Since the 1970s I’ve worked as an exhibition evaluator, served as a judge for the American Association of Museums (AAM) exhibition awards, reviewed exhibitions for museum journals, and spoken as a panel member for the exhibition critique session at AAM’s annual conference. Living in Chicago, with a sizable pool of museum practitioners close by, I wanted to create an opportunity for a group of peers to meet repeatedly over a long period of time to review and critique exhibitions and then to develop a shared set of standards for making excellent museum exhibitions. I thought that if we could have enough time to think together, we could come up with a truly new and interesting way to judge excellence through a process or product that could have a lasting and positive impact on ourselves and on our work.
The Research Question
If different museum professionals used the same set of standards to review the same group of exhibitions, would their reviews agree on the degree of excellence for each of the exhibitions? And if not, why?
Twenty-one people responded to the invitation, and 13 showed up for the first meeting. Over the next four months we had seven two-hour evening meetings.
The Framework for Assessing Exhibitions from a Visitor-Centered Perspective did not emerge fully-formed from our heads. When we first sat down together in July 2000, I acted as the facilitator and attempted to direct the discussion. We didn’t know exactly where we were going with the topic of judging excellence or what to call ourselves. At times our discussions veered off in many directions. At one point, I asked everyone to use three different sets of criteria to judge one exhibition and report back on which one worked best. Instead they came back with five more tools! It was like herding cats.
The process was very open-ended. We discussed the issues in a rambling, free-flowing way. There was no schedule and no deadline. We had our research question (see sidebar on page 3), but we did not know what the answer would be or how we would answer it. The agenda evolved as we went along.
From August to November 2000, we visited eight exhibitions located in or near Chicago. They had diverse subjects, sizes, topics, and presentation techniques. Seven of the eight we chose were permanent exhibitions so we could easily revisit them. If we were to publish our comments about an exhibition, we wanted other people to be able to see the exhibition themselves and compare their reactions to ours.
Eight exhibitions in five different museums were visited by Chicago judges from July to November 2000
Jade at Field Museum
What Is An Animal? at Field Museum
The Endurance at Field Museum
Otters and Oil Don’t Mix at Shedd Aquarium
Amazon Rising at Shedd Aquarium
A House Divided at Chicago Historical Society
Petroleum Planet at Museum of Science and Industry
Children’s Garden at Garfield Park Conservatory