first. The future zoo will be as dynamic as the living creatures it nurtures—changing with the seasons, shifting across day and night, varying over landscapes.

My Role: Interpretive Planner, Thinc Design 2018

Working in tandem with Thinc’s 3D design team, I drafted the Interpretive Plan for the proposed site, prioritizing themes that would educate and empower visitors, while also building empathy with the resident animals and their wild cousins. I prepared the approach to and materials for ideation workshops with Zoo staff, collaborated closely with BIG’s team of architects, and spoke alongside Bjarke Ingels at high-stakes presentations to the Zoo’s leadership team, board, and donors.

The Project: Hidden London, London Transport Museum (2015-2017)
In 2015, the London Transport Museum launched Hidden Londonto provide exclusive access to some of the city’s most secret spaces: miles of underground tunnels, Second World War-era bomb shelters, and London’s first skyscraper, each linked to the capitol city’s iconic transit system. In its maiden year, Hidden London sold 11,000 tickets in a matter of hours, making it one of the city’s most sought-after cultural experiences. The 2016, the tour schedule doubled its reach. Hidden London has since won numerous awards, including Best Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year (Museums + Heritage, 2020) and Best Hidden Gem in the UK ( Tiqet’s Remarkable Venue Awards, 2022).

My Role: Interpretation Manager
As Interpretation Manager, I developed Hidden London’s unique voice, messaging, and narrative content, ensuring that every tour is as enjoyable as it is informative. Working with an enthusiastic team of tour guides, researchers, and designers, I conducted primary research into archival collections and onsite visits to craft narrative tour scripts and signage, as well as contribute to souvenir booklets, all of which unveil the secret histories of six unforgettable historic sites.   

Photos courtesy of London Transport Museum.

The Project: Building for the Future (2013-2015)

The National Army Museum (NAM) is the leading authority on the history of the British Army and cares for a collection representing over five centuries of global history.  By 2012, the Museum recognized that its outdated exhibits and dwindling attendance numbers threatened its long term sustainability. In response, NAM launched an ambitious initiative, Building for the Future, which rejuvenated its public facilities,overhauled its exhibits, and re-energized its working culture. After five years of planning the complete re-design of all back-of-house and public spaces, the new museum was re-opened by Queen Elizabeth II on March 16, 2017.

My Role: Manager of Interpretation
Serving as NAM’s Interpretation Manager from 2013-2015, I was part of a core team developing the new museum’s permanent exhibits. I worked within a high-pressure, deadline-driven environment in collaboration with curators, collections specialists, and designers to deliver the galleries’ conceptual, schematic, and detailed designs.  My responsibilities included supporting senior staff in project management, drafting and refining the galleries’ themes, story lines, and interactive experiences, advocating for future visitors’ needs and interests, and mentoring NAM's community liaison in creating, executing, and evaluating public engagement projects. 

Images and photos courtesy of National Army Museum.

The Project: Cheshiahud Challenge (2012)
Each Fourth of July, thousands of Puget Sound residents converge on Lake Union to enjoy Seattle’s annual Independence Day fireworks display.  Yet few attendees appreciate the lake’s long history, dating back centuries before white settlers arrived.  The Cheshiahud Challenge – named for one of the last Native Americans who lived on Lake Union’s shores  – was a family-friendly scavenger hunt sponsored by the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI). It tasked locals with a six mile journey of discovery into the lake’s rich commercial, agricultural, and industrial past.  Hundreds of people of all ages participated in this one-day activity, puzzling through clues and seeing the landscape as they never had before.

My Role: Project Management, Research, and Interpretation
As MOHAI's Manager of Programs & Community Engagement, I oversaw the Cheshiahud Challenge’s content and logistics.  With support from my public programs team, along with staff and volunteers from a variety of partner organizations, I researched the site, selected content, and developed interpretive methods (including using MOHAI Minutes) to deliver information and clues about the Lake Union's history.  I initiated partnerships with local stakeholders, including Starbucks and the Bumbershoot music festival, and earned support from private property and business owners along the lake’s shores to ensure participants felt welcome and encouraged to explore.