Every year, dozens of museum exhibitions explore the past for millions of visitors. These exhibits, crafted and shaped by the best of current scholarship, contribute mightily to our knowledge of the past. Yet until recently, few scholarly publications paid attention to them or published reviews. This column addresses that shortcoming by encouraging the development of a critical record about historical presentations in museums. Reviewing the content and form of a show will make its intellectual underpinnings more accessible to historians and assure that critical assessments outlive the exhibition.
As a form of cultural argument, an exhibition is like a nonlinear poem or a sculpture that has physical shape and structure. Its purpose is to convey information in an interesting, engaging way and to stimulate discussion of a historical topic. Its gestalt is often more important than its specific content. The challenge is to capture the essence of a period, a topic, or a person and to translate it into a visual experience for the visitor.
Museums often use creative visual storytelling in their exhibitions. They strive to find a window into the dense research that composes a history, one that contextualizes and complicates it without diminishing its authenticity. They also seek to avoid exhibits that are simply “history put up on the wall.” The human component is essential; exhibitions should tell a story that engages the eye and the imagination.
Increasingly, museums are examining issues that touch the lives of their communities and the nation. Rites of passage, such as birth, death, marriage, and coming of age provide a rich source of material for such exhibitions. Other topics that delve into core values or ideas such as home, freedom, faith, democracy, and social justice lend themselves to exhibitions that can engage a variety of audiences.
Moreover, in an attempt to justify their tax-exempt status, twenty-first century museums must demonstrate that they serve the public interest by helping the general population understand its past. Exhibits that offer new ways to collaborate with the academy, develop innovative programs, or establish community driven collecting initiatives will receive special attention. In addition, this column will highlight exhibitions that challenge the established boundaries of interpretation, presentation, and collection. This will include exhibitions that employ a cabinet of curiosities approach, those that present the story of an object or artifact with few or no objects at all, and those that offer a virtual and interactive interpretation of a historic event.