Preparing a museum exhibition labels - Essay Example

?PREPARING A MUSEUM EXHIBITION LABELS Introduction Visitors to museums do so with different reasons and mentalities. As much as people may visit a museum as part of their social program to have fun, it is without doubt that a lot of learning takes place for most visitors when they visit the museum. Even with those who do not visit the museums for academic purposes, informal learning takes place as they file past the various artifacts in the museums to interact with these artifacts (Bitgood, 1996). One of the commonest ways by which learning takes place for all museum visitors is through the reading of labels and interpretive panels that are placed on artifacts. These labels and panels also communicate with the visitors in a manner that makes their visit highly interactive. It is for this reason that people responsible for labeling artifacts in various museums must be knowledgeable and critical about major factors and issue to consider in the creation of labels and panels. This will ensure that these items become a component part of the artifacts themselves in communicating effectively with the visitor. Once this happens, visitation to the museum would be more of an educational trip (Hooper-Greenhill, 1999, P. 86). Factors to Consider There are numerous factors to consider in all cases of designing labels and interpretive panels for museums. Two of such important factors are the audience and the artifact. As far as audience is concerned, audience may be described as the person to whom the work of art at the museum is being presented to (Hood, 1995). Commonly, this may be a visitor who comes for an exhibition at the museum. For the audience, it is always important that preparation of the label will be done in such a way that meets the audience at the point of the audience’s need. That is, the audience must not struggle to understand or communicate with the label. To achieve this, the designer of the label would want to consider the age, language and educational background of the audience. In the United Kingdom for instance, there are several known museums that are specifically designated for a certain demographic group such as children’s museum, students’ museum, public museum, contemporary museum, art museum and the like. Therefore depending on the demographic categorization of the audience, the label must be made in such a way that the audience will not be at a disadvantage in reading and interpreting the inscription. It would be noted that it cannot be possible to serve the direct interest of all visitors to a particular museum but a very tactical designer of labels would ensure that greater part of the audience is catered for (Hooper-Greenhill E ed., 1995, P. 53). Apart from the audience, the artifact its self is also very important. The kind of label made must be influenced by the type or kind of artifact for which the label or interpretive panel is being made. It would be noted that there are different forms of artifacts normally displayed in a typical museum. Depending on the kind of museum in question, there may be drawings, sculpture, paintings, portraits, remains of event materials, scientific findings, and so on. Due to such differences in the items that are displayed at the museum, it cannot be that all forms of article will have the same format of labeling. Even though there may be a general guideline for labeling, which may be discussed into details in the next section, labels must be such that they must fit the very kind of articles that are representing. Having said this, it is important to point out on the need to create standard object labels for all artifacts or articles on display. What this means is that even though each form of artifact may have a different way of presenting its label, it visitor should not some form of standardization in the label trend (Ferguson, MacLulich and Ravelli, 1995). This is surely a means of showing professionalism. For example the label should be at the same place or spot for all articles even if the content and size of the label may differ. Guideline for Labeling It has been hinted already that different forms of articles in museums would have different structure and designs of label. This notwithstanding, there are standards that must be observed. As part of the standard, all labels could be made to contain specific types of information about the article. Some of the information has been briefly outlined below. Sitter’s name life–death dates All art works, artifacts or items on display must have a name and this name must be clearly displayed on the label. In case the work is a portrait. The name of the person on the portrait must show with life – death dates indicated. When indicating the life – death dates, it is important to include the years only as this makes it simplified. In case the item is not a portrait of a person, it would still be important to include some dates in addition to the name and so this could be the date of discovery of the item or the creation of it thereof. Origin Artifacts that are portraits of people must also have the birthplace of the sitter indicated. At times, it is not enough to only write the country of birth and so the city and or town would be more informative. In case it item is not a portrait of a human being also, it would be necessary to give indication of the discovery location or place of creation. Let’s say it is a trophy on display; the label can have the location where the trophy was won or awarded. In case of a science museum with a scientific object in display, it will be important to indicate the place where the item was picked from or discovered. Background Information This is an important area but has often been abused by labelers. This is said to be an important area because it is supposed to give detailed and vivid information about the piece of item or artist or person whose portrait is showed. In case of a portrait of a person, the information may be referred to as a biography (Weil, 1994). The abuse that has often been characterized with this area of information has to do with the number of words in which the work is described. As a way of being standardized, it is recommended that the number of words will not exceed 140. This is so as visitors going round a museum at every given point in time are many and cannot be made to spend so much time reading notes of notes on each item displayed. Artist Makers of works of art also need to be acknowledged with their names and life – death dates. So therefore even if the item is a portrait of a person, it will not be appropriate to include information of the name and dates of the sitter alone without acknowledging the artist who put up the portrait or photograph. If the item is any work of discovery such as would be in an archeology museum, it would be important to indicate the name and dates (life – death) of the one who made the discovery as much as it would be necessary to give the same about the work its self. Medium, date portrait was created Mostly with works of art and not so found with naturally discovered items, there is a medium by which the work presented. This may be an engraving, oil on canvas, pencil work, painting and so on. For all such works of art, it will be important to indicate the medium and the date the work was created right after the medium has been written. Credit line information There are different ways by which a particular article or item may get to a certain museum. In the United Kingdom, most museums have their items as part of gifts from benevolent people (Hein, 1998). There are also achievers who may want to sent replicas or originals of their lifetime achievement plagues or trophies to museums as donations. Mechanical reproduction from original sources may also be taken from the National Portrait Gallery is also possible. For each of these cases and scenarios, it is important to give credit where credit is due. It is for this reason that the credit line information is necessary in knowing any benevolence associated with the item. NPG accession number The National Portrait Gallery would often give an accession number to authenticate the rights of reproduction of certain works of art. If the need for such NPG accession number exists, it is important to display it on the label to avoid copyright violations and other forms of plagiarism. For the sake of professionalism therefore, it is important for labelers to consider this as a necessity and not just a suggestion. Presentation of the Label Having had the factors and kind of information that should appear on the label right, the actual presentation of the label is also very important to consider. When reference is made to the presentation, there are two important areas that will be pointed to and these are the length of information and the appearance of the label (Klein, 1998). As far as length of information is concerned, it is important to ensure that the information length is not so much on a single label. This is because when the information is so much on a single label; it would waste the time of visitors who may be filing pass from one article or item to the other. There is also the possibility that the writings will not be bold and legible enough for reading when the information is so much. As far as appearance is concerned, clarity, beauty and simplicity would be considered as key factors. With clarity or size, the best strategy to use is to ensure that the label size is proportionate to the size of the item. The label must also be beauty with basic elements of design followed in its presentation. As all this is done, sight must not be lost on the need to keep the label simple as the main focus of the visitor is the item and not the label. Under no circumstance must the label compete with the item for attention. Conclusion This essay has been necessary in finding out the relevant issues to consider when preparing a museum exhibition labels and interpretive panels. Through the essay, is has been outlined that there are always key factors that needs to be considered when making labels so as to ensure that the labels serve the purposes for which they are made. When labels are able to meet the end user at the point of his or her needs, it is said that the label has been effective. As part of the factors, it has been said that the audience and artifact must be taken into critical considering when preparing the labels. There have also been specific aspects and areas of guidelines that must be followed in order to prepare and achieve a standardized labeling of museum items. In all, it can be concluded that labelers have an important role to play in transforming the museum experience that people have when they visit various museums. With an enhanced museum experience, arts and culture as an industry is going to be improved and the museum experience at last (Moss, 2006). REFERENCE LIST Bitgood, S. 1996. Practical Guidelines for Developing Interpretive Labels. Visitor Behaviour, Fall, 4-15. Ferguson, L., MacLulich, C. & Ravelli, L. 1995. Meanings and messages: language guidelines for museum exhibitions. Sydney: Australian Museum. Hein, G. 1998. Learning in the Museum. London: Routledge. Hood, M. 1995. Audience Research Tell Us Why Visitors Come to Museums - and why they don't. in Scott, C. (Ed.) Evaluation and Visitor Research in Museums: Towards 2000. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 3-10. Hooper-Greenhill E ed., 1995. Museum, Media, Message New York: Routledge Hooper-Greenhill E ed., 1999. The Educational Role of the Museum, 2nd ed. London: Routledge Klein G. E., 1998. Learning in the Museum. London: Routledge Moss, R. 2006. New live labels could revitalise the museum experience [Online] http://www.culture24.org.uk/places%20to%20go/east%20midlands/leicester/art41332 [April 10, 2013] Weil, S. 1994. Creampuffs and Hardball: Are You Really Worth What You Cost? 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