Lauri Halderman: director of Exhibition Interpretation Department of Exhibition

Natural History, Dec, 2005

Lauri Halderman, Director of Exhibition Interpretation, admits that after months of working on a new exhibition, seeing the words come alive on gallery walls is both exciting and gratifying.

As head of the team that writes the text for all new exhibitions, Lauri collaborates with many different departments to determine not only what story to tell, but also how to tell it. She describes the Museum's exhibitions as "storytelling in three dimensions," and she and her team as the content translators. "We're not the subject-matter experts. We're the 'interface' between the scientific departments and the public." In Darwin, for example, the story is largely a human one, and visitors will be put in the shoes of a man who asked good questions and came up with amazing answers.

When she is not spending time with her family, Lauri is completing a master's degree in museum leadership. Before joining the Museum, Lauri worked on designing new museums including a presidential library and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut.

After nearly a decade at the Museum, Lauri hasn't lost sight of the most rewarding part of her work: "Seeing kids walk around the Museum, knowing they've come for a big day and that when they go home at night, they'll Still be thinking about what they saw here, is really gratifying."