Kathy Krafft
What I do, where I work
I work at the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY where I’ve been involved in exhibit development since 1991, when I volunteered to build one exhibit as we were planning our first permanent facility.
Now you can hardly see my desk for the bank of file cabinets with the documentation for our in-house exhibits, four traveling exhibitions, and two more nearing completion.
I occasionally get down to the shop, but spend a lot of time supporting the tours for our traveling exhibitions, creating technical manuals, etc. I also coordinate maintenance and oversee a corps of regular volunteers who develop new exhibits for our museum floor. Our staff has grown too- we’ve got three full-time creative exhibit developers.
My other passion right now is sharing within our field- I love how we all try to help each other out in various ways.
Current position
Exhibit Projects Director at Sciencenter
Website(s)
More about me
My background is in low-temperature experimental physics, so I"m a hard-core scientist by training.. who happens to also be passionate about education.
I"m also a woman who studied physics in a time when very few women went into hard sciences (my PhD was in 1982), so I’m always interested in issues about women in science.
Recent publications & presentations
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"Enhancing Visitor Experiences Through Rewarding Exhibits." Handbook for Small Science Centers
2006
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"Resources for Exhibit Fabrication." Handbook for Small Science Centers
2006
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"Slowpoke magnets." Cheapbook 3: A Compendium of Inexpensive Exhibit Ideas
2004
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"Finding the Fun in Math." ASTC Dimensions
March 2001
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"Safety on the Exhibits Floor." ASTC conference
September 2004
Case Studies
Giant Blood Drop
by Kathy Krafft
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Published April 25 2007
Marble Puzzle
by Kathy Krafft
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Published April 24 2007