News

AAM Virtual MuseumExpo

Join us live!
During this unprecedented time, we are excited for the opportunity to connect virtually with the museum community during AAM. We invite you to "stop in" and say hello to our Roto team members during the conference. We're eager to discuss upcoming projects, share some of our recent work, and catch up with old friends and colleagues.
Monday, June 1st
12:00 – 1:30p: Joseph Wisne, Tony Auseon, Dana Russell
2:00 – 3:30p: Tony Auseon, Sean Ramsay, Dana Russell
4:00 – 5:30p: Mike Denison, Dana Russell, Meg Dunfee

Tuesday, June 2nd
12:00 – 1:30p: Tony Sean Ramsay, Tony Auseon, Meg Dunfee
2:00 – 3:30p: Mike Denison, Molly Mackin, Dana Russell
4:00 – 5:30p: Joseph Wisne, Mike Denison, Molly Mackin

Wednesday, June 3rd
12:00 – 1:30p: Joseph Wisne, Tony Auseon, Bri Gribler
2:00 – 3:30p: Sean Ramsay, Meg Dunfee, Dana Russell
4:00 – 5:30p: Mike Denison, Dana Russell, Kathy McHoes

JOIN ZOOM SESSION NOW
COVID-19 Response: Critical Equipment Repair

In order to assist in the local and national response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Roto is offering the medical and first-responder community access to our unique technical capacity for the emergency repair or maintenance of critical equipment. To learn more, visit our COVID-19 response page: https://roto.com/ohio/covid-19-response.
Roto Hired to Design New Furniture Hall of Fame

In late 2019, the Furniture Hall of Fame Foundation performed a nationwide search of around 30 different US and Canadian exhibit firms before selecting Roto as their partner earlier this year. “Roto was our first choice. From the initial contact through the interview process we found them to be professional, creative, good listeners and enthusiastic about home furnishings,” says Caroline Hipple, Vice President of the Hall of Fame Foundation board of directors and president of Norwalk Furniture. “The personal site visit confirmed a great synergy with our vision to create a community and connection, an experience that changes people and ultimately inspires them to focus on creating a beautiful home.”
Roto has been tasked with coming up with the creative concept for the new space, as well as developing the design of museum-quality gallery spaces. Roto will provide flexible opportunities and will also be involved in programming content for the two-sided Dynamic Story Wall. This is a digital matrix of interlaced LED screens, which will be visible from both sides, both internally and externally.
“Museum audiences are seeking relevancy and authenticity above everything else. That’s why this incredibly rich world of home furnishings and design can deliver such an exciting and engaging public experience. We can’t wait to get started.” – Joseph Wisne, CEO
Roto Selected to Create Future Science Center in Northern Virginia

Roto is pleased to announce that it has been chosen as the design-build partner by the Children’s Science Center and the Science Museum of Virginia to work on the new project, along with design firm HGA. Following the Roto-led master plan, Roto went on to win the competitive bid process of the remaining design-build work contingent upon a $75 million capital campaign to raise funds.
The new institution will serve as an extension of the Science Museum of Virginia, to which Roto has designed and built exhibits Boost, Speed, and The Forge. The planned 70,000 square foot interactive science center is to be built on donated land in Loudoun County, Virginia. Its aim is to inspire an interest in science in the region and to make STEM subjects more accessible for all ages to explore, as well as position Northern Virginia as a technology hub.
For more information, click here.
Union Terminal is Back with the Science Interactives Gallery!

The Cincinnati Museum Center, located in the historic Union Terminal building, has been undergoing major renovations over the last 2.5 years. Once a bustling passenger train station, the venue continues to thrive as a hub of knowledge, discovery and learning. In 2018, CMC contracted with Roto to design and build their new 4,000 square-foot Science Hall, which would bring hands-on Science Interactives to the museum for the first time. The premise was simple yet effective, in that the gallery would leverage many of Roto’s suite of tried-and-true interactive replications and existing R&D in order to compile a collection of “Hall of Fame” science interactives. Each activity was chosen in order to touch on a broad range of science and physics phenomena throughout the gallery from simple machines and the laws of motion to explorations of heat and aerodynamics and even the formation of natural phenomena like tornadoes and toroidal vortices while at the same time, maintaining the core values of being hands-on, repeatable and highly engaging for visitors. Key interactives include a cloud maker, spinning table, ball and gear wall, air cannons, an infrared “temp tattoo” kiosk, and an impressive 15’ tall tornado vortex!
New ‘Ohio: Champion of Sports’ Exhibit Uncovers the History of Athletics

Roto has collaborated with the Ohio History Connection in their largest exhibition to date. “Ohio: Champion of Sports” celebrates the stories of the history-making moments and legendary people who have shaped the Ohio’s sports history. Covering nearly 7,000 ft2 across multiple galleries, Champion of Sports features various artifacts, activities and stories accompanied by large, eye-catching environmental graphics. Additionally, rather than being organized by sport, time period or region, the organization of the exhibit is based on those tenets of the human condition that everyone can relate to – Character, Adversity, Innovation, Identity,
Using collected memorabilia and recorded interviews, the exhibit tells the stories of Ohioans at both the amateur and professional level. Visitors can see dozens of items from the vintage era of Ohio sports including the Cleveland Cavaliers jersey worn by Lebron James as an NBA rookie – loaned by the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Visitors can also use a series of touch-screen kiosks to hear inspirational anecdotes from sports legends like Cleveland-born John Heismen, who introduced the forward pass to football and later had the prestigious college trophy named after him. Other interactives include activities where visitors can become part of the action by testing their basketball skills at the Wall of Hoops; recording a victory dance to share with friends; or recording personal sports achievements as One-Minute Legends.
The First U.S. State to Display Original Founding Documents

In 2018, the Ohio Statehouse Museum hired Roto to create a new exhibit dedicated to the examination and preservation of the original 1802 and 1851 Ohio Constitutions. Following years of behind-the-scenes work with the Ohio History Connection, the previous stewards of the historic documents, the Statehouse appointed Roto to transfer the delicate documents to the museum, thus becoming the first state to display an authentic constitution at their state capital building. Roto’s job was to blend these authentic artifacts with digital content in a way that transcends into something that visitors can’t get online – a tactile experience designed to reflect the changing ideas and opinions of visitors who experience it.
Roto’s skilled team provided state-of-the-art-archival display cases for these priceless documents – conserved to the highest standards of archival document preservation – while mindfully providing security, creating the right environmental conditions for 200-year old documents, and making them accessible to the public. Making the documents personal and engaging for both Ohio citizens and tourists posed as an additional challenge that was resolved by flanking the case with interactives that articulate the idea of a citizen’s rights and responsibilities. Additionally, the touch activation not only gets visitors actively engaging since you can not see the documents until you physically turn on the light – but every person is tangibly contributing to the documents’ history with every light photon affecting the vulnerability of the documents. The entire project was planned, designed, engineered, built and installed to last for a generation.
Read more in our case study here.
Living in Color at the Greene Family Learning Gallery

Roto collaborated with the High Museum of Art to expand and reimagine the Greene Family Learning Gallery. Roto provided concept design through fabrication and installation services for this new 4,000 square-foot creative space that encourages visitors to think like artists.
The completely revitalized gallery features two distinct spaces designed on a set of goals informed by years of visitor observation, community input and research. The first gallery, “CREATE,” features a bright and open studio-like space where visitors can hone their creative skills and learn the fundamentals of art. The second space, “EXPERIENCE,” is an immersive gallery where visitors explore what art means, how it makes them feel, and how to use those skills for appreciating art.
Some of the more prominent activities include a kinetic, gesture-based art interactive where visitors use their whole body to paint on large, digital canvases; a community tree that grows thicker with every hand-drawn “leaf’ added; and a living artwork space where hand movements bring the room to life with a full-bodied, star-filled sky of constellations. Additionally, each space features a “quiet room” with activities designed for reflection as well as an area specifically for toddlers.