Wayne LaBar
Vice President: Exhibitions and Theaters
Liberty Science Center
Exhibitions and Theaters
285 West Side Avenue, Suite 268
Attn: Exhibits
Jersey City NJ
07305
USA
http://www.lsc.org
Wayne LaBar, is the Vice President of Exhibitions and Theaters and is in charge of overseeing the thematic content, exhibitions, large format film program, 2D and 3D design and overall design aesthetics for Liberty Science Center, located in Jersey City, NJ, just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. With 20 years of museum exhibition development/design experience, Wayne is spearheading the development of a suite of new experiences that are part of a multi-year $104 million experience renewal program that will transform Liberty Science Center when it reopens in 2007. The goal of this initiative is to make the Center's informal experiences for the general visitor more relevant to their everyday life and global issues, not only to educate, but to inspire action, address ongoing developments in science and technology and enhance the learning and aesthetic environment found at the Center. Recently, Wayne and his fellow team members are exploring how to use new advances in technology and their resultant social changes to advance the exhibition field. This includes projects such as Science Now Science Everywhere or SNSE (http://snse.lsc.org) a mobile device project and the Exhibit Commons (www.exhibitcommons.org)
Wayne joined Liberty Science Center in 1999 from The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The Tech Museum opened in 1998 to international acclaim as a state-of-the-art science center facility with over 180+ exhibits that cover cutting edge technology and science. In his five-year tenure as Director of Exhibits and Director of Exhibit Implementation, Wayne's responsibilities included oversight of the development, design, fabrication and all other aspects of implementation for all exhibits that were part of this new facility.
Prior to joining The Tech Museum in 1994, Wayne began his career as an engineering trainee with the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and then as a research assistant with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. While still in Pittsburgh, he had project responsibilities at the then-new Carnegie Science Center that included a wide range of experience in exhibition development, budget management and grant writing. Wayne then went to work at Krent/Paffett Associates, Inc., based in Boston, where he had project management responsibilities in exhibition design and development. Clients included the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, North Alabama Science Center, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Science and Technology Museum of Atlanta, Tampa Museum of Science and Industry and Missouri Botanical Gardens.
Originally from New Jersey, Wayne has a Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Wayne attended the Getty's Museum Leadership Institute and is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Wayne will present Exhibit Commons: Using the Internet for a new exhibit paradigm. [Paper]
