Museum Planning
Strategy, Feasibility, Implementation and Exhibit Master Planning
This is where FRAME earns its name: whether you are an emerging museum or an established organization seeking to expand or refresh your space, effective planning provides the “FRAME” for the work ahead.
Designing the process is as important as designing the project, as you confirm that the path forward is one that inspires your team, engages your stakeholders, and matches your resources—whether those resources are measured in time, capacity, dollars or space.
Children’s Museums
KiDiMu - Kids’ Discovery Museum
Bainbridge Island WA
The outdoor space at KiDiMu has great potential with significant open space, grade changes, planting areas, and a fenced perimeter. The site provides several opportunities to welcome, engage, and excite children as they approach. The outdoor space can also act as an independent gallery, rich with experiences and programs. (With Allison CraigSundine and MxM Landscape Architecture.)
Mid-Columbia Children’s Museum
TriCities WA
In collaboration with MGMP, FRAME is assisting the team at the emerging Mid-Columbia Children’s Museum as they set the stage for a children’s museum in the Tri-Cities region of Washington State. The museum task force has identified a significant visitor catchment area and is poised to bring an important resource for children, families, and educators into their community.
Grand Island Children’s Museum
Grand Island NE
The Grand Island Children’s Museum is now EPIC!: a facility that will serve children from birth through middle school and welcome families from the diverse communities surrounding Grand Island. The planning process confirmed that the Armory—a city-owned building available for development—would be a great place for EPIC! and that the parents, educators, business leaders and officials in town are as excited as the children for the museum to emerge.
Fairbanks Children’s Museum
Fairbanks AK
When in doubt, buy the building! The Fairbanks Childrens’ Museum hopes to grow into its current site by expanding exhibits and programs as well as welcoming community offices, therapeutic and support spaces. The planning process helped staff and board imagine how the building could be used, engaging visitors in focus groups to set priorities as the museum and community navigate the road ahead.
Museums and Visitor Centers
Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum
Jackson WY
The Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum was ready to expand, and the FRAME Strategic Planning process positioned them perfectly for the larger project.
Board and staff revisited the mission, vision and key values for the organization, and confirmed that key stakeholders had unified goals for the project. Working through the building program, preliminary exhibit stories, and procurement strategies, as well as estimated project costs and schedule, Alissa helped JHHSM to set expectations and define the scope of the project.
The museum opened in 2024 to great reviews, with strong roots in the planning and community engagement work that set the stage.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles CA
After a pandemic closure, The Getty was poised to expand their offerings for their youngest visitors. Through a series of workshops and planning sessions, a concept emerged: encourage children and families to be curious, engaged, and excited, while featuring the museum’s incomparable collection and site, and creating opportunities to play - with art!
SUMM - Seattle Universal Math Museum
Seattle WA
Turning the idea of SUMM into a physical space requires a framework by which a rich set of ideas become a quality set of visitor experiences.The FRAME team began organizing the wide range of potential activities, programs, exhibits and interactives that could be part of a math museum in a manner that will create a coherent, inviting visitor experience.
Since a site had not yet been selected, the Concept Design illustrated how the exhibits at SUMM may be organized, independent of a selected physical space. The SUMM team has taken it even further, defining specific opportunities for installations in renovated gallery spaces, “pop up” environments, and as traveling exhibits.
