Staten Island Museum

I recently had the idea to visit Staten Island. I’ve been living in New York for 7 months now and this was the only borough I had never been to. Getting to the island was a quick 25 minute ferry ride from south Manhattan and it was a 10 minute bus ride from the ferry station.

Upon entering the museum, I was greeted by a lovely receptionist who informed me of the various galleries and current exhibits. I was excited to learn that Ralph Applebaum Associates (RAA) were the exhibit designers for the museum. One of the most popular exhibits currently on view is on the Practical Jokers, a group of guys from Staten Island who have a prank show together. I was personally most excited about the exhibits in the front of the museum as they were on fossils. I’m currently working on a museum client project involving a fossil park so I was super interested to see how RAA designed and created content on this topic.

I’m not a huge fan of the decision to use type on glass because of legibility but most of the museum uses this in their labels. I just wish it could have been more legible in photos later as the body copy content was what I was the most interested in looking back at later.

Overall, I really enjoyed my quick visit here! I definitely want to go back in the spring or summer as next door there is the Snug Harbor Botanical Gardens which were essentially closed for the winter during my visit.