Exhibition design for this 9,700 sf. gallery in Midland Center for the Arts. This permanent exhibit begins with mid-Michigan’s geologic and historic past, tracing ideas across time to show how they became key fields of science, technology, and humanities. Emphasis throughout is drawing parallels between science and the humanities.

Exhibits include numerous hands-on demonstrations, computer interactives, media presentations, artifacts, media presentations, dioramas, and art reproductions. Inspired by the ideas of Alden B. Dow. Produced in collaboration with Clark Swayze. Design Craftsmen, Inc., client. graphic design by Kathy Tyler of Kalamazoo, MI, authentic Mackinac boat constructed by Mike Kiefer of South Haven, MI. Opened, November, 1994 in Midland, Michigan.

Fashioning a mobile with a friend offers hands-on social experience with balance and composition.

Spandex was created by Doc Chemical as a consumer product line for a Dow patented polymer. Part of Dow’s success grew out of creating markets for compounds they could produce profitably.

Pushing and tugging a tensegrity sphere encourages creative thinking about how tension and compression members might interact. After all, there’s a lot of tensegrity in the human body.

Half-scale Mackinac boat sets the theme for a section about French voyageurs in Midland’s historic past. Authentic replicas and real artifacts acquired for exhibitions helped convey ideas.

Midland is a small city full of chemists, so its major science exhibition hall had to have a hands-on periodic table of the elements.

Image composition puzzle encourages problem-solving with a buddy.

Kids found the tensegrity demo intriguing.