Graphics for new JVH museum exhibiton drawing board

Excitement is building at the Jacobus Vanderveer House as a Philadelphia design house readies the look and layout of exhibits to be used in the museum when we open. Concept design plans are being fashioned now by Steve Feldman, one of America’s top museum designers, in concert with the Friends of JVH Board Museum and Acquisitions Committee led by Daniel Powell.

Feldman is designing what display cases will go where, what topics will be covered in each, and how the history of the house and Pluckemin Artillery Park should be interpreted — whether by 3-D scale model, artifact or graphic explanation. He and his staff have already completed plans for the museum entrance and flow of visitors. In the last stages, interactive designs and student-friendly videos will be readied.

Pending successful fund raising efforts, the fabrication will be complete by 2010, according to Friends of JVH Board Member Linda Hough. The exhibits will be based on a script commissioned by the Friends and written by historian Dennis Bertland.

A script as we know it usually carries the dialogue for a TV show, play, or film, but when it comes to museums, scripts describe the way institutions interpret specific history or works of art. For JVH, the script tells many stories relating to the house, including the temporary occupancy by Revolutionary War Gen. Henry Knox, who commanded Artillery Park, the impact Artillery Park had on turning the tide of the American Revolution, Dutch colonial life in New Jersey, and the history of the Vanderveer family. “The generous amount of material requires more space than we currently have available,” said JVH Board Member and Exhibits Coordinator Marthe Smith.

Restricting the theme to the role JVH played in the Revolution ties into the designation of JVH and Artillery Park as a stop on the new Crossroads of the American Revolution history park in New Jersey, Smith added, and the units studied by local schools.

ONE OF America's top museum designers, Steve Feldman of Philadelphia, has come up with this idea for the Pluckemin Park of Artillery exhibit at the new Vanderveer House Museum, to open in 2010.

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Submitted: December 15, 2008

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