"It is impossible to overuse the prefix "re" when the subject is a total renaissance. Throughout the museum, the correlation between design, presentation, interpretation and visitor experience is nothing short of visionary." 
 

 - Veer Magazine

StudioAmmons had the wonderful experience of working with The Chrysler Museum's staff and leadership team on the design for the re-installation of their permanent collection of paintings and sculpture in what was a key part of the 24 million dollar building renovation.  In addition to our role in the gallery design and re-installation, our work also included the design for the building's new wayfinding system and signage.  

The scope of our work included the 29 second floor galleries which display key pieces from the museum's permanent collection of paintings and sculptures.  Working closely with the museum's leadership and curatorial team, the design was focused on giving the art (and visitors) more space to breath while creating interior vistas and references in the gallery landscape using a circulation framework that helps visitors stay oriented, creating momentum and excitement as you move through the many second floor rooms.  Eliminating the "art museum maze" was an important objective so the team worked through ideas for varying similar spaces through not only the selection of artwork, but also through the strategic use of color and light and art to give each gallery its own atmosphere and prevent the monotony that visitors often feel in many art museums. 

Take a look at a sampling of the finished gallery images here...but you really need to get down there and experience what is one of the best, and under-recognized collections you'll find in any American Art museum.

"Applying an open concept approach to the previously carved-up Photography and Contemporary galleries resulted in the occasional diagonal wall and the creation of invigorating sweeps of space. These changes benignly force new sightlines that draw objects into appealingly charged and challenging relationships, and viewers into new ways of looking and thinking about them."

- Veer Magazine

StudioAmmons was responsible for the interpretive planning, content development, exhibit design, fabrication and installation for The Moton School Story, Children of Courage at the restored National Historic Landmark Robert Russa Moton High School.  The Moton Museum exhibits, carefully designed and installed in the school's classroom spaces follow the 1951 Moton Student Strike and resulting Brown v. Board decisions, through Prince Edward County’s five-year (1959-64) public school closing, the 1963 opening of Kennedy Administration-backed Free Schools, and the Supreme Court’s 1964 Griffin decision ensuring free public education for all American children.

The museum and exhibits are playing a key role in supporting the healing and unification process in Prince Edward County and play an important part in the Moton Museum's work in newly created educational partnerships with Prince Edward High School, The Fuqua School (formerly the Prince Edward Academy), Longwood University, and Hampton Sydney College.

— Works on paper, metal, and all dingy surfaces —

“delicato” is a nod to the bottle of Italian wine being consumed while deciding to take on this show.

About three months before we were set to open AMMO brewing Dulaney Ward came up to me and asked if I was ready to do that installation yet. I said “what installation…we’re trying to get a brewery open?” He insisted that I come take a tour of his son’s recently completed Ward Center for Contemporary Art and I humored him by dropping by the next day to take the tour. I was led to the basement and into what was the former boiler room and freight elevator shaft. I didn’t have much to say except “I’ll do it.”

So a little old work and a bunch of new work found their way into this unique space. To keep from having to drill into this hard concrete, most of the pieces are hung on floating disks or platformed off of the floor. Silhouettes, shadows, and textures became the big reveal as the pieces were installed one after another. These images offer a bit of a stroll through the show.

The James River State Park Exhibits were developed to introduce the visitor to the region known and the “Middle James.”  As part of the Visitor Center exhibits, our team researched the history of Native American occupation on the site and the subsequent settlement and industrialization of this area of the river.  The exhibits include a full size James River batteau that kids can climb into, a central learning laboratory for hands-on exploration and an 1100 gallon aquarium as the centerpiece of the indoor exhibits. StudioAmmons provided content development, exhibit design, fabrication and installation for the project.

StudioAmmons developed the interpretive and orientational exhibits for the new visitor center at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake State park working closely with the park staff and the staff of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.  The exhibit dives deep into the history of the area where the park is located, shaping a picture of the landscape and settlements that were there before the dam was built and the land flooded to create Smith Mountain Lake.  The exhibits also provide orientational information and present the recreational opportunities that are availabl for visitors to the park.

StudioAmmons was responsible for the exhibit design, fabrication and installation of the Sailor’s Creek Battlefield Visitor’s Center. Artifacts, drawings, stories and maps are being shared with the public through this comprehensive exhibit. We have specialized over the last decade in the development of exhibit designs for sites associated with the American Civil War and its various legacies.

StudioAmmons worked with Carolynne Harris and the staff at the National Museum of Wildlife Art to program and develop a strategic master plan for the next phase of the 53,000 s.f. Museum’s growth as it assesses its collection and exhibition needs as well as its place and role as the premier museum of Wildlife Art in the United States.  In our planning process we helped the Museum look at growth scenarios ranging from a complete internal re-organization of their program in their existing facilities, to what might be the long term build-out of new facilities to complement their existing iconic building.

One of the few remaining examples of a WWII Officers Club in the country, the Camp Pickett Officers Club was restored by Nottoway County to preserve the nationally significant structure while providing a permanent location to tell the story of Camp Pickett, the final stopping point for many soldiers on their way to war. The exhibits are presented throughout the first floor of the Ballroom. Pylon displays detail the history of the camp, presenting its role as a critical hub for landside military transportation and training from WWII to the present day. Additional display cases include patches, posters and graphics representing the twelve divisions of soldiers that lived and trained here before embarking for their final military destinations. 

Under a 4-year term contract with the Forest Service, StudioAmmons developed the interpretive planning and exhibit design for the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, a 23,000-acre Forest Service prairie restoration project about 50 miles outside of Chicago. The exhibit focuses on giving both children and adults the tools and information they will need to go out into the prairie for hands-on learning activities at a range of sites.

Terry had the fortune of being allowed to photograph the original buildings at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond just before they were going to be torn down to build a new corporate office complex by the Ethyl Corporation. He spent 10 nights, from 5pm to 2 am documenting and photographing cells, inmate artwork, and the final condition of the cell blocks before these historic buildings came down. Access during the day was forbidden as they were using the site to test explosives and armor piercing ammunition. over 3,000 slides and 450 4x5’s were taken along with a range of recordings of people reading the writings on the cell walls. This installation takes the form of a peep show allowing you to look through small holes to get glimpses of the culture that existed inside the penitentiary cells. The center piece of the installation is a recreation of a typical cell using salvaged doors and fixtures from Cell Block “B”. A soundtrack was produced from the recordings made inside the cell blocks late at night with only a generator humming away for power.

Terry Ammons was the project manager and designer for the Temple of Liberty Exhibit which opened in the Madison Building at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.  The exhibit presents the competition entries from the expansion of the U.S.Capitol including the original designs for the dome designed by Thomas U. Walter.  The exhibit displayed over 150 original drawings and models from the competition. *Exhibits designed with George Sexton Associates.

StudioAmmons designed the “Take Our Stand” traveling exhibit for the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar. The exhibit opened at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center in Richmond Virginia and focuses on the African-American military experience during the age of Jim Crow. The exhibit features images from the John H. Motley Collection and is designed to be packaged in a variety of ways allowing for flexibility of use in a variety of venues as it travels to various institutions.

StudioAmmons worked with the staff of the Chesterfield County Museum and the Chesterfield Historical Society to design all new exhibits and artifact displays for the Museum's interior renovation.  The institution's goal was to take the museum away from the look of the "county closet" and establish a cleaner and more modern look on the first floor while continuing to to use the basement for exhibiting period sets and artifacts for hands-on teaching with students.

Under a term contract for exhibit design with the USDA Forest Service, StudioAmmons worked with Lassen Volcanic Park to develop their way finding maps and orientation panels for use throughout the park.  

PRESS RELEASE!

"LITTLE MONSTERS", an installation by sculptor and architect Terry Ammons  will open at the Petersburg Area Art League at 6:00pm on the 10th of March.  The gallery space at the Art League will once again be transformed by the installation of Terry's latest work.  Terry's work ranges from architecture and photography to sculpture and painting.  Come ready to participate, think, look, and listen.  There's no telling what can happen when StudioAmmons takes over a gallery.  There will be a special section of art for infants.  They deserve good art too!

“LITTLE MONSTERS” is the second installation by Terry Ammons at the Petersburg Area Art League. His first installation, ART AND CONFINEMENT, drew a record number of visitors by creating a peep show environment through which visitors could glimpse the artwork and writings that once adorned the now demolished State Penitentiary on Spring Street in Richmond Va.

“LITTLE MONSTERS” will challenge you to relax, think, interact and then to gently leave.

StudioAmmons developed plans for the expansion of Pamplin Historical Park’s Museum of the Civil War Soldier to include a new restaurant and a boardroom/exhibit space dedicated to telling the life stories of Robert B. Pamplin Sr. and Robert B. Pamplin Jr. An interactive touch screen exhibit was developed to accompany the artifacts and to tell the Pamplins’ life stories in depth. StudioAmmons managed the project through the completion of construction.

StudioAmmons developed the concept for the “Museum in the Streets” program for the City of Petersburg with a new downtown visitor information kiosk as its centerpiece. Along with the kiosk design, new building and streetscape signage is being designed and interpretive information and waysides developed that will create a unified and cohesive presentation within the downtown historic area. StudioAmmons has worked to create partnerships for much of this work with local organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, the Historic Petersburg Foundation, the Southside Virginia Council of the Arts, and the City of Petersburg.

StudioAmmons designed a series of interpretive panels for the new kiosk at St. Johns Church, an early Tidewater colonial church in King William County, Virginia. The panels tell the story of the design and construction of the Church and its history as a community landmark.  

This exhibit was designed to open at the National Boy Scout Jamboree to about 10,000 scouts who would surely be passing by and climbing on the exhibit. Its design is based on a simple pipe and fitting system so that replacement pieces can be purchased at any local hardware store as this will be used over and over and over.

StudioAmmons designed a traveling exhibit on the threat of non-native invasive species to our environ-ment for the Forest Service. This exhibit will be used as a teaching tool in schools and various other locations. It is comprised of six large panels and twenty-five smaller ones, and can be used all over the Eastern Region to tell the story of the invasive species that are endemic to each Forest.

StudioAmmons worked with the City of Petersburg Museums to develop a temporary exhibit focused on the military service of African Americans through the city’s history. The exhibit was shown in the Petersburg Exchange Building.

StudioAmmons is working with the Christiansburg Institute to masterplan the restoration of its historic campus area, restore its historic buildings, and to plan its signage, and exhibits. The restoration of the Edgar A. Long building will be the centerpiece for a project that will include a new museum on the history of the institute, a new 9,000 s.f. trades learning center, and a restored historic shop building.