Make Way for Ducklings

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2016-17

Role: Exhibition Designer

Team: Curator Meghan Melvin, Graphic Designer Nick Pioggia

This exhibition celebrated the 75th anniversary of the beloved children's book Make Way for Ducklings.

Design and Spatial Organization. Set within a compact 900-square-foot gallery, the exhibition called for two distinct experiences: a bright space for viewing drawings and a quieter, more intimate space for reading. To achieve this, I built a small room within the room, using wall color to instill a sense of intimacy inside the interior reading space, in contrast to a brighter, more active feeling around the perimeter.

Casework. Thin-framed wooden table cases, painted black, were designed to complement the dark ink marks against the white page of each drawing—keeping the casework simple so the drawings remained the focus. To help the smaller interior room feel more open, I cut a window into one wall to display sculptures of Officer Mike and the ducklings, creating a peek-through that visually linked the two spaces. A soft, velvet-covered bench in the interior room added warmth and texture, extending an invitation to sit down and read.