Diamond Schmitt at the Mid-Atlantic Museums Conference
Event Details:
Conference: Mid-Atlantic Museums Conference
Speaker(s): Principal Peggy Theodore, Associate Helmut Klassen
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Date: March 7, 2025
Time: 11:00 am
Principal Peggy Theodore and Associate Helmut Klassen will present the Sam Centre at the Mid-Atlantic Museums Conference on March 7th at 11 AM EST. In their panel discussion A Bold Vision: Honoring the Community from the Ground Up, Peggy and Helmut will speak alongside Angie Gélinas, Deputy Executive Director, Sam Centre for the Calgary Stampede Foundation and Eric Demay, MBA, Managing Partner, Executive Producer, GSM Project, highlighting how the Calgary Stampede Foundation’s (CSF) vision was translated into a design that reflects the spirit of Stampede.
The heart of the Sam Centre is community building; a mission deep-rooted in the culture of the Calgary Stampede since its inauguration in 1912. Known as The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, for more than a century Stampede has successfully drawn people together for the annual 10-day rodeo event.
The CSF had a dream to celebrate and share the Stampede experience year-round. Comprised of 30,000 square feet of space under a large, enclosed roof, the building welcomes visitors to participate in a range of themed exhibits and displays. Sam is also a venue for public education programs and events and houses a portion of the Stampede collections and archives. In addition to its educational activities, it is an attraction designed to give visitors an immersive experience. Like Stampede, Sam is intended to be fun!
In this session, the project team will also share how their community identity shaped the Sam Centre’s design, while GSM will discuss how that identity is expressed through the exhibitions and programs. Key takeaways will include:
- Understanding how to apply mission and identity objectives across the many facets of a complex project
- Exploring strategies on how to respond to project challenges and impacts of external factors while remaining focused on core project values
- Understanding how a community and brand identity can be represented in varied ways through architecture, exhibition design and programming
- Reflecting on lessons-learned by an institution that grew and evolved through the creation of a unique offering for its community.
More about the Mid-Atlantic Museums Conference program here.