Bringing historical elements into a festival can add depth and meaning to the overall experience. These exhibits help attendees gain a better understanding of the cultural significance of different time periods and can also help to create a sense of nostalgia among attendees. Incorporating historical exhibits into a festival can be challenging, but with the right strategies in place, it is possible to create engaging and informative experiences for guests.
An important element of a histolircal exhibit is that it must present the results of research and thoughtful interpretation of historic issues, not simply repeating what was known at a specific point in time. Exhibits that simply celebrate common events or memorialize tragic or unjust circumstances may be limiting in their scope, and those that seek to impose an uncritical point of view on a broader audience should not be supported by museum administrators.
Exhibits should encourage public debate and open discussion of the complexities of history. They should provide a context for the study of human behavior and society, explore fundamental concepts such as identity, community, freedom, democracy, and justice, and allow visitors to make connections between past and present-day life. This may involve discussing controversial topics, and it may require the use of a variety of themes, documents, photographs, objects, or graphics in order to reach a broad range of audiences. Themes, objects, or graphics that are not a part of a museum’s collection should be borrowed from other collections or borrowed from the public to create inclusive visual stories.