Workshop 2: Curation at the Weston Gallery

Friday 20th June 2014

Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre

Workshop Leaders: Hayley Cotterill (University of Nottingham Manuscripts & Special Collections), Charlotte Pratley (Culture Syndicates) & Ruth Lewis-Jones (Lakeside Arts Centre)

Texts on Curation and Interpretation

Interpreting Out Heritage by Freeman Tilden

The concept that curators cannot simply present objects and fact; they need to relate to the audience, reveal new information and provoke the audience to think, rather than instructing them what to do or what to think

The Engaging Museum by Graham Black

Useful processes of curating:

  • What do you want to interpret?
  • Why do you want to present this?
  • Who are you presenting it to?
  • How are you going to do it?
  • So what? What difference will you make to the viewer?

Dr. Sam Ham

A leading figure on interpretation, Ham talks about the need for curation to be enjoyable, relevant (meaningingful, personal and self-referencing to the audience), organised and thematic (i.e., grouped by theme rather than another method such as chronological). Some information on his advocacy of thematic interpretation can be found here:

Exhibition Design by David Dernie

The way in which the contemporary exhibition is designed is fast changing - previously aloof cultural institutions are making use of technologies and techniques more commonly associated with film and retail. Exhibition Design features a wide variety of examples from around the world, from major trade and commerce fairs, to well-known fine art institutions, to small-scale artist-designed displays. An introduction gives a historical perspective on the development of exhibitions and museums. The first part of the book covers the conceptual themes of narrative space, performative space and simulated experience and the second the practical concerns of display, lighting, colour, sound and graphics.

Making Histories in Museums by Gaynor Kavanagh

'What stories will we be told when we take ourselves and our children to museums in the future? Gaynor Kavanagh has tackled the question by inviting twenty-one contributions from museum professionals - each focusing on a specific kind of collection, and has produced a riveting book as a result.' The book museological features, but deals particularly with the historiographical issues that have previously been underplayed.

Concepts on Exhibition Text

The Gunning Fog Index

Of the various methods for assessing reading age, The Gunning Fog index is the easiest to use and is often use to create exhibition panels that are appropriate for the target audience. You can do this by counting the number of words in a sample of your text and applying a simple formula, or this online tool can do it for you:

The Cloze Index

This simple method of determining readability involves removing every fifth word and analysing how easily your audience can fill in the banks

Ekarv

This method of writing text for exhibitions creates simple, structured verses that are designed for maximum enjoyment in the museum environment (often in poor light, while standing up and in a, sometimes, distracting environment.

WWI Links

BBC World War I At Home

A growing collection of stories that show how WW1 affected the people and places of the UK and Ireland. The BBC has partnered with Imperial War Museums and the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Mansfield Museum’s changing programme of exhibitions: Behind The Lines

Three exhibitions at the museum: Everyone’s Darling: the First World War Nurse, Last Post: Remembering the First World War; and Clipstone Camp and World War One in Mansfield

Professor Joanna Bourke on Shell Shock

By the end of World War One, the British Army had dealt with 80,000 cases of shell shock, including those of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (WW1 poets). Joanna Bourke explores how the army tackled this extreme trauma, and how it was regarded by those back home.

Gallipoli

This film by Peter Wier, starring Mel Gibson, depicts two Australian sprinters facing the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.

Toby’s Room by Pat Barker

Parts of this book are set in Queen Mary’s hospital in Sidcup, which is mentioned in a letter that the Life Lines group looked at, from a pioneering facial reconstruction surgeon to the family of the patient. The letter and its accompanying photographs were kindly provided by Lakeside Arts Centre’s Front of House Assistant, Max.