News

Steve Feldman Design (SFD) will work with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to plan and design a temporary exhibit devoted to the pets kept by U.S. presidents and their families. America’s relationship with animals changed from the time George Washington kept a score of foxhounds for hunting at Mount Vernon in the 18th century to Bill Clinton’s embrace of a First Cat in the 20th. The practice of pet keeping is connected to changing ideas about nature and norms, individual responsibility and societal obligation to animal welfare, as well as vogues in fashion and political image making. Like the many dogs, cats, horses, birds, reptiles,  cavies, rabbits, badgers, and pigs (and those are just Teddy Roosevelt’s!), we think this exhibit’s going to be fun for the whole family.

Check out this Smithsonian Magazine article about the innovative efforts of the Hagley Museum and Library and what patent models can tell us about American History. It features one of our favorite SFD-designed exhibits, Nation of Inventors!

The National Mounted Warrior Museum in Killeen, Texas, is now open! Featuring 14,000 sq. ft of new, SFD-designed exhibits, this exciting new museum celebrates the experience, legacy, and ongoing contributions of our nation’s mounted warriors. With helicopters, tanks, fighting vehicles presented in powerful settings with dynamic special effects, multimedia experiences, personal stories, and more, these immersive exhibits showcase the rich, diverse story of America’s heroic cavalry soldiers. Admission to the museum is free!

The new, SFD-designed exhibit commemorating a predominately Black, all-female, postal unit launches April 26th, 2024, at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. The U.S. Army Women’s Museum (AWM) and the Combined Arms Support Command are hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the exhibit; Courage to Deliver: The Women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, as part of the first annual Fort Gregg-Adams Day.

Steve Feldman Design will work with USAHEC staff to provide visitors to the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA, with an overview of the Army’s history as well as a deeper appreciation of the individual experiences, sacrifices, and achievements made by American soldiers from the earliest days of the Continental Army to soldiers of today. The existing Soldier Experience Gallery will be transformed with a permanent exhibit installation of approximately 5,000 sq. ft., featuring multimedia presentations, hands-on activities, and a showcasing of remarkable objects and images from the Army’s collections to illustrate powerful stories and emotionally engage visitors.

Delaware’s Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs has engaged Bernardon Architects and Steve Feldman Design to plan and design a new visitor center at the John Dickinson Plantation in Dover. The new facility will interpret the diverse communities that formed the working plantation. Many current visitors to the site come unaware of John Dickinson’s role in the founding of our nation. The new visitor center will describe his contributions, the context in which he made them, and their continuing impact felt today. The difficult and rich lives of the plantation’s enslaved people and indentured workers will be presented in ways that fully humanize them and that help visitors appreciate the sacrifices and importance of their roles in creating the nation’s foundation. Visitors will be offered exciting opportunities to engage in activities and environments that will help them to step back in time to the 18th century.

SFD has been engaged by the JFK Presidential Library and Museum to design Service and Sacrifice, an exhibit devoted to interpreting the Kennedy family’s role in the period leading up to WWII, their wartime experience, and the profound impact the war had on the family. It will also show how the war helped shape the futures of Kennedy family members and how the Kennedys in turn helped shape America. The exhibit will go beyond sharing the story of one prominent family’s wartime experience. It will interpret the war’s impact on a broad set of individuals who each differed from the Kennedys racially, economically, or socially. It will highlight the challenges they faced, and how many of them also went on to change America in profound and significant ways.

Over the course of two decades, SFD has worked with the Erie Canal Museum to interpret the history and significance of the Erie Canal. We helped transform the museum’s historic Weighlock building by designing a set of exhibits and visitor experiences interpreting the canal’s engineering and construction. SFD has now been charged with developing a Master Plan that will reinvent the visitor experience at the museum. The plan will offer visitors a more cohesive overall experience at the museum. It will also provide a more inclusive interpretation of the canal’s social and cultural impact. Working with museum staff, we look forward to exploring avenues for updating all of the museum’s spaces, and to incorporating more inclusive interpretations that explore the canal’s impact on indigenous peoples, and that reflect the contributions made by women and people of color to the canal’s creation and surrounding community life.

The U.S. Army Center of Military History has selected Steve Feldman Design to plan and design exhibits for the National Mounted Warrior Museum at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.  The museum is currently under construction and slated for completion in November 2021.  It will be devoted to interpreting the history, achievements, and sacrifices made by our nation’s mounted warriors focusing primarily on the 3d Cavalry Regiment and 1st Cavalry Division.  SFD is proud to have been selected for this project and excited to share the story of our mounted warriors.

On September 10th the Hagley Museum & Library will reopen it’s Henry Clay Mill Building to the public showcasing its new two-story permanent exhibit Nation of Inventors. SFD is excited for the public to see and experience exhibits that highlight the process of invention and that showcase Hagley’s remarkable collection of 19th c. patent models. Visitors will find an environment that is rich in opportunities to learn, to explore, to have fun, and to be inspired.

The Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center is located on the eastern end of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris County, New Jersey. The GSOEC offers year-round access to trails where visitors can experience the Great Swamp’s swamp and forest habitats, as well as a visitor center that provides lively presentations of the refuge’s natural inhabitants and history. SFD is excited to provide the GSOEC with new exhibits that will deepen visitor appreciation and understanding of all the Great Swamp has to offer, that showcases daily and seasonal changes to the swamp and its inhabitants, the endangered species that may be found there, and the role we humans must fulfill as stewards of this unique and remarkable natural wonder.

The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation has enlisted SFD to design a traveling exhibition whose first destination will be Charlottesville, VA. The exhibit will focus on interpreting maps created or used by Lewis & Clark on their epic journey, as well as other maps that resulted from their exploration. It will highlight the tools and methods used to create those maps in an era long before satellite imaging and GPS tracking, including methods taught to Lewis and Clark by Native Americans they encountered on their voyage. Steve Feldman Design looks forward to helping visitors around the country appreciate Lewis and Clark’s remarkable achievements.

The Covid-19 pandemic has upended lives and affected people the world over. Our thoughts are with all of our museum colleagues and friends. We continue to hope for their safety and well-being, as well as that of their families and loved ones.

The newly opened Endeavour School is located in Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and serves the elementary school-aged children of personnel stationed at the base. The school is named for the Space Shuttle Endeavour. SFD has been charged with creating an inspiring permanent exhibit devoted to assisting students and visiting families to appreciate Endeavour’s pioneering achievements as well as the challenges and successes of its crews and NASA support team. This exhibit will enhance appreciation of the space shuttle and instill school pride. We’re thrilled to contribute our talents to creating a great experience for students and their military families, and to enforcing the connection between the school and it’s remarkable namesake!

With great fanfare the Museum of the American Revolution has opened the special exhibition Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier. The museum collected a remarkable set of international art and artifacts to illustrate the dramatic life and times of Richard St. George, an Irish aristocrat who fought and was wounded during the American Revolution. St. George’s fascinating life spanned a time of political, intellectual and artistic upheaval. Steve Feldman Design worked closely with museum curators and staff to help create an exhibition that brings St. George’s experience thoughtfully and powerfully to life.

SFD is proud to announce the opening of the new Visitors Center for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The Visitors Center is the Academy’s public portal, and is expected to welcome more than a million visitors annually from around the world. The new 31,000-square-foot Visitors Center includes roughly 10,000 square feet of exhibits, including a wide range of media and hands-on interactive exhibits and a state-of-the-art multi-sensory presentation theater. SFD planned, designed, and oversaw the production and installation of all exhibits. The exhibits highlight the four-year experience of Academy cadets, the programs developed to create our Army’s leaders of character, and the remarkable legacy of “The Long Gray Line.”