Grew up around the Smithsonian. Always wondered how they picked given the vastness of the collection. Thank you for shedding light on the struggle and joy of their job.
You could write about lawn care or boiling an egg and I’d be fascinated.
This brought to mind a visit to the National History Museum in Copenhagen which as you might imagine has an extraordinary collection but to learn about the exhibits it’s often necessary to drop to your knees to read the small font legends resting at floor level.
Thank you, that’s very kind. And the kneeling is a good catch, because it is the same failure as my shelf line turned sideways. The label ended up at floor level because something else needed the good real estate, and once it lands there it has silently excluded anyone who cannot get down and back up.
This is really good and deeply insightful. I never had the smarts to be a curator, but I do work at an hs in a library and totally live what you explain. Thank you for it.
My niece has a MFA from NYU in Museum Science and I’ve always wondered what that means and what sort of things she learned there. I know she had an internship on the USS Intrepid museum while in school and was cataloging manuals and other naval documents left aboard the ship when the Navy donated her to the foundation but beyond that I had no clue about how a museum exhibition is staged.
Thank you. Your niece’s Intrepid internship is the part I find most interesting, honestly. Cataloging is where the real decisions happen, because you are deciding what gets a number and what does not, and everything a visitor eventually sees was narrowed by that work years earlier.
Fascinating to see the process behind a case curation. In many ways, like most artistic projects. People see the end result, not the work that goes into creating it.
"Somebody calculated what another six months would cost and decided against it."
I had never even considered this, kind of blows my mind to be honest.
I think the issue with labels could probably be it's own article. At my local science museum, people very much move from label to label. It is almost like those are the anchor points of the exhibit. But the labels at that museum are usually accessible. By accessible I mean, on a placard much larger than a 8 x 11 piece of paper (usually poster sized). This accommodates both people with vision issues and clusters of people trying to read at once.
The biggest problem I see with the curation is there seems to be a desire for people to organically notice the girl who left school at 15. So, what is the point of making the reader do that work themselves? Why not connect those dots for them and point it out? Call out the questions that are of interest like, "Why did she have to work?", "How did that change her life?", etc.
This is where museums fail. Small, tiny illegible text, dancing around the points they feel are important. While I hesitate to add to the committee designing a case, why in the world is a Graphic Designer not present? Someone who is trained to engage and direct people's visual behavior? People are using vision to engage with the exhibits and yet no one trained in that has input? That doesn't work for any other industry, and museums could be seen as part of a knowledge industry.
Seeing the example picture of the case was great and helped me understand the issues. I am curious if the layout is known when items are curated/selected? Because then someone could plan for a number of eye-catchers or visual anchors ahead of case planning.
Grew up around the Smithsonian. Always wondered how they picked given the vastness of the collection. Thank you for shedding light on the struggle and joy of their job.
You could write about lawn care or boiling an egg and I’d be fascinated.
This brought to mind a visit to the National History Museum in Copenhagen which as you might imagine has an extraordinary collection but to learn about the exhibits it’s often necessary to drop to your knees to read the small font legends resting at floor level.
Thank you, that’s very kind. And the kneeling is a good catch, because it is the same failure as my shelf line turned sideways. The label ended up at floor level because something else needed the good real estate, and once it lands there it has silently excluded anyone who cannot get down and back up.
This is really good and deeply insightful. I never had the smarts to be a curator, but I do work at an hs in a library and totally live what you explain. Thank you for it.
Wow! What a great essay. Very informative.
My niece has a MFA from NYU in Museum Science and I’ve always wondered what that means and what sort of things she learned there. I know she had an internship on the USS Intrepid museum while in school and was cataloging manuals and other naval documents left aboard the ship when the Navy donated her to the foundation but beyond that I had no clue about how a museum exhibition is staged.
I learned a lot from your piece. Great job!
Thank you. Your niece’s Intrepid internship is the part I find most interesting, honestly. Cataloging is where the real decisions happen, because you are deciding what gets a number and what does not, and everything a visitor eventually sees was narrowed by that work years earlier.
Fascinating to see the process behind a case curation. In many ways, like most artistic projects. People see the end result, not the work that goes into creating it.
"Somebody calculated what another six months would cost and decided against it."
I had never even considered this, kind of blows my mind to be honest.
I think the issue with labels could probably be it's own article. At my local science museum, people very much move from label to label. It is almost like those are the anchor points of the exhibit. But the labels at that museum are usually accessible. By accessible I mean, on a placard much larger than a 8 x 11 piece of paper (usually poster sized). This accommodates both people with vision issues and clusters of people trying to read at once.
The biggest problem I see with the curation is there seems to be a desire for people to organically notice the girl who left school at 15. So, what is the point of making the reader do that work themselves? Why not connect those dots for them and point it out? Call out the questions that are of interest like, "Why did she have to work?", "How did that change her life?", etc.
This is where museums fail. Small, tiny illegible text, dancing around the points they feel are important. While I hesitate to add to the committee designing a case, why in the world is a Graphic Designer not present? Someone who is trained to engage and direct people's visual behavior? People are using vision to engage with the exhibits and yet no one trained in that has input? That doesn't work for any other industry, and museums could be seen as part of a knowledge industry.
Seeing the example picture of the case was great and helped me understand the issues. I am curious if the layout is known when items are curated/selected? Because then someone could plan for a number of eye-catchers or visual anchors ahead of case planning.
A little heavy for a Saturday morning, but good for the brain. Any chance of your digging into the girl? Invested.