Exploring OUR Land: Public Lands in Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area!

Exploring OUR Land: Public Lands in AFNHA is the 2020 exhibit at the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center, created by AmeriCorps member Sarah Rosenkrans. Sarah has been working since September of 2019 to create this exhibit. Though COVID-19 delayed her plans, the exhibit will open on June 4th, 2020. But what went into making the exhibit? We asked Sarah about the process of making the exhibit, and she enlightened us about her struggles, triumphs, and timelines.

Topic and Research

Sarah Rosenkrans, creator of the past two exhibits at the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center.

The AmeriCorps member (in this case Sarah) serving at the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center has 8 months complete the exhibit, start to finish. Starting in September, this undertaking begins with identifying the topic, goals, and audience of the new exhibit.

The topic of the this exhibit was actually decided in early summer 2019. But why public lands? This year is the centennial of Monongahela National Forest. “We wanted to be part of that celebration. However, the Mon is not the only public land in AFNHA, so we decided to dedicate the exhibit to all public land agencies and the great work they do,” says Sarah.

Then begins the deep dive into research.

“I read anything I can get my hands on about the topic and chase every rabbit down every hole just to see where it will lead,” says Sarah. Researching for this exhibit included a couple days researching ghost stories connected to various state parks, Bigfoot sightings, and even a couple of murders. However, most research does not make it into the exhibit. This is the hardest part of making exhibits for Sarah. She hates needing to cut some of her favorite stories; but doing this level of research gives her a sense of what all the possibilities are.

“Every exhibit designer has their own way of developing themes, but I tend to go in without any preconceived notions and let the research and content experts guide me. I figure if I find something interesting, then visitors will as well.” This umbrella-style researching typically lasts until the end of October.

After the thematic planning, Sarah then applies for grants, finds content experts (conduct some interviews), and does more research; this time staying focused on the selected themes and topics.

“This year we decided the themes early and were able to apply for a grant from the Snowshoe Foundation in early October, which we received. It will pay for the majority of the exhibit and frees up money for educational programming and outreach.”

Sarah primarily communicated with her content experts through lengthy emails, but was able to speak in depth with Nikki Brown (Forester, Maryland Division of Natural Resources), Keith Krantz (Wildlife, WV Division of Natural Resources), Rob Whetsell and Gavin Hale (Historians, Monongahela National Forest), Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy (Scientist, Fernow Experimental Forest), Emily Huguenin (Assistant Director, Camp Horseshoe). Also, a big shoutout to AFNHA AmeriCorps who helped a lot with the research of this exhibit: Brandy Harvey, Rachel Geiger, Marina Goldgisser, Antoinette Esposito, Abi Smith, and others!

Concept and design

Sarah designing the floor plan of the exhibit space using SketchUp.

In November, it is time to buckle down and decide on topics and themes. “As I am choosing topics, I need to also think about how visitors move through the space and how they will transition from one topic to the next. I find designing themes and topics easiest to do with a floor plan of the exhibit space in front of me,” says Sarah. This requires extreme thoughtfulness, especially in a historic space like the Darden Mill, where the Discovery Center is housed.

“I had three repeating thoughts while doing research. First, this landscape was destroyed before public land management. All you have to do is look at some before and after pictures to see the effects of public land management on the environment. So, this became the history topic — looking at who did what to create what we see today.

The second thought was goodness gracious, the government makes everything complicated! I did not realize that all public land is managed to achieve specific goals and have different departments and regulations governing them. I figured many others also didn’t know this and it is important to understand the differences and logic behind rules, so this became the topic on discussing who manages the land.

My third thought was so many cool things happen on public land! I was shocked to learn about all the different ways people use public land because I just always thought of hiking and camping, but there is so much more! Public land creates job opportunities with logging, a place for summer camps, historic preservation, and activities like horseback riding and foraging. I wanted to show this diversity, so this became the public uses section of the exhibit.”

“By mid-February I started compiling all my research into an outline and drafting some panels. To me, this is the hardest part. Because it often means cutting out some of my favorite stories because there simply isn’t space in the exhibit.” For this exhibit, it was especially tricky because it discusses a lot of AFNHA’s stakeholders and partners. Sarah needed to represent the land managers correctly and tell the full story. Using more words can make panels visually unappealing to visitors; but the subject of public lands requires keeping in lot of nuance to the writing. It is a balancing act.

In the process of drafting the panels, Sarah also began creating design elements of the panels and the exhibit. Sarah made decisions about which interactive element will go where, what the graphics are going to look like, and reaching out to people for object and image loans. Creating a graphic identity (color, fonts, images, etc) is a big step in the exhibit design process because visually, visitors need continuity. This can take quite a while. “I’m not even going to tell you how long I spent looking at fonts!” explained Sarah. This year’s graphic identity tried to emulate nature and our National Parks, so there is a lot of green and tree bark. A big part of this exhibit was creating a backdrop representing Leave No Trace Principles. Visitors will then be able to identify those principles on an iPad within the exhibit.

Review and Installation

Then comes the reviewing process, typically taking place in mid-March, but took place in April this year because of the novel coronavirus. “Remember all those people I talked to? Well, I also asked them to fact check the content of the exhibit for me. Though the review took some time, I’m glad I did it because some of the content needed to be tweaked a bit to be more accurate. No one’s perfect! Plus, spelling is a struggle.”

Some animal paw casts that visitors will get to touch and identify.

Once that is done, those panels are sent off to the printer. But the exhibit’s not done yet! While the panels are getting printed, Sarah must reach back out to people who agreed to loan the Discovery Center objects for the summer. “This year we are borrowing some cool CCC era tools from the Forest Service, science equipment from the Fernow Experimental Forest, and even a snowshoe from Canaan Valley Resort State Park.”

Since March, Sarah has been working on this exhibit remotely from her native Arkansas. She returned to WV last week to begin setting up her exhibit space. This includes building interactive elements and object mounts, hanging panels, and arranging cases so they look just right. This year it also includes adding additional safety measures to “COVID proof” the area as much as possible. Sarah has been looking to different museums organizations for guidance of how to ensure the safety of visitors and those working in the building.

“There are usually a lot of late nights to make this happen, but it is so rewarding to see all the hard work come together to create something beautiful and engaging! Last step: sit back, relax, and celebrate all the hard work!”