EXHIBITION PLANNING AND EVALUATION
Arab American National Museum
March – June 2017
The Arab American National Museum is in the midst of a multi-year plan to update our permanent exhibits to reflect recent shifts in immigration patterns from the Arab World. These shifts have led to a surge in immigrants from countries that are under represented in the Museum’s current exhibits (particularly Sudan, Somalia, Morocco, and Egypt).
We are working with researchers across the country in these immigrant and refugee communities to conduct the necessary background work required to update exhibits. This work will be complete in April 2017.
We wish to work concurrently with a consulting firm to help us transition to the next phase of the project – translating the research into meaningful, memorable, engaging permanent exhibits for our audiences. The exhibits will transform the final ¼ of our “Coming to America” exhibit gallery.
To that end, we are seeking bids to provide the following services:
Conceptual Planning (with staff) March 1-15, 2017
We wish to have a staff retreat during which a consultant would lead us in the development of a unified exhibition theme we can all support. We also wish to be lead in the development of a unified vision of the desired impact of these new exhibits and associated programs.
Summative Evaluation (current exhibit) March 1- 31, 2017
We wish to work with a consultant who will assess the effectiveness of the current exhibits in this portion of the “Coming to America” exhibit gallery. We hope to use this as a baseline from which we can measure the increase in the impact of the new exhibits. We anticipate the evaluation will include the following four visitor types: middle school students, teachers, senior citizens, Arab American immigrants/refugees.
Front End Evaluation March 1 – April 30, 2017
We wish to work with a consultant who will conduct front end evaluations to determine what our visitors already know about the exhibition’s topic, what they are most curious to learn about, and what, if any, misconceptions they may have about this new wave of immigrants and refugees. We anticipate the evaluation will include the following four visitor types: middle school students, teachers, senior citizens, Arab American immigrants/refugees.
Formative Evaluation June 1 – 10, 2017
Once preliminary exhibit concepts are defined, we wish to work with a consultant to conduct formative evaluation to determine the functionality and efficacy of the proposed exhibits. We anticipate the evaluation will include the following four visitor types: middle school students, teachers, senior citizens, Arab American immigrants/refugees.
In order to fairly assess responses to the RFP, we request each service be quoted separately.
Proposals are due February 3, 2017. Submit proposals here:procurements@accesscommunity.org.
Selection of the consulting firm will be made on or before February 13, 2019.
Any questions should be directed to: echilton@accesscommunity.org (Please send Elizabeth your contact information if you would like her to share with you answers to any questions that are asked.)