For Exhibition
Development
The
University of Pennsylvania
Museum (UPM) has been awarded
its largest exhibition grant ever: a three-year, $1.7 million
continuing grant from the National Science Foundation to
support an innovative exhibition project, Survivor:
The Place of Humans in the Natural World.
The
first year of the award, effective January 1, 2004, is
for $610,560. The continuing grant, approved on scientific
and technical merit for three years and contingent on the
availability of funds and the scientific progress of the
project, would continue for a total of $1,675,030.
Survivor:
The Place of Humans in the Natural World, is planned
as a 3,000 square foot traveling exhibition--to open at
UPM in 2006--guiding the visitor through an exploration
of the process and consequences of human evolution in
the context of its implications in daily life. The exhibition
material will be presented through diverse sensory and
multimedia techniques and interactive devices, including
an interactive web design and a content "morphing studio."
"While
the Museum has received a number of important NSF grants
over the years, this is the first NSF grant for an exhibition," said
Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff, Williams Director of the Museum
and Principal Investigator for the high-tech, conceptual
project.