Sunday, November 28, 2010

Observational Blog 12: Co-Creating Projects

Nina Simon discusses co-creating projects with visitors and its benefits. Co-creative projects need to begin with the community. She gives three main reasons for communities to use co-creative projects, “To give voice and be responsive to the needs and interests of local community members. To provide a place for community engagement and dialogue. To help participants develop skills that will support their individual and community goals,” (263). Simon claims, “co-creative projects progress very similarly to collaborative projects, but they confer more power to participants,” (264). In the exhibition If Tired Hands Could Talk: Stories of Asian Pacific American Garment Workers featured at the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, WA, used oral histories to compile the content. Exhibitions that focus on oral history can be very powerful and will also give the public the feeling of being a part of the museum. It can be easier to relate to since the content would be told in a more relaxed tone.
            Simon discussed the project team is composed of three groups, “A Core Advisory Committee of 12-15 community members with specific and diverse connections to the topic at hand, who lead the project development. Staff, who facilitate the process as technical advisors, project administrators, and community managers. More informally engaged community members, who participate as contributors and collaborators to the projects,” (266). The CAC will assist with creating personal views of information for the exhibition. The staff of the institution will assist with the planning and execution of the project and ensure that the community members feel they are participating in something worthwhile.
            Co-creative projects can generate a new kind of exhibition that involves the community in a different form than collaborative projects. It can produce a more personal experience and relate to the public in different ways. They can feel as if they were a part of something special as they see their words on the walls of the museum; although the same thing can be said of collaborative projects and other participatory activities.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Observational Blog 11: Value of a Museum

John Falk discusses the value of museums and how they affect the community’s lives through its operation. A museum must strive to make a difference to its visitors otherwise the mission would not be fulfilled and its existence would be irrelevant. Museums must support the good of the public. Falk claims, “Achieving this goal requires understanding not just the needs and wants of the public, but how the public can best be served by the resources and capabilities of the museum,” (239). In order to determine if a museum is meeting its goals, measuring the success would be the next step. Falk asserts, “Success is not limited to a single set of outcomes, but requires excellence in basic areas: (1) support of the public good which includes accomplishing one’s cultural/aesthetic mission, but also involves being a good community citizen; (2) organizational investment which includes building and nurturing staff; supporting a climate and culture for creativity, innovation, collaboration, and research and development; and (3) financial stability which includes building organizational value and, when possible, generating annual financial surpluses that can be used to further support institutional learning and hence, the public good,” (239-240). This means that a museum must maintain that it is influential to its visitors by meeting their particular needs through a knowledgeable staff and multiple resources.
Museums need to gauge the impact of their institution and make changes when necessary. The public changes over time as well as their needs, motivations, and expectations. What worked twenty years ago may not appeal to the audience of today. The museum staff needs to realize this and change with the times or they will be left in the dust. Falk claims that the public recognizes museums are “good for five basic things: 1) the need to satisfy personal curiosity and interest; 2) the wish to engage in a meaningful social experience with someone you care about, in particular children; 3) the aspiration to experience that which is best and most important within a culture; 4) the desire to further specific intellectual needs; and 5) the yearning to immerse one’s self in a spiritually refreshing environment,” (245). Each person that steps foot in museum is coming with their own ideas and assumptions about what they will find and what they are looking for. It is a museum’s job to attempt to appeal to every visitor. If the museum can satisfy these provisions then they stand a good chance of having a future.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Project Update

I have finished my dossier and my storyboard. I also finished my prototype and I'm now working on my presentation.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Observational Blog 10: Knowing Your Visitors

John Falk discusses in Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience accommodating the needs of visitors. He discusses several types of visitors that will expect different things from an exhibition and how a museum can attempt to meet those needs. Falk claims there are five types of visitors: explorers, facilitators, experience seekers, professional/hobbyists, and rechargers. Each one of these visitors comes to the museum with specific expectations and an exhibition will not always meet the needs of every visitor.
An explorer “[seeks] to satisfy their personal interests and curiosities,” while visiting a museum (217). He explains that this group is a “large percentage of a museum’s visiting population,” (217). They wish to learn more about the subjects that interest them and they expect the museum to fulfill their curiosity. This group, I believe would hold the museum to high standards but would understand and still return if their expectations are not always met.
A facilitator is a visitor that “arrive[s] at the museum with a strong desire to support what’s best for their loved one or companion,” (221). Facilitators are often parents taking their children around the museum. They can be the driving force in bringing people into the museum which is why it is crucial to appeal to these visitors.
Experience seekers, I feel, are easy to please. They are just looking for a good time and want to “make memories” so as long as they have a good time, they are satisfied. For professional/hobbyists, going to an exhibition is like “a job to get done,” (228) according to Falk. They have prior knowledge of the information and Falk claims many will not read the labels. They use the sources for their own needs.
Rechargers want “a peaceful and aesthetically pleasing corner of the world in which to relax,” (230). This group of visitors does not demand a great deal from the institution; they want a place they can relax and be in a comfortable, calming place. In order to try to connect with each of these groups of visitors, different design methods need to be created because every visitor responds in various ways. Knowing they types of visitors that frequent the museum a person runs will greatly increase repeat visits by appealing to how they learn and use the exhibition.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Project Update 10

I have almost finished my storyboard. I am finishing up my floor plan. I am going to finish my dossier on Saturday so I can send it to you for review. My only worry is trying to figure out the budget. I have a list of things that I need to include; however, I think it may be difficult to determine how much things will cost. We don’t have a limit on our budget do we? We’re just creating an approximation of what we think the installation costs will be? I think I am coming along pretty well. For our presentation, do we need to create a PowerPoint or are we going to go off of our dossier to present?

Monday, November 8, 2010

Observational Blog 10: Attracting Visitors

Museums in the twenty-first century are essentially based on the visitor experience. John Falk suggests in his book Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience that museums have become “marketing-driven” (185). He claims, “A majority of museum-goers report that the primary thing that influenced them to visit was a word-of-mouth recommendation from friends and/or family,” (187). In order for someone to recommend a museum to another, their experience must have been positive. People are influenced greatly by the reviews of their friends and family. Falk goes on to say, “For all museums, advertising and publicity programs account for less than 20% of visitors,” (187). I have to agree with Falk when he says, “This, of course, becomes somewhat circular—in order for there to be a successful word-of-mouth promotion, people have to go to the museum in the first place, for people to go to the museum in the first place, they need to be encouraged by someone else who had a successful museum experience,” (187-88). So how do people decide to go to museums initially if the collections and content of the museum and the marketing of those objects only consist of a small percentage of people’s reasons for visiting? One has to wonder if this chain begins simply with the people who attend museums regularly are the ones who spread the positive word-of-mouth promotions.
Nina Simon discusses in The Participatory Museum visitors as contributors. Simon states, “contributory activities can be offered to visitors of all types without much setup or participant coaching…Contributory projects are also in many case the only type of participatory experience in which visitors can seamlessly move from functioning as participants to audience and back again,” (204). Simon mentions the Denver Community Museum’s exhibition Bottled Up! People were invited to create a bottle filled with memories of people, places, and other significant things in their lives. Many people contributed to this exhibition and encouraged other visitors to open the bottles and view their secrets. Relating to what Falk said, how did the visitors who contributed hear about the exhibition in the first place? Would they have heard about it from a friend that visited the museum and saw they were asking for contributions for a new exhibit or through advertising? The exhibition was very successful and many people came and participated in it. One has to wonder if the success of the exhibition was due to word-of-mouth encouragement or through the advertisements the museum used.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Project Update 9

I purchased detail samples of fabrics, stickers, paper signage, floor samples, and items to create a prototype of a canal boat. I decided to make the canal boat prototype out of model clay. The real boat that will be for the kids to play with will either be plastic or polished wood. It seemed easier to make a prototype out of clay though. I am going to work on my dossier to send to you by class on Monday. I need help with the storyboard. I’m not sure how to arrange the items on it. I am going on the floor plan website to create a sample floor plan for Monday.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Observational Blog 8: Role-playing

In the chapter Social Objects, Nina Simon discussed a role-playing experience called Follow the North from a museum called Conner Prairie which is a living history site in Indiana. It takes place in 1836 and visitors participate as slaves who are trying to escape from their owners when they were moving through the free state of Indiana. It is not common for visitors to have a role in the action. The visitors are “in the middle of the action as actors themselves,” (154). Simon goes on to say, “This approach leads to powerful interpersonal experiences among visitors in a group. Visitors may be pitted against each other or forced to make decisions about which of them should be sacrificed as bargaining chips,” (154).
Bringing the visitors into the action can open up dialogue for visitors to relate their experiences and understand those of the people they were portraying. A group of people of mixed races would have a great deal to discuss, given the different viewpoints. Role-playing is often avoided especially when it comes to the issue of slavery. Everyone knows it happened and it is not high point for our history; however, avoiding the issue does not help to resolve it or help others to understand why it happened or why it lasted so long.
I experienced something like this in grade school. Every year the sixth graders went to a camp for a week. During this time there was a role-playing activity that was commonly called by the students “a slave run.” We were divided into groups and were playing the role of runaway slaves with a white person as someone who was willing to help us through the forest to get somewhere safe. We had to watch out though because there were men all through the forest that looked for slaves to catch and return to the owners for a reward. I can recall this after many years because this experience was action packed and it was difficult to remember that it wasn’t real. I think the museum was trying to achieve the same thing that our camp wanted us to get out of the experience: to understand the experience of people who actually ran away for their freedom. Role-playing is very powerful and can open up a great deal of discussion about people’s experiences and their insight on those they were portraying.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Project Update 8

I have been working on my visitor outline. I am trying to imagine where I am going to put all of the material into the exhibition that I want. I think having a small replica of part of a canal boat in the corner of an exhibition including items that would have been on the boat would be a nice interactive tool for visitors to really visualize what they are seeing in the photographs. However, I am thinking that this probably would not work because I am proposing this exhibition to be at the Massillon Museum main gallery and not only would it be very costly, I don’t know how it would be built in there or how it would get there. So I’m kind of stuck on participatory activities, especially related to children, as well as a layout for my exhibition.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Observational Blog 7: Survey Results

This week’s homework was creating a survey and dispersing it out to our friends and family. I have realized that even though I thought the questions I asked were simple and self-explanatory, the responses I have received have shown me that I could have been a little clearer. I did not realize it when I wrote the questions and made the multiple choice answers that my questions were unclear. From the responses I received I realized should have reworded a few questions and added another sentence for clarification. A true or false question I used was “The canals are still used today.” Several people responded, “True, but not for their original purpose.” I realized I should have made that clear in the statement. I also found out that the source I used online to base my questions off of turned out to have wrong information. I was lucky though because the two questions still had the correct answer in the other choices. I also made a few errors on the survey I sent to my first group. Due to an error on the computer, it sent the survey before I could fix it. This could have caused confusion on one of the questions on my survey.
I sent my survey out to 44 people and I have received fourteen responses. Eight were female and six were male. I have to wonder why only fourteen people responded to my survey. Nina Simon claims institutions need to ask questions about its visitors that participate in the activities, “If participation is voluntary, what is the profile of the visitors who choose to participate actively? What is the profile of the visitors who choose not to participate,” (309). The majority of people that I sent my survey to are between the ages of 19-25.
The profiles of the majority of my group were college students. Many have jobs, participate in clubs, and have homework like everyone else. There are many factors as to why many people did not respond to my survey. They may have intended to but decided to do it later. Many people do not like surveys and won’t take them even if they are for a friend or acquaintance. People may not have had time or genuinely did not want to take the survey. I realized after reading several responses to the survey how clear one has to be in order to obtain the results desired. I am confident in the future I will be able to create a clearer survey.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Project Update 7

I have been working on my Interpretive Plan and working on my dossier. I have also been working on my survey. I have been looking for books on the canals so I can make a similar assessment for my exhibition or just use the information for my text panels. I plan to engage the visitors by the hands-on activities I have mentioned previously. There will be many pictures and not a great deal of text because my target audience is children. This will make the exhibit more interesting to the children.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Observational Blog 6: Social Objects

Nina Simon discusses social objects and how they create dialogue between visitors in a museum and in other aspects of life. She claims, “Social objects are the engines of socially networked experiences, the content around which conversation happens. Social objects allow people to focus their attention on a third thing rather than each other, making interpersonal engagement more comfortable.” (127-128). First, she discusses how people take their pets with them if they want to start a conversation with someone new because people can talk to each other through the animal. This is common when someone is out walking their dog. Strangers will walk up and talk to the owner while focusing on the dog. It is very similar when a parent has a new baby. Animals and babies are considered social objects according to Simon because they create conversations between people who would not normally speak to one another without the object to focus upon.
Simon claims that social objects have four common qualities, “Personal, Active, Provocative, and Relational,” (129). Personal objects can relate to someone, bringing back a memory or an emotion that they may feel encouraged to share. Active objects are “objects that directly and physically insert themselves into the spaces between strangers [that] can serve as shared reference points for discussion,” (130). Active objects are often used in social settings that can open discussions between people when they share an experience. Provocative objects are often used in museums to create a dialogue. It can be something that is shocking and they decide to discuss. Relational objects necessitate more than one person to use them, causing interaction between people.
In 2009, the Massillon Museum used the approach of provocative objects in its exhibition Stark Naked Salon. The exhibit featured the work of eleven budding artists in Stark County. The exhibit was displayed salon-style and the different techniques displayed definitely opened the exhibit up for conversation. The exhibit shocked many people beginning with the title. This exhibit was the talk of the town for a while due to the fact that the different artistic styles displayed were often unconventional and contemporary. Social objects can bring people together in various settings and museums take advantage of this fact to attempt to enhance the visitor experience.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Project Update 6

I have been working on the dossier for my project. I have already established who the audience is, the exhibit theme and concept. I have a list of goals and objectives. I have been working on the visitor experience outline. I have a good idea what I want in the exhibition. I have been considering creating a small scale replica that children and adults can actually get inside to look around and see what it would have been like to be on a boat. I think this would be a great learning experience, but I know it would be almost impossible to create a full scale canal boat to fit into an exhibition space.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Observational Blog 5

The museum can determine the visitor’s experience by how they choose to design the exhibition. They can choose to confront the visitor and make them uncomfortable such as the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Field to Factory exhibition in 1987 as Falk mentions. Or they could choose to make the visitor comfortable by designing the exhibit in a familiar format and setting. By making this decision, the visitor experience has already been influenced. Making people uncomfortable in the museum setting can be a risky move. The Field to Factory exhibit forced people to choose which term of racial identity described them. Most people do not enjoy feeling uncomfortable when in a museum setting especially if they are viewing something they do not understand. They may decide to leave early rather than view the exhibit; however, this tactic could deepen the experience of the visitor by changing the way they always view museums. They could challenge themselves to participate in unfamiliar experiences.
            The deeper the experience for the visitor the more likely they are to remember their visit in years to come and to return. It is important to make visitors feel as if they are valued customers. The exhibition should be audience-centered. If the exhibition focuses on children, the signage and labels should correspond to their target audience. The same goes for a target audience of academic adults, the labels should reflect the higher education level; however, the museum should still not use a great deal of technical jargon for the lay-people who decide to visit, to ensure they still take away something from their exhibition.
            Attempting to relate to the visitors as individuals rather than a group may create a more meaningful experience for them. People in America are very individualistic and self-serving. Addressing the people this way could emphasize this aspect of our culture; however, it could give the visitor the opportunity to associate themselves with the museum on their own personal interests. The next step could be to give tools to connect people to one another. This could be accomplished through interactive activities or scheduled discussion groups.
            These decisions on design can influence the museum visitor’s experience either positively or negatively. It is impossible to tell how each person’s experience will go. A museum professional can only guide the visitor to the best experience; it is up to the person on what they are going to make of it.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Project Update 5

I have been working on the SWOT analysis of my exhibition. One strength of the exhibit so far includes the education aspect of appealing to the school groups for field trips. I want the information to follow the student’s curriculum to draw more teacher and their students. I am going to have a story-time area for small children to play and learn as well. A weakness is appealing to the parents that will be bringing the children. I need labels that the children can understand but does not bore the adults. An opportunity would be to expanding the demographics of people that normally attend the museum. A threat could be not having a large enough budget for all of the interactive activities.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Observational Blog 4

           People often go into a museum with certain expectations. Some could be positive but others could be negative as well. Someone who enjoys going to art museums and decided to visit a new one would have expectations from their previous experiences with art museums. They may expect the set up of the museum or the design of the exhibition to be similar, or the learning outcomes to meet their standards. On the other hand, a person who may have had one bad experience at an art museum, whether it is a group of noisy children distracting them or the text used too much technical jargon; they may anticipate their next visit to an art museum to be the same.
            Frequently visitors who have an idea of what their visit is going to be like they often mold their situation into fulfilling their suspicion. This is why it is often difficult to try please every visitor. If they do not come into the museum with an open mind, it is tricky to change their impression. Although it is not impossible by any means to impress a person with preset notions of the museum and change their opinion of museums in general. If a person who does not generally enjoy art museums because of a past experience or they feel they do not understand what they are seeing, they may feel as if they will not learn anything. They may become persuaded to visit an art museum with a friend. This person is coming with the idea that they probably won’t enjoy their experience. Chances are no matter what exhibits are on display; they won’t get much out of the visit. However, this could be a great opportunity for the museum and the person’s friend to open the eyes of the visitor.
            A museum tries to connect to each person that comes through the door but it is not always possible. The museum tries to teach people about the exhibits on display with some degree of authority but use lay-people terms. Interactive displays are helpful in reaching out to people who are more visual learners. Video clips can also affect a visitor’s experience because they can see what is happening in 3D and they can learn something new. Interactive methods such as these may help to connect with people who have high expectations for their visit.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Project Update 4

My theme of my project is the Ohio and Erie Canal. I want to focus on how the canals helped build cities in Ohio and how they influenced people’s lives in the 1800s. I want children to learn the history of the canals and to see through photography how life was like living on a canal. I think a footage video clip of how a canal is pulled would be a good interpretive strategy. A replica of a canal boat that the children could disassemble and reassemble would be a nice interactive as well as a seek-and-find book of the photographs. I think a story-time area would be a good tool as well.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Observational Blog 3: Participation at the McKinley Museum

            I visited the William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum over the weekend. The Discover World is devoted to children with multiple interactive science activities. There was a Natural History Island with an Allosaurus that moved and roared along with a plastic rock that had several dioramas of smaller dinosaurs. The Ecology Island had areas of water with different animals that were living there. There were also cages of several animals such as a rabbit, birds, snakes, and a tarantula. The Spacestation Earth area was my favorite of all of the participatory activities in the Discover World. They had a table that turned to show and explain how an eclipse and lunar eclipse form. A touch screen showed how to save energy and money with the use of household appliances and how everyone can help the environment. Another activity was a sound frequency activity to see what noises are made when one pipe was covered and while another was covered and uncovered. One area had the movie Twister playing as it had a tornado of smoke formed. There was a screen that children could pretend they were on the news giving the weather. This area encouraged participation of all kinds as it taught the participant something about what they were doing.
            Throughout the remainder of the museum there were places that the viewer could touch to turn on a recording to learn more. The Street of Shops was like walking back in time into the late 1800’s. There was a store, photographic studio, toyshop, lawyer’s, doctor’s and dentist’s offices, a barbershop, and a firehouse where one could slide down the pole from the second floor. I have to admit though that it was difficult to distinguish what we were allowed to touch and where we were specifically allowed to go. As Nina Simon said the “participants need clear roles and information on how to participate. Several of the places had a rope across the door so it was obvious the visitor was not supposed to enter; however, on the second floor of one building I was unsure if we were allowed to go up.
            The participatory activities were intended for more than just children. Adults could enjoy the science center as much as the children. I participated in almost every activity in the science center and learned a few things new. This is what I think was successful about the activities; the museum didn’t just focus on children as their audience. The Street of Shops could be enjoyed by children; however I think the target audience was for adults. The main objective for participation from the audience was for education and entertainment and I think it was achieved with the activities they created.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Project Update 3

I want to focus my William Loren Bennett exhibit on his canal photographs. This was his main focus of his career and I believe it would be educational to show the documentary photographs during the construction. I have decided that my audience for the exhibit is going to be schoolchildren, focused directly on 5th grade, and their teachers and parents. I want to have an interactive area for the children to participate in. I also think it would be informative to have an educational video playing in one corner of the exhibit.

Project Update 1

I would like to create an exhibition displayed in an art museum featuring a solo exhibition of photographs by William Loren Bennett or Belle Johnson. I am an intern at the Massillon Museum and they have a large collection of photographs for each photographer. I would like to do a little more research before deciding which photographer I will choose. I think the exhibition would be inclusive of their life's work.

Observational Blog 2: Museum Events and Exhbitions

Many people attend a museum for the entertainment that is offered during special events. Others attend for relaxation, to experience culture, and to satisfy their curiosity and learn something new. Museums need to compete with theme parks, theatres, etc. where people go solely for entertainment. Often, museums design events or exhibitions that draw in crowds. This often begs the question of whether museums are sacrificing educating the public in order to bring in enough crowds. Large blockbuster exhibits can be educational as well as a widely publicized event intended to draw in new visitors.

The Kimono as Art: The Landscapes of Itchiku Kubota exhibit at the Canton Museum of Art (February-April, 2009) was a huge blockbuster exhibit that attracted 56,068 visitors. The kimonos themselves were not only extraordinary, but the exhibit included a video of Kubota himself explaining how he made his kimonos and why he decided to create them. Text was also featured under each kimono explaining its meaning, also an exhibition catalog for further reading.

Another big event in the area is Canton’s First Friday event in downtown. It is a night filled with fun and culture. The museums, galleries, restaurants, and shops unite and are open free to the public for the night. It is also a good way for people who cannot afford admission fees to still enjoy the galleries and museums in the area.

The Massillon Museum hosts an annual Island Party which is their biggest event of the year. They have food, music and people can peruse through the galleries. The profit goes toward the museum and the public really enjoys the party.

Museum professionals need to ask themselves if it is better to have an event or exhibition that is not focused on the education aspect as much as the entertainment in order to gain new visitors or if it moving too far from the mission. I think the events that I have mentioned are a good way to attract new faces into the museum. People who may not be museum goers could have a really great time at these events and then decide to visit the museum later to see what’s new. They could potentially become regular visitors all because of their fun visit during an event.

Although some people may not like the aspect of the fun museum events; however, it is not possible to please everyone. Someone can become offended regardless of what the museum professionals try to do. I think if a big event or exhibit is what is necessary to attract the visitors that the museum needs, then I think the museum should take advantage of entertainment as long as they keep in mind the mission of their museum.

Observational Report 1

          Museums need to stay relevant to the times and therefore must make changes to the way in which they run the museum and design its exhibitions. It is now essential to actively engage the visitors and invite them to participate. Museums must be careful when they are thinking of ideas for visitor participation and activity because they need to maintain their goal as a non-profit institution focused on education. Nina Simon’s focus of her book The Participatory Museum is to show that visitors are the heart of the museum experience. It is vital to the success of a museum to know who its audience is and to target them in their exhibitions; however, the museum also needs to try to draw new people into the museum. Simon expresses the importance of a visitor’s experience because it portrays the influence museums have on society.
John Falk describes in his book Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience that by understanding who is attending museums, what they are doing when they are inside, and the meaning they derive from an exhibition can reveal what the public thinks is beneficial. Falk uses case studies to show that demographics are not reliable in determining how a person is going to respond to a particular museum or exhibition. Falk mentioned how people decide when they will attend a museum. Many people decide to go to satisfy curiosity while others go for a leisure activity.
Museums need to be careful when they are trying to invite visitors in to maintain their mission. There is a fine line from actively engaging the visitors and making the museum fun to merging into edutainment. Walt Disney merged education and entertainment in the theme parks and movies; however, it can be argued that people are not learning as much as is desired. A museum needs to be cautious to keep from becoming more focused on attracting visitors and showing them a good time rather than educating them as well as making it a fun and enjoyable experience. The visitor experience is everything. Simon and Falk both try to explain the importance of participation of visitors.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Project Update 2

I have decided to research William Loren Bennett. I am meeting with Alex on Monday, September 13th. She is going to show me the collection of his photographs that the Massillon Museum holds. I have started searching the Internet for him; however, I have not been very successful. I am going to check the library to see if there are any books written about him; although, if I cannot find additional sources on Bennett then I am going to research Belle Johnson instead. I know the museum has an extensive collection of her photographs.