Product Description

This is a guide to the process of planning, designing, producing and evaluating exhibitions for museums. Subjects range from traditional displays of art, artifacts and specimens from the permanent collection to the latest developments in virtual reality, online exhibitions, and big-screen reality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364958 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Customer Reviews

Real, practical and invaluable advice
If you are planning any new exhibits, displays, or are just thinking about refreshing your existing museum, buy this book (it is worth its weight in consultants). As someone whose own museum experience over the past 17 years has been rooted in hands-on, practical experience (and a lot of mistakes to learn from), I am always a little suspicious of museum textbooks, especially those produced by academics and aimed at the proliferation of post-graduate academic museum courses. The Manual of Museum Exhibitions provides a refreshing alternative to the glut of museum discourse that has been generated to serve the museum post-grad industry. The theory, when it is required, is concise, mostly relevant and, most importantly, is backed up by clear, useful and detailed practical examples and case studies. With everything from a brilliantly concise description of how people experience light and transitions from light into darkness by Kevan Shaw, to minutely detailed budget and planning pro-formae from US museums, this book is full of insight and resources that can be easily applied to museum planning and design, whether at a small, independent or larger, institutional scale. I cannot think of an exhibition or capital project I have been involved in that would not have benefitted from some of the guidance and resources in this manual.

My only criticism of the manual, which prevents a full 5-star rating, is that the examples used in the case studies tend towards the more mainstream and larger institutions. Many museums are now planning and delivering exhibits in partnership with all mannner of diverse communities and individuals and across creative domains and all of these more innovative and experimental projects raise new planning, systematic and cultural challenges that the more conventional processes will not always address. If the editors of this excellent book read this review, I would like to urge them to include more case studies in the 2nd edition that address the challenges of creating and installing museum exhibits in diverse community venues, outdoor locations and with non-traditional partners and collaborators.

I for one, am eagerly awaiting the next edition. If you haven't bought the first one, get it now!