Everyday heroes inspire action in a moving, illustrated exhibition design.

The Sisters of Charity Heritage Centre mixes beautiful collection items with contemporary multimedia design to celebrate the work of an order whose ongoing vows are built around service to their community.

Putting ourselves in the shoes of visitors who wonder what it takes to dedicate your life to social justice, Gibson International created an experience design that shines a light on the sisters’ ‘superpower’ – their empathy. Their ‘fourth vow’ of service to the less fortunate forms the guiding narrative for an interactive design that ultimately reveals the visitor’s own capabilities and inspires ordinary citizens to take action.

Part-museum exhibition design, part-graphic novel, a series of large-scale screens present ten characters in our ‘choose your own adventure’ interactive. Actors are set against beautifully illustrated backgrounds, which animate as visitors choose each story path. Following on-screen prompts, visitors help their characters navigate a series of decisions.

Our team collaborated with curator Jennifer Forest to script and film actors, and supervised design of the illustrated backgrounds. Our design and production of multimedia included interactive iPad kiosks that interpret exhibition displays, a 200-year interactive timeline, ten large-format interactive graphic novels, and four intricate soundscapes.

Our role

An immersive experience about empathy

While choosing paths for the ten characters, each interactive display novel shows how the actions of individuals, churches, communities and governments can create agents of hope and love for those in need.

Through the rest of the exhibition design, spaces are grouped around four content areas – Beginnings, Health, Education and diverse Ministries. In each space, a range of historically significant objects, imagery, text and technology tell the story.

Disadvantage is mapped across Australia by region, age, gender, life stage and socio-economic status.

“The Centre is a genuine example of contemporary ‘best practice’. We can be proud to promote it.” – Sister Helga Neidhart

For more about the Sisters of Charity, visit their website.

Gibson International collaborated with

Curator Jennifer Forest, Designers; Tim Gibson, Paul Broadhurst and Kate Cunningham, AV integrator Interactive Controls

Got a question, need a hand, or want to partner up?

We’d love to hear from you!