Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is one of the oldest sports museums in North America and has been a vital contributor to the community's sports knowledge and culture for the last 65 years. The museum is located in Calgary, Alberta, at WinSport's Canada Olympic Park. The building was built brand new in 2011 and has won awards globally. It integrates high-end technology to implement many hands-on, interactive experiences that leave people with countless memorable moments.
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is an organization that values education and has many programs for students to help educate kids about the value of sport in their communities. They also inform their patrons about the history of sport and the importance of celebrating those who lead the way and have become role models of what's physically possible.
In March 2019, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame collaborated with SAIT and their students to produce multiple graphic displays for their annual induction event. The New Media Production and Design and the Graphic Communications Print Technology programs collaborated to create banners, backdrops, athlete cards, digital libraries, and concrete graphics. For the items that they couldn't produce at SAIT, they reached out to industry partners like Exhibit Studio to help them out. The CSHOF Team consisted of Janice Smith, Helena Deng, and Greg Beausoleil. The knowledge this team was able to supply to students was an incredible asset. Students were able to reach out with any questions they had and receive quick responses.
There were many projects that the students did for the museum. They worked with the CSHOF to help create the Order of Sport award. A piece of one-inch thick Canadian steel cut to shape and nickel-plated. These awards were laser etched with the award recipients' initials and the year on the bottom. Additionally, CSHOF also began to use SAIT services for its Beyond the Win program. SAIT students were responsible for creating athlete cards for the many athletes speaking at community events and schools across the country.
The students also participated in a capstone project that Exhibit Studio was proud to help create. There were eight groups of students working on eight different displays in the gallery. Their minimum requirement for each project was to use a touchscreen provided by the museum and design an 8ft backdrop display that we would help them create. After selecting their gallery space during a field trip, students started the winter semester by pitching to a team from CSHOF how they intended to use the technology to share the gallery in an immersive and modern way. These ideas ranged from 360° photography to 3D renderings and even interactive games. Once CSHOF approved the idea, students began working on the designs, ensuring they considered both French and English language for all aspects of their exhibit. CSHOF had generated some content; however, much of the artifact photography was redone by students to achieve higher quality images. Over the semester, students met with the client to confirm they were on the right path and communicate any issues they had encountered.
At the end of the project, the students submitted their files to our print production department at Exhibit Studio. The students were still learning how to organize files, so our team provided a diligent eye to ensure that no mistakes made it through the printing process. After polishing the files to perfection, we fabricated the displays that would be the final testament to all of the students' hard work. Our print production team printed pop-up displays and put together Octanorm shelving units that display the museum's memorabilia. We had fabric displays printed for them, and our installation team went on-site to set everything up for the big reveal. At the induction event in May, students from the Journalism and New Media Production and Design programs covered the event photography. CSHOF provided them with so many different opportunities to learn and polish a large variety of their skills.
The exhibit currently lives at Canada's Sports Hall of Fame building in Calgary but was designed to be mobile and to move around the country when need be. From start to finish, this project was a unique learning opportunity and kept in theme with CSHOF's position on education's importance. The experience taught many students, as does the museum itself, to all its eager attendees. The museum is not currently open, but it is still providing educational opportunities for people around the country online.
