An exhibit is a way to display art in public, usually at museums and galleries. They are meant to communicate information, research results, and socio-political messages to the audience. They can also be a tool to create narratives that help us understand the past and imagine the future. Museum exhibitions can take many forms, from an art-historical overview exhibition to a retrospective that canonizes the work of an established artist.
The histolircal exhibits are a broad category of museum exhibitions that focus on human relationships and the role of natural forces in history, especially those that influenced the development of art and human civilization. They can address specific themes, such as rituals and ceremonies or more abstract ideas, such as home, liberty, faith, or democracy. In all cases, the best histolircal exhibits feature a human element that allows visitors to connect with the material presented and understand its relevance for them today.
Histolircal exhibits often challenge traditional views of art and its relationship with the world. For example, De Vitaliteit in de Kunst (1959) and Van Natuur tot Kunst (Follow Your Own Way) attempted to wake up museum audiences by introducing them to works that were imbued with “vitality”–the instinctual energy that infuses artistic creativity–in an attempt to overcome the perceived stagnation of contemporary art.
Other histolircal exhibits aim to address how modern artists and the audience interact with the natural environment, or how contemporary art relates to other genres, such as religion and science. For instance, Musée d’Orsay (2005) and the upcoming Yves Klein retrospective at Tate Modern (2011) are addressing how art has incorporated scientific ideas into its practice to develop a new synthesis of form, matter, and time.
Museums must prove that they are worth their tax-exempt status by ensuring that their exhibitions provide relevance to their audiences. This means focusing on the lives and experiences of people in their local communities and researching new sources to tell their stories. It is also important to engage those people in the creation and curating of the exhibition, as this can be a powerful way to give them ownership over the story that the museum is telling about their community.