Revolution Collected and Curated Russian Revolution: Hope,Tragedy, Myths at the British Library

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the theory of exhibition presentation as a genre, the specific issues of curatorial styles, and the distinct features of exhibitions in libraries. Based on my personal reflections on taking part in curating the Russin Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths exhibition at the British Library, the article discusses the tension between the nature of collections held in libraries and their transformation when turned into an exhibition display, as well as the tension between the purpose of collecting for libraries and collecting for displays. It also presents the author’s experience of the challenges and solutions that exhibitions in libraries normally face. As the number of exhibition projects in all kinds of libraries is growing, the library communities are looking toward a better understanding of how libraries’ special and general collections can function in an exhibition environment and how information professionals can contribute to curatorial practices. Sharing experience about library exhibitions in the wider framework of art and museum curation will help to recognize exhibition curating as a requisite part of librarianship, which might change our perception of libraries and their relations with users now and in the future.     

Timelines in Exhibitions

Timelines serve as the organizing structure for many exhibitions. This essay explores the use of the timeline in museums in an attempt to understand its appeal and its meaning. The article considers the nature of narrative, and of chronology specifically, as well as the history of the timeline and of its use in museum exhibitions. Raising questions about the message sent by chronological ordering, the essay encourages exhibition developers to consider how exhibits might move beyond the timeline to provide visitors with a more nuanced historical understanding and a more active relationship to the past. If we stop taking the timeline for granted, we might find ways to complicate chronology while still taking advantage of its power.     

科技博物馆展览的基本概念结构

科技博物馆的展览是否有结构上的要求？需要什么样的结构？本文根据布鲁纳的学习结构理论并结合科技博物馆展览设计的实践,对展览结构和教育过程进行了分析,提出展览结构是关系到展览设计水平、质量和展示教育效果的重大问题,并影响到基于展览的教育活动的设计。因此,展览的基本概念结构是依据展览主题建立起来的,是设计展览的出发点,直接影响展览设计的深度和广度。在此基础上,进一步论述了科技博物馆的展览应具有什么样的结构、如何构建展览的基本概念结构以及展览结构与展品、与基于展览的教育的关系。     

How Popular Music is Exhibited by Museums in Portugal at the Beginning of the Twenty‐First Century: A Case Study

Popular music is deeply embedded in the dynamics of the contemporary world by means of its capacity to engender modes of privacy and publicness, to communicate emotion, and to enable us to create connections—and so to work within communities. Museums have traditionally addressed art‐music through the exhibition of musical instruments. But now that the exhibition of popular music has presented new challenges and opportunities worldwide for museum professionals, examining popular music discourses in museums is of the utmost importance in order for it to be meaningfully celebrated as instances of heritage. This paper expands on the representation of Popular Music in museums in Portugal at the beginning of the twenty‐first century by discussing a case study: the exhibition No Tempo do Gira‐Discos: Um Percurso Pela Produção Fonográfica Portuguesa at Museu Nacional da Música, Lisbon, Portugal, in 2007. Two methods of analysis are deployed: interviews with the curators, which revealed insights on their understanding of popular music, and analysis of the exhibition through discourse analysis, specifically through the lens of the analytical concepts genre and register. Although the curators had themselves previously developed insightful and innovative concepts with regard to popular music, discourse analysis reveals how, in this instance, the museum practices were primarily inherited from past traditions, and so failed to convey the meanings previously envisioned by the curators. In order for genuine public engagement with museum exhibitions about music, a collaboration is required between the music studies and museum studies professionals. Only through such a collaboration can it be ensured that those contemporary dynamics are present and meaningful.     

Objects in Focus: Museum Visitors and Instagram

While there is increasingly widespread use of social media by those visiting museum exhibitions relatively little is understood about this practice. Further still, the focus of such practices is unknown yet research in this area can reveal much about how visitors using applications driven by smart phone technology are engaging with exhibition content, space, design, architecture and people. This article draws on a case study of one exhibition using visual content analysis to frame, explore and interpret visual and text based posts by visitors using the social media application, Instagram, as part of their experience. Findings suggest that museum visitors using this application do so to account for and record details of their experience that draws attention to exhibition content, specifically objects. The implications are extensive for cultural institutions given the uptake of social media in all corners of life, with museums and galleries being a lively context for social media use via mobile technologies.     

The Making of “America on the Move” at the National Museum of American History

This case study examines the curatorial challenges of producing a very large exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History from 1999 to 2003. This is an insider's look at how a cross‐functional exhibition team worked to produce a compelling new exhibition. Among the issues addressed are: development of a theme; choice and use of artifacts; presentation organization and techniques; issues of truth, authenticity and accuracy in history exhibitions; and practical issues of exhibition team organization and contract management.     

文献收藏机构的展览研究综述——博物馆学关联性研究的引入和影响

近年来,展览作为文献收藏机构信息利用和创新服务的一大亮点,以视觉化、生动性和体验感等特点吸引了广大受众,逐步成为其核心业务并呈现出广阔的发展前景。但不少展览仅是将文献直接作为展示对象或嵌套至通史展中,文献最具价值的内蕴信息并未获得解读、转化和呈现,导致展览在信息利用和创新服务上,收效实际并不显著。鉴此,本文将突破博物馆的研究边界,将不同收藏机构的文献展览作为研究对象,对散落至不同机构、不同学科的文献展览研究进行学术史爬梳,并于此基础上开展研究动态的分析和研究空间的寻绎,以期发现研究空间中可能的关键问题,主张引入博物馆展览领域的关联性研究,从博物馆学既有成果中获得有益启发,为聚焦与探讨文献展览共性问题奠定较为客观的基础。     

数字图书馆网上展览之实践

在网络时代,图书馆的各类服务手段都在探索向数字化网络化方式转型,近几年来,上海图书馆通过策划展览一积累藏品一全国巡展一网上展览厅,进行了“复合型图书馆”展览服务的有益尝试。文章详述了上图“网上展览厅”的建设和历史背景,尤其是其运用了Flash技术,编辑制作了近三十个网上展览,实现了读者足不出户,通过互联网,无论在世界哪个城市,都可轻松点击欣赏上图曾经举办过的各种艺术展览,从而达到了展览资源共享,在数字环境下走出了一条探索与创新之路。另外,作者比较了国内其他图书馆、美术馆、博物馆的展览网站,同时也系统分析了网上展览厅的优势和不足以及发展前景。     

不同观点，共同目标:为观众策划更好的展览—— “博物馆展览策划的理论与实践学术研讨会暨第三届科博论坛”侧记

2019年10月26—27日,“博物馆展览策划的理论与实践学术研讨会暨第三届科博论坛”在浙江杭州召开,会议围绕博物馆展览面临的挑战与对策展开了深入探讨,分享了不同领域与背景的观点。当今的中国博物馆展览发展迅速,建立起符合中国自身特点的策展机制,能为策划“好展览”提供制度性保障。以此为基础,立足于博物馆使命,策展团队通过提炼展览主题,采用多元的叙事方式、叙事视角、叙述语言以及视觉传达等手段,能为观众策划出更多有思想、有品质的好展览。     

Changing Permanent Exhibitions: An Exercise in Hindsight,Foresight, and Insight1

Traditions associated with conservatism, scholarly content, and durability inform the ideology of the permanent exhibition. Once installed it is usually considered complete, and will remain unchanged until its content is questioned or considered outdated, or its physical deterioration becomes embarrassing. Museum curators work on very few, if any, permanent exhibitions during their career, and when they do their primary focus is on the scholarly content. It has only been in the past few years that museums, and curators, have looked to the discipline of visitor studies as being integral to process of exhibition development and the accessibility of content. A permanent exhibition constructed prior to this collaboration is revisited by its curator who applied five visitor studies' methodologies to the gallery to ascertain whether the curatorial/design concept was accessible to the visitor. This paper presents some ideas and findings from that study.     

Reexamining Diversity: A Look at the Deaf Community in Museums

In accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, museums serve their deaf visitors by offering assistance through accessibility programs designed specifically to provide access to the museum, its collections, and/or information in an exhibition or program that would otherwise be unattainable by a person with a disability. Accessibility provisions such as signed tours, TTYs, and subtitled audio information have helped deaf people experience and enjoy museums. While these programs and provisions are necessary museum services, they do not acknowledge the view of many Deaf people—that they are not disabled but rather members of a community that does not hear. Nor do accessibility programs generally include programs on the shared traditions, values, and language that make up the culture of the Deaf community. This paper seeks to introduce museum professionals to the Deaf cultural community and Deaf cultural exhibitions that celebrate the history, achievements, and tradition of Deaf people; it offers steps to follow in planning such exhibitions and provides some examples.     

试论以观众为中心的策展实践启示——从美国的“教育策展人”说起

随着教育成为博物馆最主要的功能之一,博物馆对教育的重视程度与日俱增,教育活动与项目纷纷推出。但值得注意的是,展览中的教育元素仍未有效体现或并未与教育活动交相呼应,在策展过程中,教育人员常常被排除在策展团队之外。这也导致了国内展览的教育价值无法充分发挥,展教结合的愿景仍然任重道远;而2017年美国博物馆协会年会上,“教育策展人”(Edu-curator)的概念首次被提出,同时,教育人员等其他社会成员加入策展,形成以观众为中心的合作策展模式也在近两年时间内在美国各博物馆兴起。这值得国内博物馆界参考与借鉴,相应实践也可以成为一种学习启示。     

澳大利亚国家图书馆展览政策研究

[目的/意义]国内图书馆对展览政策的研究较少，而国外图书馆在相关领域有比较成熟的做法。研究国外图书馆展览政策有助于促进国内图书馆展览工作的开展。[方法/过程]通过对澳大利亚国家图书馆展览政策与展品租借政策文本的梳理与研究，探索其有益做法对我国图书馆的启示。[结果/结论]我国图书馆应从4方面完善展览工作：①重视展览工作的组织建设；②重视对展览原则的研究；③结合国家文物保护政策制定展品借出政策；④结合我国实际制定展品借入政策。     

我国省市级档案网站在线展览调查研究

档案网站在线展览是不断发展的信息技术和日益得到重视的档案工作有机融合的产物。开展档案网上展览,已成为档案利用中很重要的一种形式,为了了解当前我国各地区档案在线展览的实践情况,从中找到影响展览效果的因素,并且做出合理改进,提高档案在线展览的质量,扩大展览的影响力,本文对我国31个省级档案网站在线展览的展览内容、呈现形式、更新频率、版权保护四个方面进行调查,分析在线展览的发展现状,发现目前档案在线展览存在选题单一重复率高、内容缺少深层次挖掘、展示形式单一、交互性不足等问题,并从优化选题、提高内容质量、丰富展览形式、加强宣传四个方面提出具体的对策与建议。     

共同创造理念下观众参与博物馆展览教育初探

基于共同创造的视角,对博物馆在观众参与的过程中,如何实现展览教育的创新发展进行探究。在共同创造的视角下,打开观众参与谱系的后三个阶段和参与创造性控制框架三个层次之间的“黑箱”,从而探索利用共同创造实现博物馆展览教育创新发展的过程模型。研究发现在观众参与谱系与参与创造性控制框架的各阶段特点和各层次特点会相互影响,最终形成一个动态的观众参与过程。这些分析细化后的共同创造的过程路径有利于博物馆展览教育的创新发展,也对我国博物馆展览中的观众参与的创新发展具有启发和指导意义。     

从不同角度讲述宇宙探索的故事 ——美国三个博物馆展示内容和叙事结构对比

在博物馆展览中讲故事的重要性已经得到普遍认可,通过讲故事的形式可以让科学入脑、更入心,可以得到更好的展示效果。然而,选择什么样的故事、怎样讲述故事、如何将故事与展览相结合,则成为重要的探讨话题。笔者在美国博物馆中看到了三个关于宇宙探索的不同展览,希望通过对展览内容和叙事结构的剖析,能够对国内科技馆展览策划有所启发。     

Paying Attention: The Duration and Allocation of Visitors' Time in Museum Exhibitions

The amount of time visitors spend and the number of stops they make in exhibitions are systematic measures that can be indicators of learning. Previous authors have made assumptions about the amount of attention visitors pay to exhibitions based on observations of behavior at single exhibits or other small data samples. This study offers a large database from a comparative investigation of the duration and allocation of visitors' time in 108 exhibitions, and it establishes numerical indexes that reflect patterns of visitor use of the exhibition. These indexes—sweep rate (SRI) and percentage of diligent visitors (%DV)—can be used to compare one exhibition to another, or to compare the same exhibition under two (or more) different circumstances. Patterns of visitor behavior found in many of the study sites included: (1) visitors typically spend less than 20 minutes in exhibitions, regardless of the topic or size; (2) the majority of visitors are not “diligent visitors”—those who stop at more than half of the available elements; (3) on average, visitors use exhibitions at a rate of 200 to 400 square feet per minute; and (4) visitors typically spend less time per unit area in larger exhibitions and diorama halls than in smaller or nondiorama exhibitions. The two indexes (SRI and %DV) may be useful measures for diagnosing and improving the effectiveness of exhibitions, and further study could help identify characteristics of “thoroughly-used” (i.e., successful) exhibitions.     

展览设计流程:展览设计水平和展示效果的保证

科学的展览设计流程往往是保证展览设计水平和展示教育效果的重要基础。相较于国际著名的科技博物馆,我国科技馆在设计建设或更新改造中出现的问题主要根源于展览设计流程的不清晰。本文首先介绍美国富兰克林科技馆最新成功打造的新展厅情况,简要介绍其经历的过程和取得的成果,然后重点引入并分析富兰克林科技馆的展览设计流程,最后分析其对我国科技馆的设计建设和更新改造工作有何参考和启示作用。     

民国时期的图书馆展览

民国时期的图书馆展览呈现地域分布不均、展会地点集中、受战争因素影响大等特点。根据展品种类的不同,可以将民国时期的图书馆展览大致分为书籍、图片、文献展览3种。还可以根据主题的不同,划分为人物纪念展览、节日庆祝展览、抗战主题展览。图书馆展览通过自身所具有的特点,在宣传抗战、促进中外文化交流、集资筹款及传播文化知识方面发挥了巨大作用,对今天的图书馆展览仍然具有借鉴意义。     

浅谈流动科技馆小型主题式科普展览的策展方法——以“生态环境”主题展览为例

自2011年诞生以来,中国流动科技馆以流动巡回展出的方式,将展览资源送到尚未建设科技馆的县域地区,有效补齐了基层科普短板,极大地促进了科普资源的公平和普惠。然而随着时代发展,传统的以基础科学为主的资源内容已难以满足基层公众的实际需求。剖析流动馆小型主题式科普展览的主要特点,以“生态环境”主题展览为例,从背景调研、目标聚焦、主题凝练、内容策划、展览布局等方面入手,梳理该类展览的策展方法,可以为今后流动馆小型主题式科普展览的策展提供借鉴和参考。