Art Museum Updates Annual Donor Recognition Wall

When this distinguished museum needed to recognize their annual donors, they asked us to design a thoughtful, affordable donor recognition wall. Our task was to design, create and install a display that was of a caliber worthy of display in The Cedar Rapids Art Museum’s $10 million renovated, modern lobby. The recognition display needed to be relevant to the space and be easily and affordably updated every year.

We started by studying the space to incorporate existing architectural elements. Taking into consideration the metal finishes used throughout the space, the horizontal banding in the architecture as well as the neutral colors popped with bursts of cranberry, purple and charcoal, we designed and fabricated a recognition wall display that enhanced and spoke to the space. A permanent frame of sorts was created where the interior mounted print could be changed year after year. Corporate and individual donors are recognized in charcoal on a field of neutral tones that match the walls. With a band of cranberry background color showing from behind the print on either side, the color accents of the lobby are referenced. The horizontal stripes and fern pattern tonally represented on the aluminum fascia juxtapose the curve in the shape that draws your eye against all the linear elements of the space while speaking to the adjoining atrium.

This elegant, donor recognition wall display was clearly designed for the space and provides the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art a means of affordably updating their donor recognition on a yearly basis.