Places of Invention Exhibition Project

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Building on their successful traveling exhibition and Web site, "Invention at Play," funded by the NSF Informal Science Education Program, the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (National Museum of American History) in collaboration with Smithsonian Affiliates around the country is developing "Places of Invention" (POI). Major deliverables include a 3,500 square-foot permanent exhibition at NMAH and a highly interactive Web site that focus on practicing inventive skill-building and illustrating the ways that place and social collaboration shape the creative process. The POI exhibition features an interactive Invent Town area and five stories about "hot spots" of invention from the mid-19th century to the present, each providing hands-on experiences that relate to particular "21st Century skills" and to the social, psychological, and spatial dimensions of invention, science, and engineering. The project intends to establish a new model for the co-creation of exhibition content among NMAH visitors, Web site users, Lemelson Center staff, and partnering Smithsonian Affiliate museums around the country. The exhibition and Web site will be designed with inter-linking features that allow museum visitors and people from around the country to add local stories of creative activities in their home towns, share their own inventive designs, and dialog with each other about the inventive process.