Writing Across Borders

Flexible Exhibition Design

Traveling Stanzas: Writing Across Borders is a project directed by the Wick Poetry Center in Kent, Ohio. Traveling Stanzas started with poems displayed in buses and at bus stations in the Akron/Kent area, hence the “Traveling”, and evolved into a way to share the cultures of the people of Akron and Kent. The team went into classrooms and community groups, helping create poems that were then illustrated by Kent State Students. My group was the second half of a team brought in to help create an exhibit that would showcase the bus posters, the illustrated poems, and two different programs created to teach about different poetry styles. We developed the final layout and look of the exhibit, while the first half of the team had done color and space research.

The unique challenge we faced was that the exhibit would be traveling around to different locations, and therefore would have to adapt to the space. Some locations wouldn’t have electric outlets, either, and so we also had to create analog options and space for the digital programs. My job within the group was to research materials, different pre-fabricated display systems, and finishing options. I also developed a display system of cubes that was based on the sizes for the various posters, and could be rearranged to fit a new space. The idea originally came from a pre-fabricated display that we saw during a fabrication facility tour, but it was based on fabric panels and a metal frame.

In my system, the ability to leave panels unfilled would also allow viewers to see other people through the gaps, which represented a theme of reflection presented to us by the Wick Poetry Center.