CIMMYT celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016, and as part of the events and activities to mark this occasion, my company Museográfica designed, developed and constructed the CIMMYT Museum in the Center’s El Batan campus in Texcoco, Mexico.
CIMMYT is the largest NGO in Mexico and a key part of hunger reduction, food security and sustainable agriculture projects around the world.
Planning for the project was a response to the varying needs of a unique institution: the Museum serves as the public face of the Center, highlighting its successes, impacts and partnerships, and provides encounters for a diverse groups of visitors ranging from visiting delegations, to donors, to partners, to internal staff, to school groups.
These broad criteria represented a unique set of parameters circumscribing the planning for the Museum. They guided designs to achieve exhibition spaces that assert a middle ground between cutting-edge multimedia technology, and down-to-earth traditional object galleries.
Taking a step back from the didactic museum experience, which often requires extensive time commitments by the visitor, our plan presents much of the museum’s information through intimate encounters with standalone exhibits and interactives with layered content designed to present casual, informal learning and artistic and sculptural experiences.
All together, the new Museum is poised to become a public standard bearer for the Institute, leading the way into CIMMYT’s next 50 years.
My project involvement included client relations, project management, direction of all user experience design, collaboration on the creative direction, museum design project and implementation, and development of interactive media, a mobile app, enhancement and integration of Museográfica’s open-source Exhibit Management System (EMS) called Sinthius, development of the very large format multi-user multi-touch table called Abraxas, and all other technological elements.
For more on the museum, see the Museográfica project page or CIMMYT’s announcement of the museum.