Featured Projects

We have worked with organizations across the cultural sector on planning, strategy, and evaluation. See a few examples below.

 
Visitor snapping a photo in the Behind The Screen exhibition. Photo: Sachyn Mital
 
 

Museum of the Moving Image

Core Exhibition Development

The team at MoMI aspires to re-envision their permanent exhibition to incorporate the present and future of moving images and their social impact. HG&Co developed a plan for the facilitation of community groups and stakeholders to provide insight about what they love about MoMI, and what they’d like to see changed, before guiding a conceptual blueprint for MoMI’s new core exhibition. HG&Co’s role consists of supporting the discovery, inspiration and ideation phases of this two-year IMLS-funded project, including initial audience research, assessment group facilitation and synthesis, development of exhibition scope and guidelines, visitor testing of narrative and approach, gathering of stakeholder feedback, and overall project impact on staff learning.   

 
Woman doing electrical work. Photo: FLickr Commons, Library of Congress. David Bransby Photographer

American Women’s History Initiative (AWHI)

Day of Learning

Strategic Planning

Launched under the Smithsonian Institution’s recent strategic plan, AWHI awards $400,000 in resources across the Smithsonian to develop projects serving students and women and girls of color. HG&Co facilitated and coached AWHI’s Smithsonian grant recipients to develop a theory of change for their projects, and coached project leads in creating measurable outcomes and the incorporation of audience-centered development strategies.

Visitors walking through Under One Roof exhibit apartment. One visitor pauses to read. Photo and copyright: Sarah Mechling

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Under One Roof

Core Exhibition Development & Evaluation

Before launching the Tenement Museum’s newest exhibition and tour called Under One Roof, HG&Co spent two years story-testing with visitors in an IMLS-funded initiative designed to support the development of personal narratives that resonate deeply with visitors. Under One Roof takes visitors through a powerful re-creation of a Lower East Side apartment that three different immigrant families called home. This intense, two-year collaboration with the Tenement Museum and Potion Design produced an exhibition which moved visitors deeply, leading them to contemplate American policy and immigration, as well as their own experiences.

Visitors in the American Museum of Natural History looking at a wall of videos, spiders, and other artifacts. Photo: tosh chiang

American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

Visitor Journey Project

Audience Research

This President’s Office initiative examined key segments of AMNH’s visitors and focused on their entire journey, including planning stages before arriving at the museum and visitor reflections collected after their visit. HG&Co fielded a data collection team fluent in five languages to collect visitor input. HG&Co then utilized mobile ethnographic software to record visitor diaries that included scaled ratings, journaled reactions, photographs, video, and GPS location data. Our findings surfaced a complex story which underscored the deep appreciation visitors had for their experience at AMNH, and how the institution might take the experience to the next level.