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College of Eastern Utah

Prehistoric Museum

Nine Mile Canyon Exhibit Plan

Interpretation of NMC history and culture provides a great on-site experience. But to complete the experience, and gain a greater understanding into the cultures that occupied the canyon, the Prehistoric Museum should be included in the total interpretation package. The Museum is the location where visitors can see the many artifacts of the Fremont, as well as learn about the other historical events and cultures of NMC.

A general review of the existing exhibits on the second floor gallery of the Prehistoric Museum was done with the goal to provide planning direction to upgrade these exhibits into a more visitor friendly learning experience. Photos of the exhibit gallery and typical exhibits currently in place, are provided on the following three pages.

The interpretive exhibit planning forms used for this section provide suggestions for exhibit types and content/subject areas.

Exhibit Planning/Design and Construction Cost Estimates.

The national “average” costs for exhibit planning, design and construction is $200/square foot of floor space. Based on actual exhibit design (less interactive exhibits and more display cases and flatwork) the costs can drop to $130/square foot or lower.

The available floor space for the NMC exhibit area (currently in use) is approximately 720 square feet of floor space. At an estimated cost of $150/square foot, we estimate the cost for contracting out the total re-design, and construction of new exhibits for this gallery to be $108,000.00.

The design part of the total project is about 20% of the total cost – in this case new exhibit design costs would be: $21,600.00

Exhibit design should allow for maximum “in house” updates of exhibit content and story presentation.

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College of Eastern Utah

Prehistoric Museum

Interpretive Exhibit Plan

For

Nine Mile Canyon