Installing "A Blessing to One Another" Part I or How did you fit ALL THAT into THERE?!?

It’s 7:30 AM Monday August 16 and the Museum is already a bustle of activity. The fork lift has arrived and Mark Ward and Associates are ready to begin work. Bob Shelton, the site manager is reviewing floor plans with the crew. Right on time the first of two 53-foot tractor trailers carrying A Blessing to One Another exhibit arrives.

Mark Ward and the fork lift.

The truck is packed to the gills with crates and casework. The process of unloading begins.

Tetris skillz were used to pack this truck.

It takes a lot of teamwork and communications to remove the crates using the fork lift. The crates are then opened and each panel is removed and brought into the gallery.

Lowering the crates onto the sidewalk.

The color-coded panels are placed in the gallery in approximate layout position.

Finally, after lunch the crew can begin setting up the panels around the perimeter of the gallery.

Karen, intern SPS & Darrell take a look at the early stages of installation

Tuesday morning we start the process over again when the second truck arrives!

By Wednesday the crew was making significant progress—
sections were beginning to take shape.

Pete Leatherwood carries one of the graphic panels.

Stoney and Patrick put in the wiring for a video monitor.

The entrance way to the exhibition is all set up.

By Friday morning, all of the panels, graphics, lights, monitors and sound stations were installed. James Buchanan (the exhibition curator, not the former president) came in from Xavier College in Cincinnati to walk through the exhibition with Bob Shelton, Karen Falk, Anita Kassof and myself to make sure everything was up to par.

Not this James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States.

James explained how he and his team developed and fabricated the entire exhibition in less than one year – a miracle! He also told us stories of how excited he was when the artifacts he asked for actually came to him from the Vatican. I couldn’t wait to open up the crates and see the items that would be included in the show.