This paper provides an overview of the Audience Research Consortium of Toronto, comprised of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo, the Ontario Science Center and the Royal Ontario Museum. These groups have a shared vision of attracting a larger and more diverse audience-one that includes nontraditional and multicultural groups. This paper outlines how this group developed, acquired funding, hired a consulting group, and created a proposal and research plan. Preliminary findings are also briefly summarized.
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Art Gallery of OntarioRoyal Ontario MuseumOntario Science CentreMetropolitan Toronto ZooWoods Gordon Management Consultants
WQED and the Pennsylvania State University have created a new archeology series titled Time Travelers: Rediscovering the Past. This eight part series will present in compelling terms the recent scientific innovations in archeology and how new techniques have added startling insights into past civilizations. The programs are aimed at the general public and will reach an estimated 7,000,000 people. The series is thematically organized around vital issues such as: New Worlds; Great Spirits; Scribes and Subscriptions; The Artisan; Power and Prestige; The Hearth; Realms of the Maya; and Collapse. A major traveling museum exhibition will parallel the series and a trade book will be developed. The Annenberg/CPB project has authorized $2 million towards production and development of instructional materials for use as a college level course. WQED has an outstanding track record in development of television series. They have won over 100 national awards in the past ten years including ten Emmys and a Peabody award. The have a distinguished Advisory Committee to oversee accuracy of content. This series is a well designed, comprehensive and effective presentation of a most "visual" discipline. Reviewers were all enthusiastic about the series and characterized the production as innovative and thoughtful.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jay RayvidWilliam SandersJoanna Baldwin-MalloryDavid Webster
The Florida Museum of Natural History proposes to prepare two versions of a traveling exhibit in the context of the Columbus Quincentennary. The purposes of the exhibit are to show the natural history of the Caribbean at the time when Columbus arrived and to describe the rapid modification of those natural environments for European economic gain. The exhibit will manifest two components, both of which will travel to other museums. One exhibit of approximately 3000 square feet will originate at the Florida Museum of Natural History and then will move to eight other museums around the country. Another exhibit of about 1000 square feet will travel to a different series of smaller museums, libraries and college galleries.
WGBH/Boston in association with the Chedd-Angier Production plan the production of a series of five one hour public television programs on the environmental history of North America, "A Continent Transformed". Each of the programs will emphasize a key process which has shaped American environmental history: biological invasion, drawing boundaries, linking transportation and market systems, projecting ideals onto the landscape, and increasing the pace and complexity of systematic change. The principal author of the series and its on camera host will be William Cronin, a leading ecological historian. The series will be assisted by a prestigious Advisory Board, educational materials will be developed for series classrom use, and 8 million viewers should see each episode when the series airs in the Fall of 1992. NSF support will represent approximately 10% of the project total.