A Collaborative Approach to Exhibition Making

Making exhibitions takes creativity, collaboration, and a well-supported process. A Collaborative Approach to Exhibition Making is a practical and succinct guide for everyone managing or working on collaborative teams doing this creative work. It covers new and essential processes for creating exhibitions, moving from idea generation all the way through project opening in an approachable and supportive format.

Emily Saich and Joey Noelle Scott share their perspective along with tried-and-tested tools to help collaborative teams build trust, generate ideas, communicate effectively, and develop shared understanding. They dive into planning projects, understanding budgets and schedules, facilitating creative design and development, managing feedback, selecting contractors, and closing out a project. Whether you’re leading the creation of a new exhibition or engaged in any part of the exhibit making process, you’ll find useful and insightful methods to support a collaborative approach.

Emily Saich has twenty-five years of experience managing the planning, development, design, prototyping, and fabrication of exhibitions and innovative visitor experiences. She has worked on several award-winning and influential exhibitions and managed projects for all types of museums and organizations including science centers, natural history museums, children’s museums, public gardens, performing art centers, art museums, historic sites, zoos, and aquariums. Emily is director of Exhibition Projects at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she leads project strategy for major exhibitions and guides collaborative teams through design and creation of visitor-centered experiences. Emily has served on the board of the National Association for Museum Exhibitions and has experience teaching graduate level museum studies at Johns Hopkins University. Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in studio art from California Polytechnic University, Humboldt, an MFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, and is a practicing artist.

Joey Scott is manager of Exhibition Project Delivery at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she leads project teams that create innovative exhibitions to inspire conservation of the ocean. With 20 years of experience in educational and museum settings, she’s led a diversity of projects, including the creation of curriculum, professional development programs, digital products, libraries, and exhibitions. She’s built expertise in facilitation, program development, and project management, with a particular focus on developing processes that support collaboration and creativity. She has served on the board of the Southwest Marine Educators Association and as a reviewer for Science and Children, a publication of the National Science Teachers Association. Her formal training includes a Bachelor of Science in genetics, an MA in education, and Project Management Professional and LEED AP ID+C certifications.