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principals
| name: Buff Ross base: Charleston, SC education: BA in Anthropology, University of South Carolina MA in Museum Studies, John F. Kennedy University contact: buff@orindagroup.com |
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What’s one of your strongest memories of a museum or exhibition from your childhood?
The Charleston Museum is “America’s First Museum” and during my youth it was still housed in one giant open room. Due to the antiquity of the institution and the proclivities of the various curators throughout its’ history, the collection was extremely diverse. It ranged from taxidermy to textiles to miniature paintings all in the shadow of this giant articulated whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling. I just remember bouncing around the room like a pinball from “pickled specimens” to “Victorian hair art” and small arms. It harkened back to a much earlier age of the museum. The Charleston Museum has moved to a more modern facility and updated their museological approach to match the times. One of the pleasures I have had, during my recent experience as an Adjunct Professor, is taking my students to tour the Charleston Museum’s collections every semester. Each time we explore the facility I spy new/old treasures tucked away and feel the same unabashed curiosity the museum spawned in me as a child.
What first attracted you to a career in the museum field?After completing archeological fieldwork, I realized that I was more fascinated with the objects/artifacts themselves than finding them. I soon realized my true passion was how objects could tell stories and how their embedded meanings could be conveyed to the public through exhibitions and now through my current work with the internet. One of my biggest problems with a majority of museum websites, is the shallow level of content they provide to the online visitor. Museums have long been adept at providing this crucial content on the exhibition floor and through publications. Unfortunately, museums have not been nearly as responsive in migrating this information to our digital offerings.
What roles have you served within cultural organizations?
I have had the pleasure of working in many aspects of the museum world. At some point in my career I have worked in almost every component of exhibitions including: installation, design, curation, shipping, insurance, marketing, graphic design, web development, funding and even schlepping dirty wine glasses after openings. By being involved in both the creative and functional elements of the museum, I have gained broad understanding of the field. In recent years I have found myself increasingly absorbed with web design/development and its’ potential and realized usefulness as an invaluable tool for the museum.
What’s a personal goal you have with regard to museum consulting?
I feel passionately about the positive role websites can play for fulfilling museum missions. At the same time I find that museums consistently underutilize the opportunities provided by the technology. Hence my biggest goal is developing solutions that bridge this sometimes-incongruous relationship that museums have with the Internet. While effective and aesthetically successful design is an important quotient in the solution, it is only the beginning. I want to help our clients develop effective strategies for managing their content and seek way to efficiently deploy it through new technologies.
Name an exhibition that you have seen that stands out in your mind.
During my last visit to Los Angeles I had an opportunity to visit the Body Worlds exhibition at the California Science Center and encountered one of the most unique aesthetic and scientific experiences of my life. This exhibition features the work of Dr. Gunther Von Hagens and his revolutionary techniques for the plastination of human cadavers. The exhibit functions as one of the most powerful educational explorations in human anatomy imaginable. At the same time, his dissections worked on a surreal and hauntingly artistic level as well. Though Von Hagens dispells attempts to classify his work as anything other than scientific, the visual theater he creates is evocative of both avant-garde sculptures and the long tradition of anatomy in art history.