Exhibition Design in a Museum Context: Portrait Miniatures Gallery - Essay Example

Exhibition design in a museum context: Portrait Miniatures Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum 2005. s (Tutor) (Date) The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, is the globes biggest museum of decorative arts and design. The museum houses a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Since 2001, like other national British museums, entrance to the museum is free. It covers 51,000 m2 and has 145 galleries (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2005). V&A entrance (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2005). Noble (2007, p. 32) asserted that an object that has been displayed in a museum obtains an aspect of significance and meaning that was never intrinsic to its original purpose. An artifact by itself does not hold any meaning devoid of context. He claims that the artifact’s meaning is held by its original context and when placed in a museum does not show that meaning, but another meaning formulated by the museums’s context. Since a museum is just building, it is the passive and active decisions that are made by the museum staff and designers that build context and meaning and eventually control what and how the museum visitor will see. Design offers context and assists to reduce the barriers to understanding and apprecation. This means at the New Portrait Miniatures Gallery, at The Victoria and Albert Museum the design had a very crucial role in creating meaning for an object and the importance of understanding and interpretation (Snodin & Styles, 2008). On march 2005, the Victoria and Albert Museum opened a new portrait miniatures gallery which was funded by the International Music and Art Foundation. The gallery consists of masterpieces by the Elizabethan Nicholas Hillard, Hans Holbein, Samuel Coper, and Richard Cosway. The museum has the national collection of British portrait minitures. Victoria and Albert (2005) stated that Hilliard’s miniatures and many other gifted successors constitute some of the most memorable and compelling works of the British art. The globe’s collection of such objects are held at the V&A Museum. It holds ownership of more than 2,000 of them, although in the past years they have had no settled side for the objects within the museum. But up until now, they have dedicated a specific home for them with opening of the new Portrait Miniatures Gallery. Miniature portraits (Victoria and Albert, 2005) The gallery was designed by Casson Mann a designer who is credited for the Julie and Robert Breckman Gallery of Prints and Drawing. By utilising best architects and designers, V&A is aligning itself with the needs of the 21st century and restoring innovation and modern design to the heart of the museum. With regard to the exhibition design in a museum context, the allocated space could, admittedly, be a little larger permitts for the display of approximately 150 works from the Victoria and Albert’s treasure trove of miniatures. Nevertheless, it is an extremely welcome addition to the fabric of the museum. It is usually difficult to display miniatures to their best effect, since they are very small and light-sensitive objects. However, Casson Mann, museum’s expert on the genre and the V&A’s technical staff devised an exceptionally effective solution to the problem. Their design work ensured that the darkened display cases light up the visitor’s approach. There is also a liberal supply of magnifying glasses which are housed in slots at the side of the individual case. This makes it possible for the the viewer to realize the painstaking workmanship and fine detail and that went into the creation of these frequently superb works of art. The gallery has installed magnifying glasses in order to ensure that the detail of these tiny masterpieces can be appreciated (Dodds & Ravilious, 2009, p.10-11). Since exhibition designs need to concern themselves with judgements about suitable technique of presentation that are connected to both the nature of the material and its position within the concept of the display as a whole, the New Portrait Miniatures Gallery at the V&A museum pointed out the theme of painting and remembrance. The new portrait miniatures that are currently being displayed the Victoria and Albert museum have been taken out of their original context and re-contextualised to represent meaning which is much more significant than their original. For instance, a scaled down architectural space or aedicular space that has been created specifically for certain objects emphasizing both meaning and size (Noble, 2007, p. 35). He further points out that museums exhibit display technique and usually makes clear that there are repercussions for design decisions. The designer provided enough information without placing subjective value on the objects themselves. Soros ( 2007) observed that creating exhibits needs a lot of reading when the museum visitor has come for a more interactive experience of learning. As view shared by Noble (2007) pointed out that larger objects usually attract attention, it is very easy to be fascinated with larger objects even though the meaning was not necessarily significant to the storyline. Therefore, it is quite clear that there is need to include objects that are known to attract attention and mean significance. For instance, V&A massed the miniature portraits together in order to attract attention. When they are not significant, it would be a neglectful misinterpretation and a fault in the design thus causing misinterpretations of the event. Other considerations for the design had to be made for the larger objects which were included in the exhibit. For instance, the boxcar impacted on the circulation path because visitors were to walk in, although its height affected the building since so as to accomodate it, the floor had to be lowered. In addition, Snodin and Styles (2008, p.78-80) concluded that there was also a benefit of displaying smaller items. They write, ‘there was broad sentiment amongst team members for small personal Queen’s memorabilia.’ This was understandable from the human point of view because numerous small objects represent very touching stories. For example, The V&A Museum display contains various fruits of Hilliard’s meetings with Elizabeth, like one realistic depiction of the queen, sans teeth and sans cosmetics. This is the only existing image to record her real appearance. Large and small objects usually create a peculiar intrest. In this case, the miniatures at V&A Museum Gallery were displayed individually in special cases and had their smallness and value improved by this special treatment. Massing the ordinary objects also provides them with a special charm (Noble, 2007). As noted by Dodds and Ravilious (2009, p.13-14), there was also a discussion with regard to photographs and what size meant in relation to representative qualities of the photographs. Some members of the design team often favoured inclusion of vintage snapshots in their original small size, although it was agreed that the exhibition required large visuals. However, this meant that fewer photos would be displayed on the panels and walls. They were some paintings that were designed to hang on the wall, but not on a chain, next to the skin. For instance, Young Man against a Flame Background by Nicholas Hilliard. According to Victoria and Albert Museum (2005), the new miniatures gallery continue on from the newly established watercolour and paintings galleries. There seventeen cases of an estimated 150 portraits miniatures on display in the gallery, with two additional cases being devoted to describing the techniques and materials of portrait miniatures painted on ivory and vellum. The designer’s input commenced in 2003 when they suggested the movement of miniatures from Henry Pole Wing into the Museum’s main body. The cases were manufactured by incorporating a pyramid-shaped glass top that permits an unhindered view of the miniatures. So as to ease viewing the support board for the miniatures is at a similar angle as the sloping front of the glass case. The opening of the cases is done mechanically by lifting the glass top using an electric or hand-operated drill. Pyramid-shaped glass cases (Noble, 2007). It was also designed that there will be utilisation of infra red sensors that would be used to operate the lighting only when the miniatures are being viewed. This was not easy to attain since the space was limited in the gallery and the cases were close together. The sensors were customised so as to limit their peripheral sensitivity. When a visitor approaches individual cases the lights slowly increase from 10 lux to a maximum level of 50 lux. After an estimated 4 minutes the lights slowly dim back down to 10 lux (Dodds and Ravilious, 2009, p.15-16). Besides, there is down lighting around the gallery edges. This illuminates the walls perfectly without affecting the objects and welcomes the visitor into the space. In the old Miniatures Gallery at the V&A, once inside, visitors were required to press a button to illuminate a single case but the gallery itself was poorly lit and not very inviting. The new visitor operated lighting are intended to attain roughly 20% exposure. For a 10 hour opening day, this would similar to 2 hours per day in total. So as to monitor the actual exposure, it is visualised that radio telemetry voltage sensors will be located in perhaps two of the cases which will enable it to convert when the lights are switched onto a measure of cumulative exposure (Noble, 2007). It was also designed that a magnetic system be used to display the miniatures in the cases. The magnets to be utilised are made from neodymium. The benefits of using magnets for display include: it is quickly installed compared to the previous methods of pinning which were time consuming; aesthetically, it permitts the use a metal backboard with sharp edges, that could be hard to attain with a textile-covered product; by utilising magnets there is no need to pin into the backboard. This is a pracice which usually leaves unsightly holes when a mistake is committed or if a change of display is needed; lastly, magnetic system allows maximum flexibility and has no constraints (Victoria & Albert, 2005). Magnetic mount system (Victoria & Albert, 2005). The displays gradually move from Hillard, Hilliard’s followers Samuel Cooper and Isaac Oliver and entertainingly forwards to the 19th century. The advent of photography has rapidly displaced the miniature in the lockets of those people who wish to carry the images of their loved ones anywhere they went. There is arguably no better place to trace the evolution of this once vigorous species of art other than the V&A new miniature portrait gallery. Floor plan of V&A museum (Dodds and Ravilious, 2009). V&A Museum References Dodds, D., and Ravilious, E. (2009). "The Factory Project: digitisation at the Victoria and Albert Museum". Art Libraries Journal 34 (2): 10–16. Michael Snodin & John Styles, 2008. Design & the Decorative Arts: Britain 1500–1900, London; Sage Publications. Noble, J. S. (2007). The Construction of Scale in Museum Exhibition Design: Negotiating Context and Narrative with Object Display. Iowa: ProQuest. Susan Weber Soros (ed.), 2007. E. W. Godwin: Aesthetic Movement Architect and Designer, New York; Routledge. Victoria & Albert. (2005). The new miniatures gallery. Conservation Journal (51), 56-70. Victoria and Albert Museum. (2005, March). Development of the portrait miniatures gallery, 2005. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from V&A: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/development-of-the-portrait-miniatures-gallery/ Read More