In spite of 2020’s challenges, D&P completed four new exhibits this year.
D&P followed many of our clients and exhibit partners’ rapid shifts to remote work in the spring. Our existing, robust IT infrastructure enabled our project managers, detailers, and administrators to continue uninterrupted. Careful planning allowed us to safely return shop staff to work in order to maintain fabrication and installation schedules. In a year with unprecedented disruption, D&P met the challenge.
Southern Arizona Heritage & Visitor Center - Opened January 2020
The Heritage & Visitor Center in Tucson, Arizona opened beautiful new exhibits in 9,000 square feet of the city’s historic Courthouse. The Center’s various exhibits encourage Pima County visitors to explore Southern Arizona’s culture, food, heritage, ecology, and landscapes. Its amenities include a gift shop, mini-theater and several interactive displays that inform, educate, and direct visitors and locals alike to all of the local attractions.
“The history and culture of Pima County and its people are on full display at the new Visitor Center. Visitors and Tucsonans alike will enjoy the Visitor Center for years to come.”
Seven Storytelling Portals entice visitors to discover the region’s unique features, including the culture, food, flora and fauna, land and history. The Diversity Theater features rotating signature films on the region’s history and culture-rich community as well as firsthand reviews from others who have toured the region. Visitors create customized itineraries for touring Southern Arizona using the Topo Model and Diorama. In addition to the destination resources and interactive experiences, a Changing Gallery highlights Tucson’s local artists.
Visitors leave the Visitors Center inspired to discover a Pima County adventure.
Danville Science Center – Opened November 2020
The Danville Science Center (Danville, VA) did not allow COVID to interfere with its plans to install two new interactive, exhibit galleries. Rather, leadership embraced an opportunity to charge full steam ahead while the museum was closed to visitors.
Water
“Water” encourages discovery while leading to surprise. At 5,000 square feet, “Water” is the museum’s largest gallery, which coincidentally sits a few blocks from the Dan River. The interactive exhibits explore water through the lens of such scientific disciplines as space exploration, environmental education, oceanography and biology. The interactive stations literally immerse visitors in the subject as they wander through a rain maze without getting wet. They learn the impact of their personal choices as they interact with a wall that uses almost 2,400 water bottles to create data visualizations of water usage in everyday lives.
“A lot of people think, ‘I know water, that’s what we drink.’ Do you really know water?”
GO
“Go” is a call to action that embodies the drive for discovery and growth. The exhibition encourages visitors to fully engage their bodies and minds through a combination of inquiry driven science activities and physical challenges. They explore the intersection of physics and human motion to improve their mind and body.
Visitors both collaborate and compete as they work through a series of stations that test strength, flexibility, endurance, and speed. They monitor individual progress while seeing how collective efforts lead to a gallery-wide payoff event. This opportunity to build up the combined efforts of everyone in the gallery provides dual incentives to participate in the bigger, social experience while investing more focused time on individual outcomes and understanding. The interconnected exhibits foster an improved understanding of how efforts lead to results.
“It’s a lot of exhibits designed to show how science is relative to people’s everyday lives. t connects people to the science around them. It is a perspective-changing experience as opposed to a formal learning experience. ”
National Museum of the United States Army - Opened November 2020
America’s newest military museum opened on Veterans’ Day, November 11, 2020. The 20,000 square foot exhibit space shares the stories of individual Soldiers while examining the interactions between the Army and American society.
Eleven galleries featuring nearly 1400 artifacts link the Soldier experience from before the Revolutionary War to the most recent conflicts in Iran and Iraq. A variety of storytelling techniques including mini theaters, graphics, iconic artifacts, and immersive settings illuminate the challenges, accomplishments, sacrifices, and commitment of the men and women of the United States Army.
“It is my sincere hope that you will leave the Museum richer in your understanding, knowledge and admiration of our American Soldiers and the many parts they have played in this nation’s role as a global leader. ”
University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum – Opening to the Public Soon!
Sharing space inside the historic courthouse is the University of Arizona’s Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum. Though COVID precautions delayed the public opening, officials eagerly anticipate welcoming visitors to an expanded gem and mineral experience.
The University of Arizona’s flagship Mining & Geological program dates to its inception as the Arizona School of Mines to 1887. The region’s rich ore and mineral deposits fed late 19th-century industry, and local gems and crystals remain sought after today. Recognizing its educational value, the Arizona State Legislature first established a mineral museum at the University in 1893
The state of the art gem and mineral museum showcases the Earth sciences. The museum displays mineral specimens, gemstones, meteorites and fossils. It includes a dedicated Arizona Mining & Minerals Gallery and highlights the University of Arizona’s joint partnership with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In almost 12,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, the new museum features immersive activities, graphics, and videos. Exhibits tell the stories of mineral evolution; the mineralogy of Arizona and Mexico; and the manipulations of minerals into jewelry, carving, and art.
“We’re coming at it from a different direction. People of all interests will get something out of it. ”