Integrating a Traveling Exhibit, Catalogue and Educational Web Site
Chuck Barger, Interactive Knowledge, Inc., USA
E. Michael Whittington, Mint Museum of Art, USA
http://www.ballgame.org

Session: Integrated Publishing

The National Endowment for the Humanities along with NEA and the Rockefeller Foundation awarded funding to the Mint Museum to develop an integrated project that could become the definitive work related to one of the most pervasive but little understood aspects of pre-columbian cultures - the ballgame. The idea was to organize a traveling exhibition that was supplemented not only by a catalogue, but also by a large scale and comprehensive educational web site.

The approach pursued produced an outcome that is more than the sum of the three individual parts. The traveling exhibition is the result of years of international negotiations and research. It represents the first time that many of the most valued artifacts related to the ballgame have appeared in one place. The catalogue includes eleven articles written by leading scholars in this field and over 150 pages of color photographs. It is the most definitive work to date on the history of the ballgame and its relevance to modern society. The educational web site is a comprehensive treatment of the subject that is accessible to school children and scholars alike. It presents an educational context for understanding the exhibition and catalogue that greatly enhances both the museum and catalogue experience.

The paper and presentation will include the results of a series of interviews with school children, teachers and members of the general public that describe the many ways that the educational web site helped enhance the overall exhibition experience.