Geoff Mansfield, 21 November 2017
Looking back through the previous two months from the start of the planning, into the late installation phases of the exhibition, I started to visualize things slowly coming together from the design stage transitioning into a physical sense. From the start of the project, everyone was designated with a specific role to contribute in the show. These were implemented through three planning groups, each responsible for a separate room of the exhibition, and four working groups, each focusing on a specific aspect of making the exhibition. Everyone in the class was assigned to one planning group and one working group, although some took on greater roles intermixing to help accomplish the project. In total throughout the semester there were seven groups, and we all worked together as a team to get everything done to meet the deadlines. This required participation in each part of the learning experience throughout the process from the conception of ideas, the selection of objects, themes, titles, installation, and most rewarding, the opening on the evening of November 9th. My personal favorite learning experience of the exhibit was learning how to measure foot candles, or light intensity. This was critical in displaying the Andrey Avinoff Nationality Room Watercolors as they have to be kept under no more than a measure of five foot candles to limit damage from the lighting.
The greatest challenge was keeping the flow between the rooms while still differentiating between the major themes of “visual knowledge”, “identity”, and “sacred space.” Some intermingling between objects selected for different themes had to take place in order to fit everything within the spatial restrictions of the University Art Gallery. The idea was to communicate how these objects represent not only the Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning, but also the bigger themes of immigration, and identity in the history of Pittsburgh. In the final days, it was rewarding to see the concluding elements bring this representation of Pittsburgh diversity together in a definitive form. I was exceptionally pleased with the way the exhibit merged together and the high turnout of the opening. It has been an honor be part of this project where the class came together as a team in order to create something that was truly special, giving the chance for others to appreciate the exhibit and not only to represent the University of Pittsburgh, but to help bring Pittsburgh together as a whole collectively.