In our ever-more polarized world, museums are a rare common ground where diverse groups can gather and connect. Historians, museum practitioners, and the general public alike benefit from the opportunity to explore and ponder history through artifacts and narratives, creating visual poetics that allow the human story to come alive on display.
Unlike books or monographs, exhibitions are dynamic, interactive, and highly specialized forms of cultural argument. As such, they require a unique combination of research, interpretation, and visual images. Exhibitions also present unique challenges and constraints that can make them more difficult to review than scholarly research or traditional monographs.
Each year, hundreds of historical exhibits are curated and crafted to showcase important aspects of human culture. In addition to revealing intellectual debates of the past, they help to broaden understanding of cultural currents and historical topics. However, exhibition reviews often neglect to examine the intellectual underpinnings of a show and its ability to communicate its message effectively.
Exhibits must be more than history put up on the walls; they must be inclusive visual stories that inspire visitors to find their own connection with larger ideas. The best shows reveal a complex interplay of research, interpretation, and visual images to create the drama necessary for meaningful discovery.
The complexities of exhibitions are further complicated by the fact that many historic structures lack modern amenities, such as electrical and plumbing systems. As a result, exhibitions in historic homes often have to bend the rules in order to satisfy accessibility requirements. This might mean, for example, allowing a ceiling-mounted lighting system in one room of a house while still upholding preservation standards in the others.
As an exhibition review journal, Perspectives seeks to fill this gap in scholarship by examining the content and design of museum exhibitions in their own right. It is critical that exhibition reviews focus on the way an exhibition works, not on ancillary products such as catalogues, videotapes, and public programs, which are merely tools for conveying the message of an exhibition.
By analyzing both the form and content of an exhibition, this column will help to improve and standardize the evaluation process and to develop a more consistent approach to reviewing museum exhibitions. In the end, exhibition reviews will contribute to a body of scholarship that records the work of museum curators, providing the tools for future historians to understand these unique and vital forms of cultural argument.