Most exhibit builds start with a single vision. This one started with numerous different artist perspectives
The Flag House came to Adler Display with a two-year exhibit for America’s 250th: “Maryland’s America,” featuring original work from several Maryland artists, each reflecting a different community’s perspective on the state’s role in the nation’s history. The goal wasn’t one artist’s vision. It was multiple individual voices, fabricated and hung so each stood on its own while still reading as one unified exhibit.
Multi-contributor installations and temporary exhibit builds are both familiar territory for museums. Most institutions have experience coordinating group exhibitions, and temporary exhibitions are built with the understanding that every element must eventually be installed, maintained, and deinstalled. But combining the two; multiple artists with distinct creative visions, alongside the demands of a temporary, high-traffic environment, requires a different level of coordination for it to work within the constraints of the space’s existing permanent display. For Adler, “Maryland’s America” was an opportunity to demonstrate that expertise in real time: showing how a fabrication partner can manage the individual needs of diverse artists while delivering a cohesive, durable exhibition build where neither the creative intent nor the practical realities are compromised.
What The Flag House Needed
Adler Display already had a relationship with the museum, having designed The Flag House’s permanent exhibit on the Young-Pickersgill family, the seamstresses behind the original Star-Spangled Banner. For “Maryland’s America,” the ask went well beyond fabrication:
- A partner who could work directly with each individual artist, not just one curatorial team
- An exhibit that could anchor two years of public programming tied to America’s 250th anniversary
- A build that would sit alongside the museum’s existing permanent exhibit without competing with it
- A finished space that felt like one cohesive experience, not a gallery of various separate installations
Most exhibit fabricators are used to solving for one client’s specs. This project meant solving for various artists’ specs at once, each with a legitimate claim to how their own work should be seen.
The Challenges Were Familiar. The Coordination Wasn’t.
Every piece arrived with its own set of demands. Sizes varied widely, orientations didn’t match, and preferred hanging methods ranged from traditional framing to mounted and dimensional pieces that needed their own solution entirely. Rather than pick one mounting system and ask every contributor to fit it, our team worked through each piece individually to land on the right position and hanging approach.
That kind of piece-by-piece problem-solving carries its own risk: a room full of strong individual moments can start to feel like separate mini-shows stitched together rather than a single walkthrough. Layout and spacing decisions were made with the whole room in mind, so each piece gets its moment without the visitor losing the thread of the larger story being told.
There was also a question of whose voice the installation ultimately served. This wasn’t a brand telling one story through many surfaces; it was various artists each telling their own. Working directly with the artists on size, placement, and mounting meant the final result reflects how each of them wanted their work seen, not just the path of least resistance for hanging it.
And because this exhibit isn’t a weekend show, everything had to be built to last. A two-year run means the mounting hardware and hanging systems needed to hold up under sustained public traffic.
What The Flag House Has Now
An exhibit that gives visitors several different entry points into the same history, each one grounded in a real community’s experience rather than a single narrator’s take. It’s a new kind of storytelling for the museum they were eager to take on, one that lets Maryland’s past be seen through more than one set of eyes at once. Adler was honored they could help the museum craft that experience for all to enjoy.
“Adler Display has been a wonderful organization to work with. In one of our exhibit overviews at the start of the project I described a general feeling we wanted for the new exhibit and the design they came up with was so on the nose that there were very few edits needed. Several of the participating artists were so impressed by their work they asked me for Adler’s contact information for their personal projects. The Flag House is excited to continue working with Adler well into the future!”
— Christopher J. Sniezek
Executive Director
The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House
Have a Multi-Contributor Exhibit to Coordinate?
Whether you’re working with one artist or eight, Adler Display’s team can help you fabricate and install a space that honors each contributor’s vision while still functioning as one cohesive exhibit. Get in touch to start the conversation by filling out the form below.
About Adler Display: Since 1937, Adler Display has helped businesses get the important details right — not just build displays. From tradeshow booths to recognition displays to fully branded environments, every project starts with understanding what a client is trying to accomplish, who they’re trying to reach, and what the space demands. Adler’s in-house team of consultants, designers, project managers, and fabricators engineers and builds each solution to match the vision exactly, working from a 17,000-square-foot Baltimore facility that includes a precision woodworking shop and full printing, construction, and finishing capabilities on site. It’s why clients trust Adler not just with a display, but with getting it right. Learn more at www.AdlerDisplay.com.