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Visitor Inclusion and Childhood Development in 21st Century Exhibition Practices

 

Poly McKenna-Cress and Janet Kamien’s Creating Exhibitions provides it’s readers with an extensive and careful examination of what the process of creating museum exhibition entails as well as suggestions as to how to efficiently collaborate with others to create exhibitions. The reasoning in which the authors have for their process of exhibition creation and execution are backed up with actual exhibitions, experiences detailed by museum exhibition creators, and their success or hardships which ensued while taking on the exhibition creation process. I was happy that even though their book often states how important team member collaboration is for a successful exhibition process, Mckenna-Cress and Kamien advocate that the visitor is the most important collaborator[1]. This statement is such an important one because even in 2020, museums still struggle to put the desires and needs of their visitors at heart. It can be argued that a museum or historic site does not need to adhere to every single suggestion or want that visitors may have, but it is very important to take into consideration a good majority of what a community likes, dislikes, or can learn from museum exhibition. On the same note, when speaking about the subject matter of exhibition’s, the authors spend considerable attention on how an exhibit's content and labels can either hinder or accentuate the educational experience of the public. They propose that often time in the exhibition creation process, there are issues between museum personnel who know a lot about a subject matter and those who want to “dumb down” the material for the audience to easily grasp[2]. I think that this may be a more common issue than the average museum-goer would realize, and though skirmishes between museum staff about museum labels is an internal issue, I have found that some museum labels could definitely be chiseled down so that museum-goers of all education levels and interests can find interest in and enjoy museum exhibitions and their content. Nothing is worse than going to an exhibit and spending more than half of your time taking in long-winded labels instead of pondering equally on artifacts and label information!

[3]

Margaret Middleton’s talk about her experience creating children’s exhibitions is equally as enticing and educational. Middleton provides the listener with her approach to children’s exhibition and the ways in which children’s exhibitions are integral to a child’s education as well as family involvement in child development. Something that I appreciated from Middleton’s exhibition creation practices is her inclusion of items that help hone the skills of children like spoons to promote using utensils during mealtime or providing a hide-away space for children to practice independence that can also be accessible to families outside of the museum space[4]. Not only does the inclusion of items and spaces like this provide a fun environment in the museum, but they can help guide a parent in their own child-rearing practices as they examine their children playing and learning in the museum. I have not had many experiences educating children inside or outside of a museum space, and I am sure that public historians such as myself could benefit from taking into consideration the significance of educational, accessible items such as those present in Middleton’s exhibitions to promote child development with the youth around us.

                                                                           

  [5]

 

                                                                                                                                          


[1]McKenna-Cress, Polly, Kamien, Janet, and Kamien, Janet. 2013. Creating Exhibitions : Collaboration in the Planning, Development, and Design of Innovative Experiences. Somerset: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Accessed September 29, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, 30.

[2] Ibid., 78. 

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