Viva Baseball!
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown NY
1100 square foot permanent exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame honoring the contributions to the game by players from the Caribbean Basin. The museum’s first entirely bilingual exhibit, special care was taken to seamlessly integrate the two languages. Objects and contextual ideas are presented on text rails that occupied both the interior and exterior of the cases, with the glass separating Spanish (interior) and English (exterior). We worked with four curators and a team of five historic and cultural advisors over the course of the process. Well over 200 artifacts are displayed with full media integration presenting an assortment of player interviews.
Within the exhibit the organization finally acknowledges the multiple barriers Latin players had to overcome to play in the United States and celebrates the amazing impact Latin-American and Latino ballplayers have had on the game over the past 150 years. In video interviews located throughout the exhibit, Latino Hall of Famers and major league All-Stars provide first-hand accounts of playing ball in their homeland, their journeys to the major leagues and their insights into what makes Caribbean baseball special.
The final result pushed the boundaries of the Hall of Fame’s visitor experience and has served as a benchmark for approach to future projects within the museum. It greatly expanded the Hall’s efforts to engage their spanish speaking visitors and has been featured in several state-wide tourism campaigns.
“With lots of color and and vibrancy in the way it’s designed, it is very much like the game in Latin America. When you walk through the museum this exhibit is unlike anything else”
All Photography
(Milo Stewart Jr./NBHoF Library)
Visit the project:
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Client:
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Advisors:
Adrian Burgos,
University of Illinois
Milton Jamail,
University of Texas
Rob Ruck,
University of Pittsburgh
Alan Kline,
Northeastern University
Tim Wendell
Johns Hopkins University
Fabrication:
Data Collaboration:
Media Integration:
Digital Production:
BHoF Media