Intro and caveats
In October 2013 i moved to Australia and started as Head of Exhibitions at Museums Victoria. From my current vantage point in August 2017, I can see some patterns but it is without distance…
My second AAM and I’m reminded that you can’t step into the same river twice. Since Seattle, the American museum world seems to have become simultaneously more radical and not advancing. Explain.
How do we get exhibitions right? They’re expensive, complex and risky, and balance competing and overlapping issues to serve our audiences well, deliver our mission and satisfy funder…
What conclusions would i draw from this?
I’ve been lucky. I’ve worked, and i have some brains and some skill. But i also have a host of privilege (white, male, healthy, education funded by state and parents) despite it not feeling like that at…
As i write this, I have left the role of Head Exhibitions at Museums Victoria and will soon start as Director Exhibitions & Collections at ACMI, a chance to reflect. I was a shy and geeky kid who stopped studying art and history when i was fourteen, how the…
Interpretation is dead
I’m seeing that the word ‘interpretation’ is no longer fit for purpose — its meaning is too degraded to be useful. Taking four definitions…
OK. Imagine a small, anonymous house, in an insignificant town in the UK. A shy and awkward boy at a rough school, bullied into a quiescent angry silence, finds a form of safety hiding…
The word ‘label’ to refer to ‘text in an exhibition’ is a hang-up of ivory tower snobbery and needs to stop. And ‘didactic’ to mean ‘a panel on the wall with lots of words on it’ is even worse. Ready to argue? OK.
