Under the aegis of CEO Michael Norman and his team, Kentucky Science Center’s $2.5 million Uniquely Human project, developed in partnership with leading planning & design-build firm Roto, showcases the outcome of a master planning project that began in 2018.
The gallery’s mission was refined and clarified by the tragic death of Louisville’s Breonna Taylor in 2020. 18 specially created experiences and exhibitions engage multiple senses, as they curate an environment that fosters courageous discussions about identity, community, and shared humanity, through a scientific lens.
Uniquely Human, designed for teens and young adults, comprises 6,000 square feet of custom-made exhibits and experiences that explore the intersection of health and humanity, and how those connections shape who we are, how we think, and what we feel.
It is, Norman comments:
“…a transformative experience that invites guests to discover their unique selves and develop empathy for a broader view of humanity. Guests will be challenged to see themselves and others differently, encouraging communication and understanding. Ultimately, our goal is for Uniquely Human to make our community better for all.”
Arriving at the Kentucky Science Center
Norman has been with the museum for a little over 12 and a half years.
“I had no museum or science centre industry experience,” he tells blooloop. “I was the director of audit for our local government. So, my background was unusual, but I was given the opportunity to come and help shore up the business side of Kentucky Science Center.”
He quickly took on more roles:
“I moved into the COO role and had the great opportunity of working with Jo Haas, the CEO, and learning from her. When she decided it was time to pursue other things, it allowed me to step into the role with the Board’s confidence.
Norman’s first day as CEO was 1 March 2020.
“That first week was great – a lot of fun. And then, of course, COVID hit, and for a while the wheels fell off.”
While closed, the science centre continued to deliver its mission of ‘encouraging folks of all ages to do science in fun and entertaining ways,’ rolling out new content online on social media platforms. Finally, after a phased reopening plan, the institution reopened 7 days a week with new protocols in place.
Serving the community
Taking a step back, Norman touches on Kentucky Science Center’s history:
“We are around 151 years old. We started as the Cabinet of Curiosities in the state library system. Rich folks travelled around the world collecting strange things. They weren’t sure what to do with them, so they started this little museum, which originally moved around.”
By the late seventies, the collection, as the Museum of Science and History, was moved from the library to its current location:
“We are in downtown Louisville, on the West side of historic Main Street. At that time, there wasn’t much here; it was an old industrial space. Most things were closed, and it was deteriorating quickly. The city leaders put us here, and they put Actors Theatre of Louisville on the East side, as the two anchor cultural institutions. Their foresight was incredible: now we have Museum Row on Main with all these attractions and cultural institutions. I have to give them credit for their vision.”
In the 1980s, the Museum of Science and History became the Louisville Science Center:
“In the early 2000s, the State General Assembly named us the State Science Center of Kentucky. About a decade back, we formally changed our name to Kentucky Science Center. That was to fully embrace the fact that we serve all 120 counties. We are the largest science centre in the state.”
Demographics at Kentucky Science Center
In terms of reach, Norman comments:
“I’m all about lifelong learning from cradle to grave. I want people of all ages. About seven or eight years ago, we opened our Science in Play permanent early childhood experience on our first floor, having renovated that gallery. It has been wonderful, but it shifted the demographic noticeably. People saw us as a children’s museum where you aged out by second or third grade, so we have been trying to shift that back.”
“Our new Uniquely Human is designed for middle, high school, and college age. Then, a lot of our outside-of-the-building and virtual activities are geared for the older demographics – middle school and up.”
The new Uniquely Human exhibit, which encourages guests to develop a broader understanding of humanity through a discovery of themselves, was developed in partnership with leading planning & design-build firm Roto.
Uniquely Human
Describing its inception, Norman says:
“The exhibit is on our third floor. Previously, it was our historic ‘Health and Human Anatomy’ exhibit, designed probably 25 years ago. It was old and dated. You’d push a button and these panels would turn over so slowly people thought it was broken. There wasn’t anything innovative or exciting about it. It was dark, and the way our building’s laid out, you couldn’t get there easily unless you took the main elevator. It just wasn’t very popular.”
The team knew something new and different was needed.
“We knew we wanted to stay in the health and human world. So, we started working on it, throwing it to different teams from different departments, saying, ‘Here’s a big idea. Come up with something, and let’s try it out.’”
As ideas emerged, they were refined, and a focus was established:
“We wanted to focus on the intersection of health and humanity, but since anyone can access more information on their phone than could fit in a gallery space, we wanted a different approach. If you look back at our original concept with Roto, it had a huge footprint.”
Transforming Kentucky Science Center
Then two events occurred that changed the approach. The first was COVID, which affected everyone globally. The second had a deeper local resonance. Norman explains:
“We are in Louisville. Breonna [Taylor] was murdered here by the police, and our community was torn apart. The museum is a community asset. We’re headquartered in Louisville, so we were in a unique position to offer something to help heal our community.”
“We pulled back, refocused a bit, and concentrated on this bigger concept that the more you understand yourself, and the more we understand each other, the better we’re going to get along and grow and heal the community. “
At the same time, he adds:
“We had started work on an anti-racist, anti-white supremacist re-culture of our organisation. As a science centre, we wanted to address the issue in a way that went beyond just checking the DEIA box. I wanted to do something transformational.”
Co-creation
This was one lens through which Norman and his team looked at the Uniquely Human exhibit.
“We wanted to focus this on middle and high school and early college kids. So, we put together an advisory group, not only of medical professionals and community leaders but of young folks. Mellisa headed that up for us, and they did some great work for us.”
Chief mission officer Mellisa Blankenship provides visionary leadership in the development of programmes and visitor experiences at Kentucky Science Center. She details the initiative:
“We had a group of about 12 individuals, ranging from 13 to 22 years old. We worked with an advisor from U of L who helped me organise the young adults. It was important to have someone in that age range representing the entire group, not just myself. We started talking about the things that are important to them, the concepts that they’re struggling with, and the concepts that they’re excited about.”
Listening to young people
Mental health, it transpired, featured prominently:
“They, and their peers, were struggling with mental health, not only in terms of accessing resources but in getting rid of the stigma around discussing mental health issues.
“One of the first things they said was they felt whenever they confided in a counsellor, a parent, or caregiver, they were told, ‘Just roll with it. You’ll get over it. Everything will be fine.’ They knew that wasn’t the case. They wanted to be advocates not only for themselves, but for peers that they saw struggling in school with bullying, or cyber problems, or just dealing with the world we share: social unrest, the pandemic, climate change.”
“It showed us that this was a group of leaders,” she continues. “They wanted to remove the stigma of being able to talk about mental health. They knew that not every mental health tool works for everyone. You can’t just say, ‘Smile, and you’ll feel better,’ or, ‘Try these breathing techniques.’ They wanted to focus on the myriad of opportunities that exist for young adults to get the help they need, and to be agents of change.
“They did not want us to shy away from discussing racial issues and they wanted to be able to talk about their own identity. We let them take the wheel. And they helped us design everything from the colour palette in the room to the layout of the space.”
A safe and open space at Kentucky Science Center
The group of young people clarified that they wanted a space that felt safe, but that was also inviting and open for discussion:
“When you are in the space, you’ll see lots of areas where groups can collect and dialogue and engage with each other. Then, there are some areas where it’s a little bit more private. So, you can do some inward reflection if you’re not comfortable with sharing those aspects of your identity.
“Working with them was fantastic. I learned a lot, including, hopefully, how to talk to my future teenager, when he gets a little bit older.”
She adds:
“The thing that hit home for me is when we did the ribbon cutting, they were bringing their parents and grandparents and friends to show them. They were really proud of what they did.”
Norman comments:
“Even at my advanced age, I took so much away from it. I still take so much away every time I go up there. I keep reminding myself, working with Roto, working with Mellisa and the team, what keeps coming to the fore is ‘Resist the Binary.’ Life is not binary choices.”
Inside the Uniquely Human gallery
In Uniquely Human’s ‘All The Colours of We’ experience, guests take a close-up photo of their skin. They then view it beside a variety of skin samples from other museum visitors. This helps people realise that there is a much more diverse range of human skin tones than simply black, brown, and white. The resulting artistic presentation introduces the concept of race as a social construct.
In ‘On a Spectrum’, visitors respond to a series of spectrum-based identity survey questions to identify where they see themselves fitting and may view their own distinctive ‘fingerprint’, comparing it to the community of replies by viewing comments that have been anonymously collected and displayed.
‘We Are Louisville’ highlights Louisville residents, in first-person narrative video testimonies that discuss the challenge, including language barriers, facing new immigrants adjusting to the city.
“It’s beautifully done,” Norman says. “In terms of demographics, we’re not going to flip the switch, open Uniquely Human, and see teenagers running through the doors. It’s going to take some time to get them in here. We need to be patient – but that gives us time to be sure how folks are interacting. Is it working the way we want it?”
Intentional programming at Kentucky Science Center
So far, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’:
“The response has been amazing. People haven’t seen anything like it. When we went to some of our funders, they said, ‘This is so unlike anything you have ever done,’ – and it is, but it is so important, for our community, for our future.”
He adds:
“In the 12 and a half years I’ve been here, we’ve done many exhibits. This is the first where we have designed the programming as part of the experience. We were very intentional. Through Roto’s team and Mellisa’s team, we have about 40 programmes that we can do with this. I love it because we can meet folks where they are. You don’t have to come here to do a programme, we can have one or two or 500 people doing a programme together, it’s scalable.
“We are intentional in the experience of self, of our call to action – to reflect and connect, but then to act.
“We are just getting started. But as more and more folks come in and see it, our Board and business partners are beginning to see the team-building aspect of it. It wasn’t necessarily one of our main intents, but it is working out pretty well. We have had some sports teams in already doing team building with it, which is a cool aspect for a college town.”
Digital access
Concerning the digital aspect, Blankenship adds:
“To limit some of the content in the text panels, we have put a lot of content online on our Uniquely Human page. Those resources, as well as community partner links, can be accessed. We are not trying to say that we can treat mental illness, but we will provide you with those partner resources. That way, we’re trying to be a conduit to information, rather than the content experts ourselves.”
Additionally:
“We have just had one of our first digital programmes for the event, our Youth Science Summit. This is designed for middle and high school.
“Young people were able to hear from professionals about how they could grow and elevate into that career themselves. They were also able to access those resources, meeting with mental health providers and community advocates. We saw roughly 600 people. The beautiful part is that as it’s a virtual event, people from outside of the state, or even outside of the country, can also access those resources.”
Overcoming barriers
“We are starting slowly with the idea of these programmes, because in Louisville, even though we are a large city, we do have barriers,” she adds. “There are transportation issues and funding issues. Schools can’t necessarily always get to us. So, we are working through that programme side so we can at least bring some of the content to the schools and community centres if they’re not able to get to us.”
Norman clarifies:
“We don’t take sides on issues. That is not the role of science centres. We lay out the situation and the information. We do want it to be a safe space for conversation, and for growing and learning together. That’s important. It doesn’t matter where you are. Kentucky tends to be a rather conservative state. But people still care about each other. Once it gets to that individual level, a lot of the politics go away.”
Science matters
In terms of Kentucky Science Center’s mission, Norman says:
“We promote science literacy, we nurture lifelong learning, and we prime the STEAM workforce pipeline. Melissa and I are both not only Kentucky natives but Louisville natives.
“We are both very proud to have the honour and opportunity to be the leaders of this statewide organisation for our home state and our home city, so if we can meet folks around the Commonwealth of Kentucky, wherever they are, and show them that there are so many STEAM jobs; you don’t have to leave your hometown to have a good job, raise your family, and have a good life, that’s really what we’re about.”
In short, he adds:
“What we do is edutainment: we want people to have fun and engage and learn every time – sneaky education. We are part of the ecosystem. The museum is not the sole provider of anything, but we can certainly support and help.
“We embrace the ‘science matters’ philosophy; it impacts society, families, and the workforce – it’s everywhere.”
Images kind courtesy of Kentucky Science Center
