Small Spaces in Big Museums

On a recent visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston with my family, it wasn't just the big exhibition galleries and art that impressed me, but also some smaller, more intimate, exhibition spaces.

In particular, the Musical Instruments gallery was a perfect "right-sized" museum experience.  As you can see by the section of museum map from the MFA below, the space is barely bigger than the nearby ticketing desk area.

However, while small, every aspect of the Musical Instruments gallery was polished to jewel-like perfection.

To begin with, the space was slightly off the main entrance and easily missed if you were rushing into some of the special exhibition galleries.  Unlike most of the galleries in the MFA, Musical Instruments was sealed by a heavy glass door that blocked out the sound from the rest of the museum.  This was highlighted by the soft music playing inside the gallery --- very appropriate considering the subject of the gallery's contents!

The instruments on display were unusual and interesting (like the ceremonial trombone pictured at the top of this post) and because the space was small, with only a few other people inside, it rewarded careful observation and concentration.  Minute details that might otherwise be glossed over in the hustle-and-bustle of larger MFA galleries, were instead admired and appreciated.

The Musical Instruments gallery experience felt like an exhibit oasis in the middle of the MFA.  As a visitor, I appreciated the respite and felt recharged to explore some of the bigger, busier galleries.

So here's to small museum spaces!  How might you add a small or quiet moment to your museum or to your next exhibit project?



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Sacred and Stolen: An Interview with Gary Vikan

Gary Vikan was Director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994, he was the museum’s Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Medieval Art. Before coming to Baltimore, Vikan was Senior Associate at Harvard’s Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. A native of Minnesota, he received his BA from Carleton College and his Ph.D. from Princeton University; he is a graduate of the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors and the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program.

Gary was kind enough to provide this interview for ExhibiTricks in conjunction with his recently published book, Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director

What got you interested originally in museum work?  In the late ‘70s, I was a Byzantine scholar at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC; by day I studied some of the most arcane subjects in the Greek medieval world, but at night, I taught adults in the Smithsonian Residents’ Associate Program. I needed to connect with people, and to make my scholarship somehow meaningful to everyday people. (Thus, my interest in Elvis as a modern secular saint.) And I wanted to use the art of the distant past, and the aura I personally felt surrounding this art, to make that connection to the public. The art experience is, for me, a spiritual experience, and I see myself as its evangelist.

What is your favorite exhibition of the many you worked on? I have two, and they are very different. One, from 25 years ago, is Holy Image, Holy Space: Icons and Frescoes from Greece. I especially liked this show because it marked the first time I was able, in a gallery space, to unleash the spiritual power of the icon. I could tell I succeeded, because the Plexiglass bonnets protecting the icons were covered with kiss marks. With that exhibition, I had brought the holy - the numinous - into the art museum.

My other favorite, from just a few years back, is Beauty and the Brain. This was a tiny, inexpensive show that I did in collaboration with a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins. It was interactive, and invited visitors to choose their favorite among a multiplicity of subtly morphed shapes. Our aim was to discover if people are “hard wired” for certain shapes (think of Henry Moore); and the answer is yes. 

What prompted you to write a book delving into the shadier side of the museum world? As I walked the galleries in the Walters giving tours, I became increasingly inclined over the years to relate the story behind the work of art, as distinct from the art history of the work. I found them much more interesting, as did my audience. Maybe it’s just that I’m a storyteller by nature. Anyhow, in retirement, I decided to tell some of the stories that I could not tell while still director. And it is true, lots of odd things go on behind the scenes in art museums, and I think the public deserves to know about them. After all, our collections belong to the public, and we work for the public.

How have museums responded to your book? No question I’ve irritated some museum people, and made others uncomfortable. But at the same time, I’ve gotten invitations to speak before museum audiences, so that tells me that at least some museum directors have the courage to open that “staff only” door and let their members and donors into the back-of-house. 

What are some of your favorite online (or offline!) resources for people interested in finding out more about repatriation or return of stolen objects? I love The Cultural Property Observer, online, because it gives a balanced view. This is especially important right now, as the message mostly encountered in the media is that ISIS is somehow making hundreds of millions of dollars in looted antiquities from Syria and Iraq. This simply is not true, and if the US makes policy decisions (as it now is) believing that it is true, we are at risk going too far in closing our borders, and in curtaining gifts of works to our museums from US collectors - and thus endangering the ecosystem of antiquities collecting and gifting that has made our great encyclopedic museums. 

What advice would you have for museum professionals, especially those from smaller museums, in making sure their exhibitions and programs manifest in ethical ways? Keep the public good and the public trust ALWAYS at the top of your thinking. And never forget that works of art are mute, and they, too, need advocacy.

What do you think is the “next frontier” for museums and museum oversight? Finding a way to reboot the antiquities trade in what I believe is our “post looting” world. My book is a window onto a very different time in American collecting of antiquities - 30 or so years ago. It was truly a “wild west,” of don’t ask and don’t tell. I’m glad those days have passed, but what we are left with right now is an impasse between established collectors and collections and museums, and thus, the public.

The rules for buying and gifting antiquities have simply become too rigid. And so vast numbers of great works of art cannot now be bought by or donated to museums. The key to the future, I think, is the Internet, and transparency. Put these hundreds of thousands of antiquities already within the borders of the US, but lacking full documentation back to the UNESCO Convention on cultural property of 1970, on the Internet. If legitimate claims of looting are brought forward by source countries, those claims should be entertained in good faith. But in the absence of such claims, over time, de facto title should be granted to the collectors or dealers possessing the works, which can then reenter the antiquities trade - and ultimately, end up in a public museum.

How can museum professionals promote ethical collecting and exhibiting of artifacts? The key, again, is transparency. The last work the Walters acquired when I was director, in 2012, was a medieval Armenian tombstone. A visually powerful and important work, and the only one of its kind now owned by an American museum. We could not fully document the history of the piece, so we went to the Armenian Embassy in DC, and asked them what they thought (after alerting the dealer of our intent). Fine, they said, we would be proud to see this work of Armenian culture in Baltimore. In the end, pretty simple.

If money were no object, what would your “dream” museum project be?  I would love to partner with the neuroscience department at Johns Hopkins, and neuroscientists around the globe who are exploring innovation, creativity, the aesthetic experience et cetera, and do a major show exploring the present state of the intersection of art (very broadly defined) and brain science. It is a truly exciting frontier, and I think I am (almost) uniquely suited to brokering a multilateral exhibition collaboration among cultural historians, artists (musicians, architects, and writers), aestheticians, social anthropologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists. And it would be highly interactive, and have virtual reality as a key experiential dimension. It would be a big and bold version of my 2010 Beauty and the Brain project. It is the emerging field of “neuroaesthetics.” It could be co-hosted by the Met and the American Museum of Natural History.

Thanks again to Gary for sharing his thoughts with ExhibiTricks readers!


And now, a CONTEST!
If you'd like the chance to win a FREE copy of Gary's book, Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director, just subscribe to the ExhibiTricks blog by clicking on the link at the top right of the main ExhibiTricks page before November 15, 2016. (Already a subscriber?  Just send me an email with the words "Sacred and Stolen Contest" in the Subject line before November 15, 2016 to enter.)

We'll choose one lucky winner at random from the combined entry pool of new subscribers and email submissions to receive a copy of Gary's book.

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Museum Design Inspiration: Olafur Eliasson's "Your exhibition guide"

Artist Olafur Eliasson has developed a free app  called "Your exhibition guide" to accompany the exhibition "The Infinite White Abyss" focusing on the complex subject of the white surface in the works of Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian.

If, like me, you are not steeped in art history, or expecting to be in Dusseldorf anytime soon, you could skip directly to downloading the app (on iOS or Android) or checking out the "Welcome" video by Olafur Eliasson (at the top of this post or here on YouTube.)

The app itself is a series of short "exercises" that gets you to think about experiencing an art exhibition (and art museums!) in different ways.  Eliasson asks you to consider such approaches as "non-art", "abstraction" and even experiencing your visit as an asteroid, among other possibilities.  Inside the app, under each video, are additional thoughts and references related to each of the experiential exercises.

The cool, and inspiring, thing to me about what Olafur Eliasson has done here is to create a toolbox for anyone, inside any art museum, to be rewarded for careful observation.  In fact, I'd go as far to say that these exercises could be used outside of art museums as well.



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Rhythm in Exhibitions

Why is there such a desire to touch things in an art museum?  Does all that concentrated looking create a pent up demand to use our other senses?  Or do we long to get a better sense of how an artist created something, and the materials they used?  Can a museum experience be "interactive" if you don't touch anything?

I was thinking about these things after a recent visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) with a group of my graduate students from Bank Street's Museum Education program.  (Yes, that's us touching sculptures in the picture above.)


Not in any way to pick on MoMA (since it's one of my favorite museums) but the galleries there (and in many other museums) often seem to lose track of the intellectual and design values of rhythm.

Rhythm in the sense of changing up and varying the sensory stimuli and patterns for visitors.  In the case of MoMA, a visitor is faced with the classic "pure white box" style gallery repeated over and over.  And within each pure white space, artworks are arranged linearly or in grid patterns on the walls or floors.  Couldn't an occasional gallery wall be painted red or blue? 

I'd contend that one reason for the amazing success of recent shows by Tim Burton and Olafur Eliasson at MoMA was (aside from the great art) that each installation deliberately broke away from the white/grid aesthetic.

And lack of rhythm in exhibitions isn't just an Art Museum issue.  My kids once remarked on a History Museum exhibition as a "bunch of old brown things" because the furniture, textiles, and documents on display were all old and brown!  The visual rhythm of "brown" and "old" became a sort of unvarying metronome that overwhelmed the ultimate content goals of the designers.  Each object in every glass case was set on sepia or earth-toned backgrounds as well.

Have some museum genres become like particular radio stations for both exhibition designers and visitors?  Tune into pristine white spaces on the Art Museum channel, and dimly lit galleries full of "old brown stuff" on the History Museum station?

Are the typical design "rhythms" of many science centers filled with bright colors, neon, and wildly varying architectural forms really conducive to thinking deeply about tricky scientific content?

How can we as exhibition creators find our "design rhythm" to help create more interesting museum spaces and content-driven experiences for our visitors?

Please share your own experiences or examples of rhythm in exhibitions (good or bad) in the "Comments" section below!


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Exhibit Design visits The Circus

Lions and Clowns and Acrobats, Oh My! I just finished the installation of an interactive children's art exhibition called "Under The Big Top" at the Nassau County Museum of Art. (Here's a Flickr set of some of the installation images.)

One thing I've been pondering about the "Under The Big Top" exhibition is how the inclusion of thematically-focused interactive components that require physical engagement (as well as a few exhibit installation "easter eggs") in a traditionally "hands-off" context, like an Art Museum, can, paradoxically, foster the types of behaviors (like careful observation and imaginative play) that we would like to see in every type of museum installation.

Two examples of interactive components from "Under The Big Top" that provide a nice intersection between the circus-themed works of art and an opportunity for visitors to experiment with artistic concepts like form and color are:

• Acrobat blocks
Here visitors get to create their own colorful patterns using these cleverly designed "acrobat blocks." A simple "circus ring" on the table adds to the opportunity for visitors to create wonderful sculptural forms in a "Big Top" context.




• Colorform Clowns
With this exhibit, visitors can experiment with form and color by putting "makeup" (actually cling vinyl nose, eye, and mouth shapes) on the mirrored clown faces.



There's also a cool little "easter egg" lighting effect that shows a shadowy version of the colorform clown faces reflected onto the floor in front of the Colorform Clowns exhibit as well.


All the exhibits in "Under The Big Top" are simple, low-tech (no tech!) and open-ended opportunities for visitors to engage with both Circus and Art themes.

And best of all, the activities leave visitors in a curious, observant mood that is a perfect complement to viewing works of art. (As opposed to bouncing around like pinballs --- which seems to be the effect many science center exhibits have on kids ...)

The experience of putting together the "Under The Big Top" show has made me think even more carefully about the exhibit design possibilities of coupling "hands-off" museum objects with related "hands-on" museum experiences.

What are your experiences with integrating hands-off with hands-on? Let us know in the "Comments" section below.

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Artful Design: An Interview with Lynne Friman

Previous ExhibiTricks postings about interactivity in Art Museum exhibitions and the "reinstallation" of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) got such strong responses, so it seemed like a great time to interview Lynne Friman, the designer who was the project manager for the reinstallation project at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and who is currently the project manager for the reinstallation project at the University Of Michigan Museum Of Art.

Lynne Friman is the Principal at Envisions Design, Ltd. 27 years ago, she began her museum career in New York City. Lynne moved from NYC to Detroit to Head the Exhibition and Design Department for the Detroit Historical Museums. After several years there, she moved to The Henry Ford Museum. While at The Henry Ford, Lynne held several positions including Head of Design and Production, Creative Visual Services, Facility Development and Senior Experience Designer. Lynne has also served as the President of NAME (the National Association for Museum Exhibition).

Recently, Lynne was kind enough to respond to a few questions from ExhibiTricks:



What’s your educational background?
I have a BFA in graphic design and illustration from University of Illinois. I interned through Parsons School of Design and then took post-grad courses in industrial design, while working for an architect. But most of my direct museum education was through apprenticeship… learning from Architect Adam Tihany and former Metropolitan Museum of Art Designer, Lucian Leone.



What got you interested in Museums?
It was never a career path I directly pursued, but I’d grown up in the Chicago area going to all of the great ones there --- loving the Field, Shedd and the Museum of Science and Industry. The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art was a favorite because it was so fanciful. In Junior High I was labeled an “alternative learner” and put into a program called the “Floating Classroom.” We learned by going out to places rather than reading about them. I remember a project at the Art Institute where we selected an artist and created projects around their work based in science, math, social studies and literature. I chose Calder and learned so much about the world.



What are some of your favorite museums or exhibitions?
The most moving exhibition that I recall was going to the “Sixth Floor” exhibit in Dallas during AAM with a small group of museum designers. By the end we were all teary eyed and moved beyond words. It was a well done exhibit, but the most important thing was that designers, Staples and Charles, allowed the sense of place to really be the star… that was the most important artifact and it was honored. I stood at the window and looked out at the grassy knoll, it was very emotional.

Recently I went to Ottawa to the Museum de la Civilization. I’d heard about John Jacque Andre’s installations for years and seen other attempt his style elsewhere, to less affect. On one level it was a time capsule for 1980s exhibit design, but it held up. The interpretives were good hands-on/ minds-on and there was much to be engaged with. For some reason, I was really taken with the lighting in the village on the 3rd floor. I’ve been through lots of museums with pseudo villages, but the mood it evoked made us want to explore every nook and cranny (and there were lots).



Tell us a little bit about the "reinvention" of the DIA and your role in that?
I started work on the DIA in 2001, designing a couple of exhibits as the museum moved the collections around to work on the facility. Then I was hired as project manager for the reinstallation project. Early on I facilitated teams of curators, and other staff to organize their thoughts around their big ideas.

My job really was to keep the process flowing with my Excel spreadsheets, listing all the parts and my Microsoft project charts, telling me where we were and where we needed to go. I went to San Francisco and was trained as a facilitator at Interaction Associates. I coordinated the teams and the production of all the cases, graphics and more. I also was involved in the hiring of approximately 15 different design and production firms.

The reinvention of the DIA is really focused on reinterpreting the collection—grouping things differently, telling stories where previously there had only been the most basic information. Using high tech interpretives was done sparingly, I think to great effect. The most talked about one is the “dining table” where you sit down at a table and have an 18th century French “meal”, using the serving pieces that surround you in the gallery. It was a subtle contextualization that gave the static pieces some life. There are simple “eye spy” devices in the galleries for children, but we know the adults use them just as much.



Why do (as a generalization) history museums and art museums seem so resistant to interactive exhibits?
I don’t think history museums are resistant to interactive exhibits. 10 or 15 years ago when I was really focusing on history exhibitions we were trying to learn (sometimes steal or borrow) everything we could from science and technology museums and make it relevant to historic content. History museums have come a long way to bringing interactivity to museums. Soon I will embark on a project where the goal of the project is hands-on and minds-on learning. Not always at the same time, but balanced throughout the site.

Art museums may be a tad more resistant to interactivity. But then it depends on what you mean by the word interactivity. Art museums very much want visitors to have an interactive experience with the art they display. However, their goals are different from other museums. There is a certain level of contextualization that I have yet to see in an art museum.

We pushed the envelope at the Detroit Institute of Arts, in developing high tech, low techs and no tech interactives. There are dozens throughout the museum, perhaps 2-5 in each gallery. Some people feel that is too much, many visitors still want an unmediated experience where you can just experience the art. But we found through audience research that the average visitor needed a little help in order to appreciate the art. Anecdotally, people who have little art museum experience feel the interpretives are helpful.



What are some of best/favorite examples of interactivity in history and art museums?
At the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) there used to be an exhibit called “Planet Earth.” It won the exhibition competition several years ago. You sat in a volcano and experienced the evolution of the earth. My young son was fascinated and so was I. We both learned a lot—it was a cool environment that was done very well.

I really enjoy the dining table at the DIA, that I mentioned earlier. It is designed by Pentagram Associates. The experience is engaging, it gets people talking and sometimes they even connect to the art around them. While I enjoy this, I’ve also heard other people describe this as soulless, with little connection to the art. But for me, it draws you in and meets the goals and big idea for that area.

The other interepretive that I like very much, at the DIA, is a simple set of flip panel that sits in front of 5 Picasso paintings of women. The panel shows you photographs of 5 women. It asks you to pair the “real” images with Picassos. It is about looking through Picasso’s lenses. It gave me a nice little aha moment.



Can you talk a little about some of your current projects?
I am deeply in the midst of installing the University of Michigan Museum of Art, set to open in March 2009. This museum has a very different audience and mission from the DIA but is also working towards a greater level of interactivity. As I am installing right now, ask me more in a few months!

In addition to the museum projects, I have been working on a Master Plan for my regional arts alliance. I am also Chair of the local Arts Council. These are labors of love that connect me to my own artistic roots.



How do you think museums will be different 10 years from now?
I can’t hazard a guess. 10 years ago I thought they would all be a lot more hands on than they are. Then again, it is in funny quiet moments that I often make the most connections when I visit a museum. But it is often some contextualization or interpretive device that allows me to make the leap.



What technologies/techniques do you think are underutilized currently in museums?
I think the use of technologies are working their way into all areas of our museums. I don’t think they are underutilized. They often cost a lot, so sometimes they are the early cut in a project.
It isn’t for lack of conceptualizing. Fortunately there are a lot of ways to get an idea across.



If money were no object, what would your “dream” exhibit project be?
Object theatre, creating environments that bring art, culture and history together in one place. Sometimes museums are so defined by their typology that there are things that you “can’t” do in one place or another. I like to break rules to create new relationships between artifacts and the visitor.


Thanks to Lynne for taking the time to share her thoughts with the ExhibiTricks readers!


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Museum Exhibit Design: The "New" Detroit Institute of Arts

As a followup to my recent posting about interactive experiences (or lack thereof) in art museums, I thought I'd share two different points of view about the "reinvention" of The Detroit Institute of Arts (or the DIA as it's known to locals.) For context, the DIA has reopened last year after completely reconfiguring its galleries and its institutional approach toward the visitor experience.

The first (immediately below) is a report from the radio show Studio 360 that details an interactive "virtual dining" experience that serves to highlight some of the DIA's decorative arts collection.


Personally, as someone who was born and raised in Detroit --- I count the DIA as one of my favorite museums --- I can't wait to get back to Detroit to see the "new" DIA. The dining interactive sounds like a wonderful way to engage visitors in a difficult, but interesting, area of the collection.

Clearly not everyone feels the same way. Enter art historian Christina Hill, who wrote this opinion piece for one of Detroit's alternative newspapers, The Metro Times.

Ms. Hill comes off as a bit of an art snob, in my opinion. As an art historian she may well have the education and experience to take away "volumes" of information from every encounter with a work of art, but I doubt that every visitor (or potential visitor) to an art museum has the same capacity. I'm at a loss to see the downside of thoughtfully integrated interactives in an art museum.

What do you think? Should art museums remain purely temples to art? Are interactives in an art museum condescending to the primary audince? Are interactives just a "cheap trick" or do they "dumb down" the primary experience? Add your own thoughts in the "Comments" section below.

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