The Celebrity Coloring Games and Photography Competitions - Case Study Example

ALL the word a stage: The process of developing the exhibition and its success as a product Grade (March 27th, 2014) ALL the word a stage: The process of developing the exhibition and its success as a product Strengths Ability to turn the team into a multi-disciplinary exhibition team The major strength in the process of developing an exhibition is the ability to turn a team into a multi-disciplinary exhibition research team (Chew, 2000:48). Thus, the major source of strength for the project was the ease with which the team was transformed into diverse research groups. This served as an important aspect for the process, considering that it became easier for the team to research on a wide range of possible exhibition themes and subjects, and finally settle on the theme of ‘ALL the word a stage’. The value of the ease of conversion of the team into a multi-disciplinary exhibition research team is that; it is through broad research into exhibition themes and subjects, that it can be possible to design an exhibition theme that will be relevant, yet attractive to a broad audience (Morris, 2002:8). Thus, through the different research areas that the sub-groups of the team engaged in analyzing, it eventually became possible to emerge with the theme of displaying how and why image has been controlled through time. Specialization and division of labor Further, the operation of the team as a research group was further reinforced by the ability of the team to work together in harmony, a factor that was a major source of strength for the process. Teamwork is an essential component for achieving success in different projects, and most especially in projects that entail combination of different individual strengths (Bedno, 1999:42). The process of preparing for an exhibition highly depends on the multiple strengths of different members of a team, considering that there are different roles that need to be played in the process, such as planning, designing, interpreting, curate and educating the audience (Downey, 2002:44). All these different roles highly depended on the different strengths of the team members, considering that some team members were highly competent in researching and developing content, while others were good at designing and planning, and still others played the role of educating the audience very well. This combination eventually produced a very competent team, considering that specialization is an effective strategy in the process of division of labor, which allows individuals to concentrate and specialize on the areas that they are highly competent and proficient (Kamien, 2002:127). Through this specialization and division of labor, the work process was effectively broken down into categories of tasks, and the competent individuals in such areas were offered the responsibilities. Thus, specialization and division of labor did not only assist in ensuring that individuals are allocated the tasks that they were highly competent in, but that there was minimal collision in the line of duty, since everybody knew their responsibilities, as opposed to when all team members would be doing the same thing, which would have caused conflicts and duplication of efforts (Faron, 2002:39). Hatton Gallery staff support The Hatton Gallery staff played a very vital role in enhancing the success of the project, considering that there are many areas of proficiency that the Hatton Gallery staff helped the team to incorporate into the team process. The support of these staff helped in clarifying various issues and concepts that had proven challenging for the team, and without the support of these staffs, the project would have been characterized by major challenges. This is because; the staffs have a long period of work experience and exposure in exhibition planning and design, thus their inputs were valuable to enhance the project success. Since the staffs had arranged for time to address the issues raised by team ambassadors, and they were not mean with their team despite their busy schedules, they supported the team in the process of planning and executing the exhibition process in a major way. One of the Hatton Gallery staff members was specifically appointed to respond to the inquiries of the team and help clarify issues in addition to guiding the team on where, and from whom to get the necessary help. This way, there was no confusion on the process of having the concerns and needs of the team addressed by the Hatton Gallery, thus helping in delivering the project success. Weaknesses Team dissent and disagreements Teamwork is a concept that is always prone to the challenges of cooperation, dissent and varying opinions (Baker, 1994:21). Thus, despite the fact that the team was efficient in research and in sharing responsibilities through specialization and division of labor, there was a great deal of diverse opinions and disagreements, which posed a major challenge to the unity and cooperation of the team. One major area of dissent was in relation to the right theme for the exhibition project. Designing the project theme was a major challenge for the exhibition design and planning process, considering that there were diverse opinions and suggestions regarding the theme that the team should have adopted for the exhibition project. This in turn served to derail the process, since more time was consumed that was expected in the process of trying to reach an agreeable theme that would be comfortable for all the team members. In addition, while some of the responsibilities were easily and passionately taken up, there were some challenging tasks that were avoided by almost all the team members, such as the educational tasks, making it a challenge to share the responsibilities equitably. Meeting deadlines Another weakness that faced the process of developing the exhibition was the deadline issue, where some of the team members were unable to beat the deadlines set for different activities, obviously due to the pressures and the nature of complexity of the tasks involved in those tasks. This way, the project was faced by deadline difficulties, since where one of the tasks was not completed in good time; it would also affect the overall project execution, through derailing the subsequent tasks. Setbacks Access to requisite materials proved a major setback, considering the fact that different exhibition process tasks required different types of materials to be accomplished, and at times such materials were scarce. For example, there was a shortage of information/text panels and labels, which then meant that improvising for some panels and labels was the only option, to ensure that the exhibition process would not be affected by the shortage. The complementary materials such as information/text panels and labels form an essential part of an exhibition project, considering that they are the materials which makes an exhibition more accessible and understandable to the audience (Baker, 1994:24). This means that the shortage of such materials dealt the project a setback, since there was reduced level of accessibility of the exhibition by the audience. The material shortage did not arise so much as a function of resource shortages, but as a result of inevitable material wastages that had arisen in the process of preparing the panels and the labels, with errors and mistakes resulting in the wastage of some materials, and eventually leading to a shortage. Exhibition materials such as panels and labels are essential exhibition aids, since they assist to give the audience the much needed directions, through giving them a clue on how different exhibition themes need to be interpreted and understood (Faron, 2002:37). Constraints Budget constraint Budget constraint served as a major limiting factor to the process of developing the exhibition. This is because, there are several items that the team would have liked to incorporate into the exhibition project but ended up missing, such as the use of video and audio aids in every aspect of the themes advanced by the exhibition, to assist the audience in understanding the exhibition better. The delivery of an effective exhibition is defined by the comprehensiveness of the display, as well as the application of a wide variety of supplementary and complementary materials, to enhance the understanding of the theme by the audience, considering the fact that different audiences have different paces, as well as different tastes and preferences when it comes to exhibition aid materials (Siskel, 2002:19). In this respect, the incorporation of a wide range of aid material would have proven even more helpful to the process of understanding the exhibition by the audience. Thus, the fact that there was a budget constraint that hindered the incorporation of all such material aids to the exhibition process means that, there were some interests of the audience that were not adequately met. The other aspect of budget constraint was in the nature of competitions and fun activities that the exhibition was able to sponsor. Since there were limited resources, the nature of competitions sponsored by the exhibition was limited to the celebrity coloring games, photography, costumes and fashion parades, and word puzzles. The prizes for the winners were also limited to the offer of wine to adults and coloring set to children. However, if there was no budget constraint, it would have been possible to broaden the range of competitions, as well as offer more enticing prizes. This would have made the exhibition even more interactive and educative to the audience. Time constraint Every project runs on the basis of well scheduled time, considering that there is no project that consumes labor and resources, which can then be run indefinitely (Rounds & Carmen, 2002:15). The process of developing the exhibition was not exceptional to this rule, since the process had to run for a scheduled number of days, meaning that the tasks and components of the exhibition was reduced to the essentials only, thus limiting the material, the duration and the contents of the exhibition display. In this respect, the spatial, the interpretative and the educational tasks of the exhibition were minimized to cover the essentials, whereas if time was not a constraint, there was much more content, duration and interaction that could have been provided for the audience. Missed opportunities The most valuable opportunity that was missed in the process of developing the exhibition was the opportunity to interact and learn more from the Hatton Gallery staff, due to the fact that they always have a busy schedule, and thus it was not possible for them to spend unlimited time to clarify, demonstrate and explain everything that the team would have wanted to know. The process of developing an exhibition is full of new and emerging trends, most especially influenced by the technological development and adoption by the museum industry (Faron, 2002:38). Thus, there are many aspect of the operation of the Hatton Gallery technology that the exhibition team would have wanted to learn, but the limited accessibility of the Hatton Gallery staff made it a challenge to get to learn all that. Explain and justify your roles and responsibilities within the team In the process of developing the exhibition and its consequent success as a product, I participated actively as a member of both the education group and the planning team. Under the education group, I was involved in the planning of the schedule, the budget and the operations necessary for achieving the exhibition success. Under the planning responsibility, I was involved in the preparation of the timeline and in keeping the team up-to-date with the exhibition timelines. Further, I was involved in the evaluation of the team performance, and in the regular reporting of the team’s progress, so that the team could make the necessary adjustments in a timely manner. This helped in avoiding the potential risks associated with the failure to address mistakes in a timely manner (Chew, 2000:48). The other responsibility that I played as a member of the education team was to organize some relevant educational events such as talks and speeches for the visitors, as well as mothers day celebration, to enhance the understanding of the exhibition theme by the audience. In addition, I was responsible for the preparation of the necessary exhibition complementary aids, such as the panels and the labels, which helped to clarify the theme of the exhibition to the visitors. Further, my role as a member of the education team also extended to participation in the educative exhibition activities such as competitions, to enhance the audience interaction with the team, and thus increase the understanding of the exhibition theme by the visitors. Evaluate the success of your contribution to the team Teamwork is an essential aspect for the success of any project, especially where diverse knowledge and skills are necessary to accomplish the project tasks (Downey, 2002:41). In this respect, the success of the process of developing the exhibition, as well as the success of the exhibition as a product, highly depends on the accuracy involved in the allocation of time to each of the individual activity that constitutes the exhibition process. This is because; the failure to adhere to the strict deadlines assigned to each individual task of the exhibition process would affect all the other activities negatively. Therefore, I contributed to the success of the planning team, through planning the timelines for different team and individual tasks that were necessary to accomplish the exhibition project. Nevertheless, planning and allocating time to the respective tasks does not constitute the success of the exhibition process, where there lacks sufficient discipline to ensure adherence to the scheduled timelines. The relevant discipline applicable in this case is time management, which entails monitoring the way time has been utilized in different tasks, and then re-evaluating and re-allocating time appropriately for the future tasks (Siskel, 2002:19). Thus, I contributed to the success of the planning team, through the regular evaluation of the timelines for individuals and the team, to identify the strengths and weakness associated with time utilization (Downey, 2002:42). Therefore, I participated in keeping the team up-to-date with the exhibition timeliness, and reminding the team members on the pending deadlines, to ensure that unnecessary delay was avoided. This way, the team was able to accomplish the necessary tasks without delaying the exhibition process. The success of an exhibition is measured by how well the visitors and audience are able to understand the purpose and the theme of the exhibition (Kamien, 2002:116). Therefore, the major the purpose and subject of the education program by the education team, was to cover all the types and all the ages of audiences in exhibition information dissemination. The education group played the role of disseminating the relevant information to the visitors, which could help them interpret the various themes that were explored by the exhibition, with a view to ensuring full understanding and comprehension of the importance of the exhibition. To ensure the success of the education group in its educative and information dissemination roles, I contributed in two major ways. First, I was involved in the preparation of the relevant panels and labels, which helped the visitors to interpret the themes and purpose of the exhibition. In addition, I was the one who responsible identifying and inviting academicians to do the relevant speeches on the exhibition, as means of enhancing for exhibition interpretation and information dissemination. Secondly, competitions are essential for enhancing the understanding of the theme and purpose of an exhibition (Baker, 1994:21). Therefore, to enhance the success of the education group in staging successful competitions, I contributed in the preparation of cards used by children in the card coloring competition. In addition, I also participated in the preparation of the tables for use in the word matching games, which formed part of the competition that the visitors to the exhibition participated in. Further, I contributed to the success of educating the visitors on the purpose of the exhibition, through volunteering in the roles of serving tea and cakes to the visitors during the cake donation event at the Art café. Finally, I also participated in the overall success of the educational group, through serving as photographer while also assisting the other team members as their assistant photographer, during the photo shooting session of the costumes and fashion parades. Evaluate the success of the group work generally and of the exhibition as a finished product The success of the group work in general and of the exhibition as a finished product was achieved. The success of an exhibition is assessed based on how the objectives set for the exhibition have been realized (Rounds & Carmen, 2002:15). Thus, the first major objective of the exhibition was to encourage the visitors to make connections and comparisons between the different exhibition works. This objective was realized through the use of the labels and panels to enhance interpretations of the different exhibition works, as well as through the application of different aspects of competition such as costumes and fashion parades, and word puzzles completion. Further, making speeches by the educational group was essential for exhibition interpretation and information dissemination (Baker, 1994:22). Therefore, by the end of the exhibition, the team was able to achieve the connection and comparison of different images, as well as to demonstrate the use of images for different purposes by the media. Thus, the exhibition as a finished product was a major success; since it was able realize the major objective of the project. The other objective of the exhibition was to broaden the visitor’s idea of what celebrity and mass media could represent. This objective was to be achieved through the active participation of the visitors in the creation of the images, so they could apply their own ideas. This objective was achieved through the application of the celebrity coloring games and photography competitions, which saw the visitors engage directly with the images, and thus understand them better. The engagement in the celebrity coloring games and photography also ensured that the third objective of the exhibition, which was to provoke audiences to make their own connections and meanings of the images, was realized. This is because, through the process of making their own celebrity colored images, the visitors were able to apply their own meanings and interpretations of images. This further made the exhibition as a product, successful. References Baker, B. 1994. Creatures who create exhibitions. Unpublished paper. Sydney, Australia: Powerhouse Museum. Bedno, J. 1999. Museum exhibitions: Past imperfect, future tense. Museum News, 78 (5): 39-71. Chew, R. 2000. Forum: Toward a more agile model of exhibition-making. Museum News, 79 (6): 47-48. Downey, S. 2002. Visitor-centered exhibition development. The Exhibitionist, 21(1) (spring): 40-44. Faron, R. 2002. Counterpoint: Customizing the exhibit development process. Exhibitionist, 21(1) (spring): 37-39. Kamien, J. 2002. An advocate for everything: Exploring exhibit development models. Curator, 44(1): 114-128. Morris, M. 2002. Recent trends in exhibition development. Exhibitionist, 21(1) (spring): 8-12. Rounds, J. & Carmen, H. 2002. Black-tie exhibit development: Assessing the trend. Exhibitionist, 21(1) (spring): 13-16. Siskel, S. 2002. A platform for success: The Field Museums exhibition process. Exhibitionist, 21(1): 17-24. Read More