EXHIBITS
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Exhibit on site at the San Francisco “Road Show” event
Detail, construction drawings, Mystic Studio
ORDINARY OBJECTS | EXTRAORDINARY IMPACT
Traveling exhibit for the MIT Better World Campaign
This exhibit, featuring the transformative impact of the school’s Poverty Action Lab, was designed for several years of global travel to multiple events on behalf of MIT’s six-year Better World Campaign. The successful campaign, which raised 6.5 billion dollars to support the Institute, also proved to be a major opportunity for the School’s key messages to be shared and amplified within and beyond the Institute.
Leadership: Dean Melissa Nobles
Themes: Anne-Marie Michels, Emily Hiestand; Liaison: Anne-Marie Michels, Megan Hinkley
Exhibit Design, Project Director: Emily Hiestand; Co-Design, graphic panels: Andrea Golden
Prints: Makepeace, Inc.; Fabrication: Mystic Scenic Studio
Example, panels for this traveling exhibit
THE GREAT IDEAS EXHIBIT
Permanent installation near Hayden Library
The Field of Study wall (top image) is a series of kiosks with graphic panels that can be easily, economically updated as needed.
The Gallery wall (lower image) is for timely, frequently changed prints, which are attached to sleek aluminum panels with a homesote substrate.
Installed in 2011, the Great Ideas Exhibit has had a powerful, positive impact on visitor experience, student engagement, and faculty morale. The exhibit transformed a passageway into a destination, and catalyzed enthusiastic talks by student guides about their humanities, arts, and social science studies at MIT. Visitors and tour groups on campus now stop and linger in the exhibit, taking photographs, reading panels, and writing messages on the interactive chalkboards. Feature Story | Slide Deck on the making of the exhibit
Project Team
Leadership and Advisor: Dean Deborah Fitzgerald
Co-Designer & Project Director: Emily Hiestand; Co-Designer: Andrea Golden
Consultants: Vance Hosford, Jon Sachs, Ruth Nieman, Annie Grear
Fabrication, installation: Mystic Scenic Studio / Printing: Makepeace
Graphic panels on the Fields of Study Wall introduce visitors to all 20 departments, labs, and programs in the School.
A study for the title panel
NOBEL PRIZES EXHIBIT
Celebrating current MIT economists who have received the Nobel Prize
2022 - 2023
This year-long exhibit on the Gallery Wall of the Great Ideas Exhibit space celebrated the current economic Nobelists at MIT, told the story of economic research over the past century, and showed how MIT economics research informs policy and governance.
Leadership: Dean Agustin Rayo
Content advisor: Jim Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics
Co-designer, project director: Emily Hiestand
Co-designer: Andrea Golden
Printing: Makepeace
Three of the nine panels for the Economics exhibit
Overview of the Nobel Prize exhibit on the Gallery Wall