National Music Museum

The National Music Museum (NMM) undertook a massive project, renovating and expanding its historic building to include a new performance hall, new labs, and more archival storage. Ravenswood Studio was brought onto the project to fabricate and install the new permanent across seven galleries. Ravenswood Studio built custom casework used to display and protect artifacts, developed multiple hands-on interactives, and produced over 600 graphics ranging from intricate wall murals, reader rails, interpretive graphics, historical photographs, and more.

Working with case manufacturer Click Netherfield, Ravenswood Studio engineered and constructed several custom cases, protecting more than 600 artifacts. The cases are unique in that the Portal System doors provided by Click Netherfield were incorporated in an unconventional and new fashion. Ravenswood Studio used the doors as side panels so that visitors could see the instruments from as many viewpoints as possible.

In addition to reader rails with integrated touch screens and listening stations, Ravenswood Studio developed several interactives for the galleries. At one of them, visitors use push buttons on an “A” Note map graphic. Patrons can push various buttons to compare the sound of “A” from different periods and locations. Another interactive explores the construction of instruments, taking visitors from raw materials to finished pieces. Ravenswood Studio used materials, such as mahogany and pine, to make string instruments, and to showcase polished, completed samples of musical instrument surfaces and finishes.

Ravenswood Studio will be fabricating an additional four galleries for the second floor of the National Music Museum. The second set of galleries are planned to open in late 2024.