Day: April 6, 2025

Hundreds of history exhibitions are mounted each year in museums and other institutions, each a unique interpretation of historical information. Many are influenced by the best scholarship and are powerful contributions to historical knowledge and understanding. They expand the parameters of what we know through an imaginative marriage of ideas and objects. Yet most are short-lived. In contrast, scholarly monographs and public lectures can continue to contribute long after an exhibition has closed. Therefore, it is particularly important for historians to publish exhibition reviews so that the record of a museum exhibition is available to the wider community of scholars, and so that critical assessments can outlast the exhibition.

Museum exhibitions are a special kind of cultural artifact: three-dimensional, physical, and visual. They communicate research results, socio-political messages, and more. They can celebrate common events, memorialize tragedies or injustices, and promote a point of view about the past. They can communicate the stories of individuals and communities or highlight larger themes that are shared by diverse groups of people, such as freedom, democracy, mobility, and identity.

While the exhibition is a unique medium in the museum world, the process of creating an exhibit reflects many of the same skills, challenges, and responsibilities as any other academic discipline. Exhibits are designed to communicate complex histories, and they must do so at a level accessible to a general audience. They require a deep knowledge of both the subject matter and museum theory and practice. Exhibits also require management and interpersonal skills as well as a sense of visual culture and an ability to work with museum educators, designers, and production staff.

Each exhibition is a window into the dense research that defines a history; it is a window that must be simple enough to avoid being a book on a wall, but complex enough to engage the viewer. The best exhibits are inclusive visual stories that connect the viewer to the bigger idea in a way that is both understandable and memorable.

While we do not aim to review every major museum exhibition, we seek innovative work that stretches the boundaries of interpretation, presentation, and collecting. Whether it is a historic costume show that examines how fashion and material culture reflect social values, or an exhibition that explores how activists used posters and other visual materials to amplify their messages for change, our goal is to help museum professionals create and sustain new ways to share historical information with their audiences. The more that museum curators, educators, and staff can use these tools to engage diverse audiences, the better our chances of preserving the past for future generations.

Cultural heritage is a way of life that represents a shared identity and experience within a society. It can consist of tangible heritage (artefacts, monuments and sites) as well as intangible heritage such as traditions, beliefs, values, and lifestyles that are passed on from generation to generation. It is this collective expression that constitutes the human identity and culture and what defines the different societies and their cultural differences.

Cultural Heritage is also a unique non-renewable resource that can be used to develop new and innovative products and services. Cultural Heritage can also act as a catalyst for economic development and contribute to the creation of quality jobs. It is therefore important that governments and other stakeholders work together to promote, protect, preserve, and manage cultural heritage and heritage related activities in order to ensure that it is available for the benefit of future generations.

In a globalised world, preserving cultural heritage is increasingly complicated. It is a process that involves the interaction of several actors: governments, NGOs, the private sector and local communities. It is also a complex matter because heritage is not just a collection of objects or monuments that can be easily identified and classified but it is an interconnected set of values, traditions and experiences that make up a society’s identity. It is this identity that consists of tangible and intangible heritage and can be transmitted from generation to generation, which makes it one of the most valuable resources that a society has.

The problem with protecting cultural heritage is that it is a constantly evolving and changing concept. Value systems change over time and these changes are reflected in the cultural heritage that people produce and that they choose to keep for future generations. As a result, the meaning and values associated with cultural heritage are subject to constant debate and discussion and it is not always easy to determine what is or is not included in a country’s cultural heritage.

Another aspect of the protection of cultural heritage is the conflict between the interests of individual owners and the needs of the community. This is especially challenging when the heritage in question is located within a zone of conflict or in territory controlled by a nonstate armed group. It is important that international organisations such as UNESCO are committed in advance to working with such groups and to ensuring that they observe international humanitarian law.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that the contribution that cultural heritage can make to soft location factors such as quality of life and sense of belonging is often underestimated. This is especially true when the contributions are not directly visible and when the heritage is located in museums or other institutions that have to be accessed by visitors. It is essential that such heritage should be more widely accessible in order to maximise its benefits for citizens. This is a challenge that can only be addressed through education, training and awareness-raising.