tellermadsen grew out of Abrams, Teller & Madsen, a museum exhibit planning and design firm started in 1988. The current principals of tellermadsen, Alan Teller and Frank Madsen, are both designers and exhibit developers and have each worked at one time or another in the Exhibition Department at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.

Our personal experience includes teaching, design, photography and program development for several institutions. We have done the conceptual planning, development, and design for over 100 exhibits throughout the United States.

Alan Teller is a teacher, writer, photographer, and researcher with experience in history, photography, anthropology, archival management, and materials conservation. His background is in anthropology and photography and he has taught classes from kindergarten through Graduate level. He has directed numerous projects and served as a consultant to schools, community organizations, museums, and corporations.

Alan's extensive lecturing and teaching experience includes Harvard, Purdue, Rochester Institute of Technology, McGill, Columbia College, and the Chicago Art Institute. His writings have appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Exposure, Afterimage, and the Journal of American Photography. He has received numerous grants for exhibit and program support, and for arts and social issues projects. In 1998, he was Executive Producer for "In the Shadow of Memory: The Legacy of Lidice," an award-winning documentary film exploring the aftermath of tragedy. Alan has recently added nonprofit management to his list of achievements: he currently serves as Executive Director for the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy.

Alan's responsibilities at tellermadsen include developing proposals, research, scriptwriting, media treatments and production, exhibit development and conceptual design.

Frank Madsen joined the Field Museum at the beginning of their Exhibition Department. He designed numerous exhibits including Eskimo Masks, New Spirit in Search of the Past, and Illinois by the Sea. He taught Industrial, Product, & Exhibit Design for the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and founded ExhibitStaff (1975-1987) to design interpretive exhibits for museums, visitor centers, and governmental agencies.

Frank has lectured for the National Association of Museum Exhibitors, the American Association of Museums, the Midwest Museums Conference, the Industrial Design Society of America, the University of Wisconsin, Exhibit Builder's Expo, the Indiana State Museum, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has won awards from the Council of Illinois Historical Societies and Museums, and the prestigious Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).

Frank's responsibilities at tellermadsen include developing proposals, conceptual design, exhibit design, and project management. Lately, he has lectured on the exhibit design implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act and its associated regulations.