WTTW Journal; No. 502; Africa: A View From the Field

<v Speaker 1>For five years, WTTW and the Field Museum of Natural History have <v Speaker 1>collaborated on a unique project. <v Speaker 1>Documenting the museum's development of the nation's most significant permanent exhibit <v Speaker 1>on Africa. This joint Chicago venture offers an unusual behind the scenes <v Speaker 1>perspective entitled Africa. <v Speaker 1>A View from the Field. <v Speaker 1>This presentation is funded in part by the Henry W. <v Speaker 1>Meers Fund and the Field Foundation of Illinois. <v Narrator>[Drumming] On the shores of Lake Michigan, the city of Chicago, there is a building that <v Narrator>holds the secrets of the Earth and its people. <v Narrator>This is the Field Museum of Natural History. <v Narrator>And every year, millions of visitors walk at six acres of exhibit space to celebrate <v Narrator>the living wonders of the world. <v Narrator>Tonight on WTTW Journal, join us as we follow the museum's <v Narrator>incredible five year journey as they design, develop and build a sweeping 4 million <v Narrator>dollar exhibit on Africa. [Drumming]

<v Narrator>Africa. <v Narrator>For many, the word conjures up romantic images of exotic wildlife. <v Narrator>Vast plains and ancient tribes. <v Narrator>But what do we really know of this continent with its cultures as complex as its 53 <v Narrator>nations, a landmass three times larger than the United States. <v Narrator>And a history dating back to the origins of humans? <v Narrator>To better understand Africa's enduring influence not only on our past, but our common <v Narrator>future. The Field Museum is undertaking the tremendous task of building a permanent <v Narrator>African exhibit. The man in charge is Mike Spock. <v Michael Spock>It's not a simple story to tell. And the idea that we would try to take on

<v Michael Spock>any of it with is was really daunting. <v Narrator>However difficult the urgent mission of the Field Museum is to take on this dramatic <v Narrator>challenge in order to provide a greater understanding of the diversity of the world's <v Narrator>people. From the outset, the museum already had two key elements in <v Narrator>place. One, an internationally renowned collection of African artifacts. <v Narrator>And two, a thriving African-American community. <v Narrator>Curious about every decision being made. <v Michael Spock>Boy, the stakes for something like Africa. <v Michael Spock>We're talking about 40 percent of the population of Chicago and some <v Michael Spock>not just strong interest in it, but in fact, have their roots <v Michael Spock>in Africa as a continent and the cultures there in the stories <v Michael Spock>we're trying to tell about it. <v Narrator>As head of the Boston Children's Museum in Massachusetts, Spock tripled attendance to <v Narrator>nearly half a million with innovative hands on exhibits. <v Narrator>While they looked like child's play. The exhibits were the result of decades of research <v Narrator>and development devoted to creating learning experiences that engaged children and adults

<v Narrator>in new and exciting ways. <v Narrator>Because of his past success with challenging exhibits, the museum chose Michael Spock to <v Narrator>lead the Fields exhibit program in exciting new directions. <v Michael Spock>As we learn more about what a natural history museum ought to be in this day and age <v Michael Spock>and think more sensitively about how we ought to be and behave and <v Michael Spock>present our stuff. I think I've seen less and less weird and more and more like the norm. <v Narrator>During his 8 years at the Field Museum, Spock's unique approach has been both celebrated <v Narrator>and scorned. When his team built a full sized Egyptian tomb inside the museum, <v Narrator>allowing visitors to descend into a burial shaft, eyebrows were raised. <v Narrator>But attendance soared. <v Narrator>The new Hands-On and theatrical Pacific Island exhibit outraged some curators <v Narrator>who wanted a more traditional emphasis on artifacts. <v Narrator>However, Spock was determined to create an experimental environment that worked for both <v Narrator>connoisseurs and newcomers. <v Narrator>Spock knows his approach is not for everyone. <v Michael Spock>Some will look at us, I know and say, my God, we're gonna stay as far away

<v Michael Spock>from this as we possibly can. This is not the model for us and other places will eagerly <v Michael Spock>embrace it and say we might do a little differently. <v Narrator>And 100 years ago, when the Field Museum was built in 1893, it <v Narrator>was something truly different. <v Narrator>It was created to house the art and artifacts gathered from the world's Columbian <v Narrator>exhibition. Nearly 30 years later, the museum moved to a new <v Narrator>site in Grant Park. <v Narrator>Thousands of men and women put on their Sunday best and braved the lake wind to pay a <v Narrator>social visit to the New People's University. <v Narrator>The displays were similar to what is still seen today in many natural history museums <v Narrator>and as Spock looked around the nation. <v Narrator>He saw that most exhibits on Africa, including the fields old cases, suffered from the <v Narrator>same ills. <v Michael Spock>They really made you cringe is you go by them. <v Michael Spock>They were looking at the culture from the outside in. <v Michael Spock>They were full of stereotypes. <v Michael Spock>They were also looking about Africa in the past and center of Africa now. <v Michael Spock>And I think that's what gave us this tremendous urge to tell

<v Michael Spock>it Africa in a way that was fresh from the African <v Michael Spock>viewpoint. And they talked about Africa as it is now, as well as it was in the past. <v Narrator>[Traditional singing] <v Narrator>In order to achieve his goal, Spock took a bold and unusual step. <v Narrator>He reached out to the public and asked what they wanted in the exhibit. <v Narrator>The seemingly obvious approach was revolutionary for a public institution. <v Karen Hutt>The whole idea <v Karen Hutt>was to get input. And what I designed was something that was a combination <v Karen Hutt>of a public forum and an educational forum. <v Karen Hutt>So people had an opportunity here, you know, as a speaker, ask questions of <v Karen Hutt>the speaker on a particular topic related to Africa and then open up the discussion <v Karen Hutt>broadly to what they'd like to see in the exhibition. <v Narrator>This outreach effort was particularly important for African-Americans.

<v Narrator>The largest single ethnic group in Chicago, it represented a commitment on the part <v Narrator>of the museum to embrace the people whom they had historically ignored. <v Karen Hutt>This is also a very difficult thing for the museum to do, because to say that we're <v Karen Hutt>interested in black people, black people are going to respond with a number <v Karen Hutt>of questions as to why. <v Karen Hutt>Why now? Where were you before? <v Karen Hutt>Why did you do that racist exhibit in the past? <v Karen Hutt>Etc., etc.. <v Karen Hutt>We don't like what you did about Egypt. I mean, these are all the responses that you get <v Karen Hutt>when you put yourself out there in the community and say, we're doing something new. <v Karen Hutt>We'd like you to be involved. You're going to hear a lot of commentary about the past <v Karen Hutt>baggage of the institution. <v Karen Hutt>And so that was very complex beginning, but it was a good one. <v Narrator>The outreach effort included surveys to better understand the public's perception of <v Narrator>Africa. <v Speaker 2>What do you think of when you think of Africa? <v Speaker 3>Jungles, animals. <v Speaker 4>The motherland of our people. <v Speaker 5>The first thing I think of is poverty. <v Speaker 5>[Laughs]

<v Speaker 6>There's desert in Africa, isn't there? <v Speaker 7>It's not a jungle [laughs]. <v Speaker 8>Safaris and beautiful animal. <v Speaker 9>Architecture, ?words?, math. <v Speaker 10>All different kinds of cultures and different kinds of people. <v Speaker 11>The exotic jungles and the animals and the safaris. <v Narrator>The museum found a diversity of opinions, but they also found a disturbing number of <v Narrator>misconceptions which cut across all racial and economic lines. <v Karen Hutt>People got up and said some pretty interesting things. <v Karen Hutt>Some of them totally lacking knowledge <v Karen Hutt>and some of them based in lots of their own scholarship of what they have interpreted as <v Karen Hutt>being important. But I think the most consistent message <v Karen Hutt>is that we need to send about geography. <v Karen Hutt>We need to do something about environments. <v Karen Hutt>We need to do something about contextualizing these mass and these <v Karen Hutt>these objects that have become art. <v Karen Hutt>And that art looked at as artifacts. <v Narrator>Now, the difficult task of designing an exhibit that will stimulate and educate the <v Narrator>public lies ahead.

<v Narrator>Traditionally, museums have relied on scholars and curators to play this role. <v Narrator>But once again, for the Africa exhibit, Spock's approach is radical. <v Narrator>Instead of curators, he calls on educators with extraordinary curiosity to translate <v Narrator>academic research into education that entertain. <v Michael Spock>The reason that's so important is that the scholars and not the audience for this <v Michael Spock>exhibit. It's the great teacher who can remember their earliest question <v Michael Spock>and somehow return to that naive moment in their in their own learning about <v Michael Spock>the subject. And so I think it's too much to ask scholars to be able to have that <v Michael Spock>quality. <v Narrator>As the core team emerged, community liason Karen Hut was eventually named head of the <v Narrator>science sections, which focus on the Earth plants and animals. <v Narrator>To develop the humanities sections. Spock chose a historian from the Smithsonian, <v Narrator>experienced an exhibit tree Fath Ruffins. <v Fath Ruffins>An exhibition is not static. It's really an experience. <v Fath Ruffins>You know, it's sailed. It's light. <v Fath Ruffins>It's what colors things are. <v Fath Ruffins>It's what feelings people have. All of which is created by what I might call

<v Fath Ruffins>you might call the stage set. But the setting of the exhibition <v Fath Ruffins>so that the real challenge of doing an exhibition is to meld the research <v Fath Ruffins>with the collections, the objects and the specimens. <v Fath Ruffins>People are going to see in a setting that is dramatic, accessible and <v Fath Ruffins>provocative. <v Narrator>But long before the setting comes research. <v Narrator>Far from the view of the general public. <v Narrator>Researchers will spend months in the museum's vast storerooms combing through the diverse <v Narrator>collection of sixteen thousand five hundred African artifacts. <v Narrator>Each object must be inspected for damage measured, described, <v Narrator>numbered and cataloged. <v Narrator>Although the work is tedious, it is critically important because each piece has its own <v Narrator>story to tell and will be the basis for the many themes of the exhibit. <v Narrator>[Drumming]Field <v Narrator>research is also of primary importance.

<v Narrator>So 7 members of the development and design team set out to Africa. <v Narrator>There they would experience firsthand the sights, the sounds and the settings they will <v Narrator>have to recreate back at the Field Museum. <v Bennie Welch>Nairobi city. Downtown, on our way to the marketplace. <v Narrator>Strolling through the streets of Nairobi. <v Narrator>The team begins to understand that Africa is not as distant and unfamiliar as they <v Narrator>thought it would be. <v Speaker 12>So this is the yellow passionfruit. It's a yellow passionfruit. <v Bennie Welch>Now are the passionfruits sweet? <v Narrator>Benny Welch is a co-designer. <v Bennie Welch>I thought I was going to come off the plane, you know looking back and thinking about it, <v Bennie Welch>I was going to get off the plane and I was gonna be this African aroma. <v Bennie Welch>I don't know what the aroma was, but I thought I was gonna be there. <v Bennie Welch>Going to the marketplace, I thought the same thing as like, ah, I got to the marketplace <v Bennie Welch>is gonna have this whole aroma to it. <v Bennie Welch>And it didn't. It smelled pretty much like any market that I'd ever been to.

<v Bennie Welch>Coming out in the wilderness to bush. <v Bennie Welch>I thought I was going to have this wild or exotic smell to it. <v Bennie Welch>Smells like the forest at home.You know what I mean? <v Bennie Welch>So that was that was one stereotype that was dismissed for me. <v Tony Milweski>Here we go. Look at this. <v Tony Milweski>Acacia showing the long thorns. <v Narrator>The trip allows the team to fully explore the science themes they had developed in <v Narrator>Chicago. Some are found truly engaging and worthy of further research <v Narrator>and others are quickly scrapped. <v Narrator>The purpose of the science themes is to help people understand the close and complex <v Narrator>relationships of nature. <v Tony Milweski>Nowhere on any other continent do you get a range of plant eating animals that <v Tony Milweski>is as diverse and as subtle in the resource differentiation as you get <v Tony Milweski>here in Africa. <v Narrator>The team's guide and code developer, ecologist Tony Milewski, was hired to help the <v Narrator>developers demystify the science themes and make them easily understandable <v Narrator>in some way.

<v Tony Milweski>In some ways, science has missed the obvious. Science is so busy tunneling ever deeper <v Tony Milweski>into specific fields of interest that there's a big niche out there. <v Tony Milweski>There's a big job waiting out there for a team of <v Tony Milweski>ecological linguists, if you like, who are fluent in <v Tony Milweski>seeing into the heart of a whole bunch of different topics relating to the ecology, <v Tony Milweski>including anthropology and economics, by the way, and drawing together a kind of <v Tony Milweski>tapestry of the most important parts of these disciplines, which <v Tony Milweski>is then restated in very simple English in a very simple, sensible <v Tony Milweski>way. And these kinds of stories, although they may seem obvious, are not particularly <v Tony Milweski>available right now. So I think to some extent we should be professional at seeing and <v Tony Milweski>stating the obvious. <v Tony Milweski>And surprisingly, that hasn't been done awfully much. <v Tony Milweski>[Flute music playing] <v Narrator>In addition to theme research, the team collect samples, makes molds of textures,

<v Narrator>notes, colors, and absorbs a wealth of visual information for Karen Hutt <v Narrator>experiencing the diversity and expense of Africa. <v Narrator>It's a stark reminder of the enormous challenge ahead. <v Karen Hutt>I feel even more troubled right now because I feel as if it's gonna be very <v Karen Hutt>hard to translate this expanse of space <v Karen Hutt>to our visitors. <v Karen Hutt>And I think about how we've tried to do that in museums before. <v Karen Hutt>By giving you sort of dimensional, three-dimensional <v Karen Hutt>views and vistas into the dioramas and things like that, which I think would <v Karen Hutt>be pretty much a waste of time and money for us because we just say, OK, this is Africa, <v Karen Hutt>any kind of static, frozen view. <v Karen Hutt>We've done just what everyone else has done with Africa in museums. <v Karen Hutt>So it has to be very, very dynamic all the time. <v Karen Hutt>So we have to sort of be challenging ourselves and thinking, how can how can this make <v Karen Hutt>sense to people? <v Narrator>Several months later, the designers start to work on how to show the science themes.

<v Narrator>Three dimensional sketches like these are used to test ideas and plot out design <v Narrator>concepts. The designers must be flexible in their approach because themes <v Narrator>are constantly changing. <v Narrator>This sketch is for a storyline which was originally called Plants Fight Back. <v Bennie Welch>We thought that we would do just a section on the acacia <v Bennie Welch>tree and because we were doing the acacia tree, we would then throw in <v Bennie Welch>the giraffe through more development, we decided that, well, why don't we do <v Bennie Welch>a section on the mega herbivores, including the hippo, the rhino <v Bennie Welch>and the giraffe. And if you go out on the Mara, you can look at the acacia trees <v Bennie Welch>and and see that under the bottom of them, they look like they've been pulled like <v Bennie Welch>somebody had been going out every day and clipping them flat like it. <v Bennie Welch>That's how they get their look. And who's doing that? <v Bennie Welch>This giraffe. <v Narrator>The giraffe is a mega herbivore. <v Narrator>A large plant eating animal as our rhinos and hippos. <v Narrator>This science section shows how being big affects every aspect of an animal's life.

<v Narrator>Co-designer Diane ?Hannastrain? <v Narrator>works on an interactive game that will compare these animals digestive systems. <v Diane Hannastrain>This is a toy I brought from home just to see if it might be possible to do some kind of <v Diane Hannastrain>pinball game or interactive diagram that could actually <v Diane Hannastrain>show the process and it can, I'll. <v Diane Hannastrain>The hippo has a huge stomach that ferments <v Diane Hannastrain>the food that it eats. <v Diane Hannastrain>The giraffe, on the other hand, uses very fine food, chops <v Diane Hannastrain>it up very carefully and regurgitates it back. <v Diane Hannastrain>This is one thing we haven't solved yet. how to get the thing back up regurgitates it <v Diane Hannastrain>backs, chews it and extract every possible bit of nutrition from <v Diane Hannastrain>it. We think that we might be able to have some kind of interactive diagram, with <v Diane Hannastrain>pinball with lights, with some kind of mechanism. <v Diane Hannastrain>That's as much fun as this to get the basic idea of that process across.But <v Diane Hannastrain>the emphasis is always on the material.

<v Diane Hannastrain>It's always on the message. And that's the only test of things. <v Diane Hannastrain>Does it get the message across? <v Diane Hannastrain>No matter how exciting it is, if it if it doesn't communicate, it's worthless <v Diane Hannastrain>to ensure that the focus is on the message and not just the phone. <v Diane Hannastrain>The museum visitors are constantly asked to test early design. <v Therese Quinn>Do you think those words are adequate or do you think it'd be better if we said small <v Therese Quinn>intestine, large intestine or [continues talking] <v Narrator>Visitor evaluations give the developers and the designers immediate feedback on <v Narrator>everything from design appeal to subject comprehension. <v Therese Quinn>Mostly people look at the balls first. <v Therese Quinn>The balls sort of symbolize the food going down and people get really involved in all the <v Therese Quinn>physical activity, which is a problem, I think with interactive sometimes it's so much <v Therese Quinn>going on that you kind of want to look at that and not read the labels. <v Therese Quinn>But after I asked people to read the labels then, I got some comments <v Therese Quinn>that I sort of expected. Like people didn't understand a lot of the words. <v Therese Quinn>Well, not a lot of them, but there were a few words that people kept flagging like <v Therese Quinn>protein extraction. People just didn't get that. <v Therese Quinn>It doesn't make sense to them. A few of the children didn't know what dung meant. <v Therese Quinn>So I don't know what we'll do about how we'd relabeled the dung.

<v Therese Quinn>But people knew they kind of knew what to look like, but they weren't quite sure what the <v Therese Quinn>word was. So it lets me know we're really sorry at the base level for a lot of <v Therese Quinn>information. <v Narrator>As development continues, the hall selected to host the Africa exhibit must be cleared <v Narrator>of old installations clearing the halls fires the starting gun. <v Narrator>The race to the finish is now on. <v Narrator>Production crews quickly move in to start building. <v Narrator>At times, they will push ahead of both the developers and designers. <v Narrator>The game of catch up will continue until the exhibits completion. <v Bennie Welch>Because we're moving somewhat on a fast track, these guys <v Bennie Welch>have started building the rift section before <v Bennie Welch>its design. Basically, what we have is a floor plan. <v Bennie Welch>We had a space that this thing would fit in. <v Bennie Welch>And I knew because we were wrapping people up and down that we had to have a certain <v Bennie Welch>configuration to get them in and to get them out. <v Bennie Welch>So once we had that solved and said, OK, this is how we're gonna get him in. <v Bennie Welch>This is how we're going to get him out. <v Bennie Welch>Then a ramp, a ramp floor floorplan was drawn after that wrapped floorplan

<v Bennie Welch>was drawn. We handed it over to production and said build it. <v Bennie Welch>So they're kind of building in a dark because design is still on my board. <v Bennie Welch>Basically, you have a lot of things going on simultaneously. <v Bennie Welch>You have design going on. You have production going on and development going on <v Bennie Welch>all same simultaneously. <v Bennie Welch>And the idea here is that there are going to come to a point and come together. <v Bennie Welch>However, in doing that, in my experience, have been this first time <v Bennie Welch>out that a lot of times they all don't meet. <v Narrator>One of the reasons they don't meet is tied to choosing the themes for the exhibit. <v Narrator>This meeting is to discuss a story called Where's the Jungle? <v Narrator>It was conceived as a major science theme for the exhibit in order to confront the <v Narrator>popular misconception that Africa is covered by jungles. <v Narrator>In fact, less than 10 percent of the continent plays host to tropical rainforests. <v Narrator>The story was nursed for three years before ending up as a single question on a simple <v Narrator>card. <v Fath Ruffins>Well, we started out this exhibit, and to some extent this is still true.

<v Fath Ruffins>It was going to be an exhibit about everything in Africa from the beginning of time to <v Fath Ruffins>the present. You know, all cultures, all languages, science, <v Fath Ruffins>as well as, you know, cultural science. <v Fath Ruffins>I mean, you know, it's gonna be about everything. Of course, you can't really do any <v Fath Ruffins>exhibit about everything. <v Narrator>For the humanities sections, which cover two thirds of the exhibit space. <v Narrator>The questions about what to present are even more pressing because the humanities themes <v Narrator>focus on people and how they should be defined and represented. <v Narrator>The themes are always hotly debated in roundtable. <v Narrator>Discussions like this one are held with scholars and the exhibit developers to get ideas <v Narrator>flowing. <v Speaker 13>If people are coming to the museum, they're coming not just to learn, but, you know, <v Speaker 13>sometimes they're coming to have fun. So, I mean, trying to think of, you know, some of <v Speaker 13>the interactive kind of things that might be included as a way of personalizing some of <v Speaker 13>the experience. <v Speaker 14>I think experiential learning is is is, is a very important level <v Speaker 14>that we pay little or no attention to. <v Speaker 14>And then if you can put people in roleplaying situations and force

<v Speaker 14>them out of their shoes, maybe mentally, psychologically, <v Speaker 14>at some level of consciousness, they will be able to make that move out of their <v Speaker 14>own shoes and into somebody else's life and somebody else's experiences and ways <v Speaker 14>of living. <v Narrator>Interactive experiences are one way, the humanity stories will expose visitors <v Narrator>to new information and help dispel their misconceptions about Africa <v Narrator>and its people. <v Sheila Walker>Choose a country, a country that's got a lot of diversity like say Nigeria. <v Narrator>Anthropologist and consultant, Sheila Walker understands that it's crucial that the <v Narrator>scholarly information be made accessible to the public. <v Sheila Walker>The goal of scholarship really isn't to convey the kinds of arcane <v Sheila Walker>information that we gather in ways in which the public will find it interesting. <v Sheila Walker>And I see that personally as a problem. <v Sheila Walker>I've always been interested in popularizing anthropology and anthropology, it seems to me <v Sheila Walker>as the ideal discipline to popularize. <v Sheila Walker>It's maybe easier to popularize than astrophysics, for example, because it's

<v Sheila Walker>just about people. It's about concepts that we all live on a daily basis. <v Sheila Walker>So it seems to me that a an exhibit such <v Sheila Walker>as this one allows scholars to talk to people who know how <v Sheila Walker>to translate from the scholarly realm to the popular realm. <v Fath Ruffins>There certainly are other models for doing exhibitions, but <v Fath Ruffins>this is one which I think, though slow is particularly suited for doing <v Fath Ruffins>a sort of large comprehensive in quotes, exhibition. <v Narrator>Fath Ruffins, the lead humanities developer would soon leave the Africa project. <v Narrator>Her departure would level a devastating blow from which the team would never fully <v Narrator>recover. While the museum searched for a replacement, the humanities sections <v Narrator>would fall a full year behind schedule. <v Karen Hutt>When she left, the humanities sections were still sort of menus of possibilities, <v Karen Hutt>menus of possibilities which many of the developers were working on making realities <v Karen Hutt>by doing research in collections.

<v Karen Hutt>I think each section that was sort of defined as being a section <v Karen Hutt>at that point had already had a considerable amount of time devoted to <v Karen Hutt>it towards actually coming up with storylines. <v Karen Hutt>So I think there are a few storylines that were well-developed and well on their way. <v Karen Hutt>I think there were many that were not. <v Karen Hutt>So things are kind of in limbo. <v Narrator> Regardless of the problems swirling around the humanities team and the work <v Narrator>in the science areas marches on. <v Narrator>Susan Phillips, a replication specialist, has been given the sizable task of creating <v Narrator>both a life size acacia tree and giraffe as part of the mega herbivore <v Narrator>storyline. Phillips works closely with staff curators to ensure accuracy <v Narrator>in her replications. <v Speaker 15>These pompoms look very nice. What we're looking at here is, of course, a <v Speaker 15>head of acacia flowers. <v Speaker 15>Now that little heads have about 50 to 100 flowers. <v Speaker 15>And that's why I think these that make them look a little more particulate, <v Speaker 15>that make it look a little more natural are better than these, that are more furry.

<v Narrator>The closer attention to detail is a large part of Philip's job. <v Narrator>She and her staff spend hundreds of hours researching materials, blending and testing <v Narrator>colors, checking sizes and examining prototypes to ensure the replications <v Narrator>are true to life. <v Speaker 16>Let's see, all of these branches are from <v Speaker 16>the park, a Chicago park district. So many locust trees <v Susan Philips>Honeylocust and blacklocust. <v Speaker 16>And black locust, which are actually related to the acacia tree. <v Speaker 16>Consequently, there's a lot less to worry about in terms of bark <v Speaker 16>structure and getting the color right. <v Speaker 16>The thing is that our thorns here in Chicago are a single thorns and the acacia <v Speaker 16>trees grow double. <v Narrator>The replication staff will spend many long days drilling and hot gluing toothpicks onto <v Narrator>branches to create the double thorn. <v Susan Philips>It's so time consuming to make all these thorns and we don't have a very, very <v Susan Philips>big staff that these thornless branches are gonna be on the top of <v Susan Philips>the canopy, which will be close to the ceiling.

<v Susan Philips>We'll only see those through the branches that have thorns. <v Susan Philips>All the thorn branches will be on the bottom layer. <v Susan Philips>So we think we can get away with not putting thorns on them. <v Susan Philips>We're not trying to fool the public that this is a real tree, we just want to do the best <v Susan Philips>job we can to make it an attractive porportioned tree that <v Susan Philips>represents the real thing. <v Narrator>The painstaking work exhibited on the acacia tree will be repeated for all the <v Narrator>replications within the exhibit, including the giraffe. <v Susan Philips>Wow. Look how tall that is. <v Susan Philips>Whew. <v Narrator>To match the story, the giraffe must look like he's nibbling on the acacia leaves. <v Speaker 17>It's really depends on our ability to get some limbs hanging down, you <v Speaker 17>know, in front of the, the- <v Susan Philips>Oh, well, that's no problem. We're we're going to have little limbs coming out <v Susan Philips>of the top branches and we're gonna tailor the the flowers and leaves that will <v Susan Philips>be that the giraffe will be seeking. <v Susan Philips>We have to tailor the whole thing once we get to the main structure up there.

<v Narrator>Revisions occur both out of necessity. <v Narrator>Something doesn't work as planned. And from the formal design reviews, which allows the <v Narrator>museum staff to critique the design concept before committing to production. <v Therese Quinn>They come around the corner they see a reconstruction of a v- volcano <v Therese Quinn>with sort of an illusion of fire and smoke. <v Narrator>Every aspect of the exhibit design is scrutinized because even though the objects and <v Narrator>the labels will directly convey the information, it's the exhibit design that leaves the <v Narrator>visitor with an overall impression. <v Michael Spock>And there is a decision made designers and developers together. <v Michael Spock>Is this thing going to feel like a essentially now you're in one smooth, <v Michael Spock>contiguous phase, or are you in a space with a bunch of interesting pieces <v Michael Spock>of furniture that feels like a sort of science fair? <v Narrator>Mike Spock is a guiding force in the exhibit design, often asking designers and <v Narrator>developers to rethink their approach. <v Narrator>The team affectionately called his requests for changes "being spocked." <v Michael Spock>What it stands for is somebody coming in too late to really be able to make

<v Michael Spock>a change. And having some great idea about what you might do <v Michael Spock>when there's nothing you can do about it. And it probably is an idea you already had and <v Michael Spock>had to discard for other reasons. <v Bennie Welch>I don't know if any design has gone through a project without being "spocked." So <v Bennie Welch>I guess it might in some sense be an honor because it means he's paying attention to you. <v Bennie Welch>I guess I don't know [Laughs]. <v Narrator>In the hall, the work on the draft continues. <v Narrator>The replication staff has spent so much time bringing her to life. <v Narrator>They have playfully named her Twiga, which is Swahili for giraffe. <v Narrator>The giraffe has comfortably settled into her new home, only to find her next door <v Narrator>neighbor is a restless rhino.

<v Narrator>Chris Melander must get the rhino running. <v Speaker 18>It's head is controlled by this large motor here, which <v Speaker 18>sends a rod straight out, which will in turn lever <v Speaker 18>the head up and down. Same sort of motors, except smaller ones for the two ears <v Speaker 18>and the mouth. And it is controlled and turned by <v Speaker 18>a programable relay board. <v Narrator>While the science sections like the mega herbivores proceed on schedule within the <v Narrator>humanities area, an old debate lingers on. <v Narrator>Because stereotypes about Africa are so pervasive. <v Narrator>An early plan called for presenting stereotypes and then discrediting them. <v Narrator>Some team members are growing increasingly uncomfortable with this approach. <v Narrator>Debbie Mack, now the lead humanities developer, is also concerned about <v Narrator>unintended effects. <v Deborah Mack>We also found in our early evaluations that people tend to retain the first images that <v Deborah Mack>they see. And so if you present a big jungle and then later on, people <v Deborah Mack>see a counter to that, they still have seen a big jungle and they go, yeah, just

<v Deborah Mack>as I thought, there's jungle. Oh, yeah. <v Deborah Mack>By the way, there in the fine print. Only 10 percent. <v Deborah Mack>I didn't know that. But visually, they've they've held onto the big jungle. <v Narrator>Still, I think how to approach the public's misconceptions is a major concern . <v Karen Hutt>The other thing is that we've got to be aware of these attitudes so that the visitor can <v Karen Hutt>sort of not be beaten over the head with, "This is the truth about Africa. <v Karen Hutt>We want you to hear it". But so they can sort of discover and walk through the exhibition <v Karen Hutt>and challenge some of their own ideas that they have and some people coming with some <v Karen Hutt>very good ideas about Africa. <v Karen Hutt>Some people are coming with limited knowledge and some people becoming here like children <v Karen Hutt>for the very first time. And African-American children will be coming for the first time <v Karen Hutt>and a European American children for the first time. <v Karen Hutt>And they may be standing at the case together side by side. <v Karen Hutt>And this exhibit might help one kid know a little bit about the other kid for some short, <v Karen Hutt>brief moment. <v Narrator>To give visitors a sense of Africa's long history, the humanities developers chose to <v Narrator>highlight the kingdom of Benin.

<v Narrator>Located in Nigeria on the west coast of Africa. <v Narrator>Benin was once a powerful and influential kingdom whose history dates back over 800 <v Narrator>years by showing the inner workings of Benin, visitors will see <v Narrator>a complex system of government and religion that has been in Africa for centuries. <v Narrator>Today, as it has been throughout history, Binen spiritual and political <v Narrator>leader is the Oba around whom all things revolve. <v Sydney Hart>The oba, although there have been substantial changes in his role and in his <v Sydney Hart>office from his the early period all the way until now, <v Sydney Hart>the sense of oba-ness. <v Sydney Hart>Of divine kinship has remained the same. <v Sydney Hart>Much the way you might think that the sense of the presidency has remained the same <v Sydney Hart>here, even though the role has changed dramatically in 200 years. <v Sydney Hart>Wel you can imagine in 800 years it's changed even more in Benin. <v Narrator>Throughout Benin's long history, there have been many obas <v Narrator>and each inherited his power from his father. <v Narrator>The close connection between power, lineage, religion and politics will be demonstrated

<v Narrator>through a representation of an ancestral author. <v Narrator>The objects used to tell the story are part of the Field Museum's internationally <v Narrator>renowned Benin collection. <v Narrator>Many of the objects were seized from the royal palace during the British punitive <v Narrator>expedition of 1897. <v Narrator>Made of bronze, gold and ivory, the pieces are representative of the exquisite <v Narrator>artistry of Royal Guild artists. <v Deborah Mack>The majority of presentations on women with palace art, which we have, have focused <v Deborah Mack>on the artistic, an art historian aspects of Benin <v Deborah Mack>art with some references to the the society that <v Deborah Mack>has developed. And generally. <v Deborah Mack>You see a beautiful bronze head and a with a little spotlight on it and all of that, <v Deborah Mack>which is beautiful. But that was not our point. <v Narrator>Their point is to place objects in a contextual setting, to give visitors an <v Narrator>understanding of the objects use and place in Benin culture. <v Narrator>The Field Museum is the first museum in the country to take this approach.

<v Narrator>The centerpiece of the display is a seven foot, four inch carved ivory tusk. <v Narrator>Barbara Blackman is an art historian who has spent 14 years studying the art of Benin. <v Narrator>She is one of the few people in the world qualified to read the tusk. <v Barbara Blackman>Yeah, this is interesting. On the back, there is a crocodile, <v Barbara Blackman>and the crocodile itself is a symbol sometimes <v Barbara Blackman>of a chief. Chiefs are thought of as crocodiles. <v Barbara Blackman>And this crocodile is leaping on a victim. <v Barbara Blackman>Can you see that there is a fish under there. <v Barbara Blackman>The Izumo in his victory has has crushed the opposition <v Barbara Blackman>the same way a crocodile would leap upon a victim. <v Barbara Blackman>So these are warlike motifs here on the bottom commemorating <v Barbara Blackman>the victory in war. <v Narrator>Once the tusk is read. Conservation moves them to meticulously check its condition <v Narrator>and prepare it for display, no speck of paint or wisp of hair is too <v Narrator>small to go undetected.

<v Narrator>It is the mandate of conservation to preserve the longevity of each object in the <v Narrator>museum's collections. <v Pam Gable>But this will hold so little signage labels. <v Narrator>Pam Gable is the Mount Making Supervisor. <v Pam Gable>My job comes in when I have to specify, with the <v Pam Gable>help of the conservator, how the object is best <v Pam Gable>exhibited so that it will cause the least amount of damage to the object. <v Narrator>Because of its size, weight and material, the Benin tusk presents special problems. <v Narrator>Wendy Morton is the watchful eye of conservation. <v Wendy Morton>Ivory has a tendency to laminate and or peel apart because <v Wendy Morton>of its structure. And that's what happened to this one here. <v Wendy Morton>So when they designed the mount, I specified <v Wendy Morton>that it couldn't it couldn't be weight bearing on its end. <v Narrator> A heavy steel rod supports a metal cradle designed to disperse the weight of the tusk. <v Narrator>The hollow end of the tusk is supported by a polyethylene core. <v Narrator>Though not all of the artifacts will require such special attention.

<v Narrator>Each of the 350 objects included in the Africa exhibit will require a handcrafted mount. <v Narrator>As visitors shuttled between exhibits. <v Narrator>They get a sneak peek at the construction that's in full swing in the hall. <v Narrator>The developer's ideas are beginning to manifest in plywood, plaster and paint. <v Narrator>The animal digestion game that had such simple beginnings as a child's toy has <v Narrator>turned out to be one of the most complex pieces in the exhibit. <v Narrator>Building a game from scratch that is appealing, easy to use and can withstand constant <v Narrator>visitor use takes a lot of time. <v Narrator>And when the exhibit first started with the science sections, developers and designers <v Narrator>thought the sky was the limit. <v Dan Brinkmeier>The designers and developers really said we want this and we want that, that's why we <v Dan Brinkmeier>want this. And it's a lot in there. <v Dan Brinkmeier>I mean, that thing is packed with with stuff, with replications and their actives <v Dan Brinkmeier>and lots of detail and things like that. <v Dan Brinkmeier>At that point, there was no reason why they couldn't. <v Narrator>Now, standing just beyond the halfway mark.

<v Narrator>A sense of urgency is starting to grow and luxuries afforded to the early science <v Narrator>section are gone. <v Dan Brinkmeier>At this point, we're really trying to limit everything that we can now. <v Dan Brinkmeier>We're looking at everything very, very, very hard about <v Dan Brinkmeier>is it going to take too much time? We just can't afford to do it anymore. <v Narrator>To ease the increasing pressure, developers were asked to streamline themes and cut back <v Narrator>on artifacts selected for display. <v Narrator>And the one section that focuses more on ideas instead of objects is the one <v Narrator>that is most difficult to develop. <v Narrator>It looks at the African diaspora or the dispersal of Africans around the world. <v Narrator>The Field Museum chose to focus on the journey, life and cultural influence of <v Narrator>Africans in the Americas. <v Narrator>Many developers feel that this section should highlight the positive African <v Narrator>contributions to the Americas, while others strongly believe the section should <v Narrator>focus on the more painful topic of slavery. <v Karen Hutt>I think originally the museum wanted to do an exhibition about slavery and oppression <v Karen Hutt>and racism when it came to the Diaspora section.

<v Karen Hutt>I think that was the first thing that came to the minds of largely the the older white <v Karen Hutt>men who were in charge of putting together the exhibition team and the whole thing. <v Karen Hutt>So I think that's their reference for the diaspora is slavery. <v Narrator>The administration was not alone in their thoughts. <v Deborah Mack>Even within the team, there were people who wanted to use the diaspora section in <v Deborah Mack>particular as a way to vent frustrations, anger's historical injustices. <v Deborah Mack>And those come out, I feel, very clearly in the exhibit. <v Narrator>And the way in which those feelings are clearly depicted is a dramatic entrance to the <v Narrator>diaspora, where visitors leave Africa and travel to the Americas through the Middle <v Narrator>Passage, the voyage that slaves made across the Atlantic. <v Narrator>The passage is designed to stir visitors emotionally and physically. <v Bennie Welch>Because what we're gonna do is we're just not going to put a fan in or air conditioning. <v Bennie Welch>So it's gonna be a little bit stuffy. We'll put down wooden floors, wooden planks, <v Bennie Welch>rough cut, which will be creaky and loud. <v Bennie Welch>We actually going to add some some audio to this also.

<v Bennie Welch>And my interpretation of this is that I want this to be very dark and the <v Bennie Welch>images will be in black and white. <v Bennie Welch>Once you come out of the middle passage, we're gonna smack you right in the face <v Bennie Welch>with the auction block and you will be standing on the auction block. <v Narrator>Developer Calvin Grey remembers why dealing with slavery and designing the passage <v Narrator>was so difficult. <v Calvin Grey>Psychological change, emotions, not a clear understanding <v Calvin Grey>or not wanting to deal with the issue. <v Calvin Grey>It hurts for some to face the truth. <v Calvin Grey>So exploring the <v Calvin Grey>information, for many, it can be painful. <v Michael Spock>Plus, I think it's a scary story. <v Michael Spock>It's really it's full of horrible things the people were doing to each other. <v Michael Spock>I think the damage was profound.

<v Michael Spock>I think it's still there. Still colors <v Michael Spock>the way I think about African-Americans, about the way they think about me. <v Michael Spock>It's not an easy subject. There's scar tissue all over the place. <v Michael Spock>And as long as you long as it's there, it's going to be a tough story to tell. <v Michael Spock>And it's not gonna be easy agreement about how to do it. <v Narrator>But the diaspora is more than a horrific story of oppression, pain and loss. <v Narrator>It is also a celebration of people's incredible survival, adaptation and change <v Narrator>in the Americas. [Drumming music] <v Deborah Mack>If Africans left empty handed, but not empty headed, then what institutions, <v Deborah Mack>social structures, systems of knowledge, technology did Africans bring with them? <v Deborah Mack>And we tried to show how those played out in the Americas. <v Deborah Mack>Our other point of emphasis is what happened to Africans as people.

<v Deborah Mack>How do they re structure themselves, reconstitute themselves, reorganize themselves <v Deborah Mack>and build new communities? <v Deborah Mack>And we do this utilizing the concept of culture creolization, <v Deborah Mack>because you have numerous groups of diverse Africans coming together in one <v Deborah Mack>place with numerous groups of Europeans and Native American populations. <v Deborah Mack>And all of this in combination create something new. <v Narrator>The diaspora also helps African-Americans to help connect with each other in a not so <v Narrator>distant past. <v Bennie Welch>I didn't actually really realize how much of me was in here until I brought my mother in <v Bennie Welch>to show her the exhibit. And I showed her a particular case that we had been working <v Bennie Welch>on and there was a linen and cotton bag and therefore picking cotton in <v Bennie Welch>it. And for her to say to me, oh, I mean, I was I was <v Bennie Welch>corrected by my mom, which is who said, you know, that linen bag you have in there is way <v Bennie Welch>too small. Well, put it in here as a prop, not a real <v Bennie Welch>linen bag. But she said, yeah, but it's it's way too small because when I remember we

<v Bennie Welch>picked cotton, the bag would be this big. <v Bennie Welch>And then I had to push my foot down in there to stuff it in and I could make sure I got <v Bennie Welch>100 pounds of cotton in that bag. <v Bennie Welch>And that sent chills all over my body because I never knew that my mother ever picked in <v Bennie Welch>cotton in her life. <v Narrator>Most exhibit sections don't draw such emotional responses. <v Narrator>So to help guide visitors both physically through the exhibit hall and thoughtfully <v Narrator>through the information exhibits rely on labels. <v Narrator>Labels are the basic and primary vehicle on which the developer's messages are carried. <v Narrator>Graphic designer Mary Choose. <v Mary Choose>Let's imagine that you went into an exhibit hall that ac- actually had no <v Mary Choose>words at all. It was just pictures and things in a case. <v Mary Choose>Basically, it be like going to an art gallery. <v Mary Choose>You have no way to interpret what the things are, what the things mean, or <v Mary Choose>to give it any kind of context. <v Mary Choose>So labels are really important, especially in the Natural History Museum, <v Mary Choose>to be able to explain what the meaning of artifacts are, what we know <v Mary Choose>about people's cultures, as well as a lot of scientific things.

<v Narrator>With the work in the hall coming to an end, it's time to install the labels and the <v Narrator>artifacts. Placing the objects into the cases is always one of the last deps <v Narrator>in building an exhibit because many of the objects are valuable and some irreplaceable. <v Narrator>Conservation has several requirements for the objects' new homes. <v Narrator>Behind the walls are elaborate systems to maintain a constant humidity. <v Narrator>In the cases, the glass is laminated to prevent breakage, and every case <v Narrator>is outfitted with an alarm system. <v Narrator>Though many stories highlight objects from the collections, there are those that depend <v Narrator>on props, photos and multimedia. <v Narrator>The entrance to the exhibit hall is just such a section. <v Deborah Mack>I want to be sure that we've got those, not just the public health. <v Deborah Mack>[Interrupted by colleague] <v Speaker 19>I think that should go in the exhibit. <v Narrator>The entrance is a street scene based on the city of Dakar in Senegal, on the west coast <v Narrator>of Africa. Developers chose to recreate Dekar because though born of <v Narrator>colonization. It is a uniquely African city. <v Narrator>The street scene features an extended family from the suburb of Grand Yoff that welcomes

<v Narrator>visitors during Tabaski, the biggest religious festival of the year. <v Narrator>The family is presented as lifesize photographic cutouts. <v Deborah Mack>We want people to feel that they can personally relate to that, to the individuals that <v Deborah Mack>they're seeing that it's not. Oh, aren't they interesting? <v Deborah Mack>Aren't they different? Aren't they exotic? <v Deborah Mack>But it's something they can really relate to. There are grandparents. <v Deborah Mack>There are little babies running around. There are teenage boys. <v Deborah Mack>There are girls fixing their hair, you know, appearances for Tabaski, dressing up new <v Deborah Mack>clothes. All this is really important. <v Deborah Mack>We show different ages, different lifestyles and a sense different people doing things <v Deborah Mack>in preparation for this. But you get to meet them encounter on and one on one. <v Narrator>The Dakar entrance provides a fresh, contemporary view of urban Africa and <v Narrator>shows that daily life on a distant continent, although different, can be quite familiar. <v Narrator>With just over a year remaining before the scheduled exhibit <v Narrator>opening, the Senegal section must move at an accelerated pace. <v Speaker 20>I'm going to just a modest panic here [laughs] how these instructions <v Speaker 20>to beef [Interrupted by colleague].

<v Speaker 21>I'd give up the bustop if I have to give up something. <v Speaker 20>That I think is that would be the first to go. <v Narrator>As with all sections that are created at the end of the process, it is on an unavoidable <v Narrator>collision course with one of the greatest obstacles and exhibitry: the budget. <v Deborah Mack>When you have a budget crunch, it means that things get sparser, simpler, disappear <v Deborah Mack>completely. Exhibit developer can come up with wonderful ideas and a designer <v Deborah Mack>has to make them 3D. <v Deborah Mack>And when you have a budget crunch, you can't build a three dimensional palm tree. <v Deborah Mack>You have to paint it on a wall because we don't have enough money. <v Deborah Mack>We can't hire the labor. We can't do the research. <v Deborah Mack>We don't have enough for the materials. <v Deborah Mack>A more severe budget crunch says we don't have money to develop that space <v Deborah Mack>at all. And so it's going to become a lounge. <v Deborah Mack>It's going to become a an empty transition space. <v Deborah Mack>We're going to leave it with a floor texture, but nothing on the walls. <v Deborah Mack>And it detracts from it takes away from your story. <v Michael Spock>Every project I've ever worked on has had budget troubles at some place.

<v Michael Spock>I never had enough money to do everything we want to do. <v Michael Spock>In fact, if we start out with enough money to do everything we wanted to do, we'd also <v Michael Spock>find that our grandiose notions about how <v Michael Spock>we would spend that money are already been overtaken or were taking the money <v Michael Spock>that was actually available so you never have enough money. <v Michael Spock>So in fact, a lot of what you're doing all the way through an exhibit project is <v Michael Spock>peeling stuff off the you can't afford to do or you can't figure out how to do it in that <v Michael Spock>kind of thing. So there there's not just a budget crunch. <v Michael Spock>There's continuous budget crunching going on. <v Narrator>The crunch of money and time is felt in a very real way in the hall. <v Susan Philips>This is our third major tree. <v Susan Philips>So African baobab tree. <v Susan Philips>This one, the framework we built primarily out of PVC pipes <v Susan Philips>in that way. It was really easy at first. <v Susan Philips>We just bought a lot of pipes and joints and glued them together and now have. <v Susan Philips>We're sort of seeing what happens when we build the out of PVC pipes.

<v Susan Philips>The first tree, the acacia tree had teeny tiny little leaves that were extremely <v Susan Philips>time consuming. The second tree, the date palm tree had <v Susan Philips>we bought dried palm fronds to make the canopy for that. <v Susan Philips>So it it was pretty efficient and effective <v Susan Philips>on this one, though, we discussed it with the botanist and then decided <v Susan Philips>this would be the dry season when there when there were no leaves. <v Narrator>Though the tree for Senegal isn't blooming street art definitely it's <v Narrator>the field museum asked for students from the Paul Robeson High School in Chicago to <v Narrator>paint a street mural under the guidance of a local artist. <v Narrator>The mural depicts Amadou Bumba, a holy man from the late 19th century <v Narrator>who was a symbol of resistance to French colonialism. <v Narrator>For the students, learning about Africa and Senegal has been an enriching opportunity. <v Narrator>They hope other young African-Americans will take advantage of through the exhibit. <v Speaker 22>Most of the black kids now, they don't have anything to do.

<v Speaker 22>They need to come learn about they background and them and mostly themselves. <v Speaker 22>So it even if they don't decide to come it'd be <v Speaker 22>great, if you are at least offered it to em. <v Speaker 22>And let em know that it's possible that you can come and see em there for <v Speaker 22>them to come see what they're all about and their history and culture is all about. <v Narrator>For the young artists, it is also a chance to paint themselves into the field museum's <v Narrator>history. <v Speaker 22>Pretty cool right now. We just come back in about 10 years and it still be there. <v Speaker 22>Tell everybody we did that. <v Narrator>[Traditional African music playing] History in the making. Opening day, November 13th, <v Narrator>1993. <v Michael Spock>Isn't it great? Fantastic It's better than I hoped. <v Narrator>For the Field Museum's Africa team, the exhibit opening brings to an end the highs

<v Narrator>and lows of a 5 year roller coaster ride. <v Bennie Welch>There have been times when I wasn't sure what it was gonna be. <v Bennie Welch>And then there was times when I just knew I was gonna be. <v Bennie Welch>And then there was times when I just wish it would hurry up and be. <v Bennie Welch>But I think it's an excellent show. <v Deborah Mack>[Applause] Overall, I'm pleased with it. There are some parts that actually sing to me, <v Deborah Mack>and they really they're very strong to me and they really <v Deborah Mack>I'm really pleased. But, boy, was it rough. <v Narrator>What made it especially rough was the passionate commitment on the part of the whole team <v Narrator>to tell a story about Africa that conveyed not only the scientific truths, <v Narrator>but the heart and soul of the continent. <v Narrator>Willard Boyd, Field Museum president. <v William Boyd>The museum is changing because it's seeking to involve the peoples <v William Boyd>whose cultures and whose environmental habitats are represented

<v William Boyd>in our collections. How do we be <v William Boyd>their museum in every way, shape and form. <v Speaker 23>We have a concept of Africa being one place and this <v Speaker 23>exhibit here is giving us a chance to see that Africa is actually many countries. <v Speaker 23>My ancestry is from West Africa. <v Speaker 23>So it's primarily interested in that. <v Speaker 23>It's good to see that there's history involved in East Africa, <v Speaker 23>South Africa as well as North Africa. <v Narrator>Every section of the exhibit represents a full blown collaboration between scholars, <v Narrator>developers and the community. <v Narrator>The process was painfully democratic, but ultimately a brilliant achievement. <v Michael Spock>There is not a voice. There are many voices. <v Michael Spock>And so as many voices will come out at different sections <v Michael Spock>of this exhibit in different ways. And there were many voices that made for many

<v Michael Spock>different arguments along the way about which was the authentic voice <v Michael Spock>for this thing. <v Speaker 24>This is a good section of the exhibit here coming through the diaspora where we started <v Speaker 24>out in a holding cell when the slaves were held before coming onto the ship, then into <v Speaker 24>the hull of the ship where they were brought over to the Americas. <v Speaker 24>And it can start quite a bit of emotion when you stop and really pay attention to <v Speaker 24>the fact that these were people and these were families, I think, as we thought about <v Speaker 24>slavery historically, I think we must detach ourselves from <v Speaker 24>the fact that these were just like us. People, mothers who had children, husbands who had <v Speaker 24>wives. But if you really stop for a moment, understand these are people you <v Speaker 24>can't help but to feel some type of emotion. <v Narrator>The Africa exhibit is a magnificent touchstone. <v Narrator>It demonstrates that a world renowned cultural institution can move beyond tradition <v Narrator>to find bold new ways to respond to the public. <v Speaker 25>The techniques they're using for lighting, giving the ambiance.

<v Speaker 25>That's that really makes it for me. <v Speaker 25>It's not just the information is being there. <v Speaker 25>I feel like I've traveled thousands of miles to come here instead of a few miles <v Speaker 25>across town. <v Narrator>For every visitor, the exhibit is a chance to join in a long overdue celebration <v Narrator>of a grand and glorious continent. <v Narrator>For African-Americans, it also represents a storehouse of information where many <v Narrator>will come searching for an understanding of their own personal history and a sense of <v Narrator>pride in their ancestry. <v Michael Spock>I'm just tremendously proud of this whole effort. <v Michael Spock>What we did with it. I'm proud of this institution of taking it on. <v Michael Spock>I'm proud of this extraordinary team who hung in there, did <v Michael Spock>it. And I think it's I think it's a celebration of that <v Michael Spock>effort, that commitment. <v Michael Spock>We did it. [Techno music playing]