Behind the Scenes of an Exhibition: Show and Tell!

The last couple of months have been a flurry of activity as we prepare the information to accompany the objects which will be displayed in the exhibition.  The group has been working closely with a team of designers to come up with a design concept to support the objects.  This would be a unifying look for the panels, labels, leaflets and other promotional materials we need.

We thought it was difficult choosing the themes and objects to use, but this proved easy in comparison to deciding which design concept to go with.  Decisions included which typography, font, colour palette and lay out to use.  The objects we chose provoked such an emotional response that it was often difficult to keep within the word limits for each panel.  There was also debate about the clarity of the language we used in describing the objects and the need to be aware of any ‘technical’ words and phrases that might alienate some audience members.

The Marketing Team came to the fore just before Christmas as they began to implement their Marketing and Communication Plan.  Some members of the Working Group were recorded sharing their thoughts about the objects and their emotional connection to them.  These recordings will be uploaded to the microsite for the exhibition nearer to the launch date.

The role of the Marketing Team is to drive attendance at the exhibition from our target audiences and encourage engagement with the content.  While the curators’ involvement is mainly practical it is our colleagues in marketing that add an extra dimension to the process by getting the message out there.  Their plans include using social media, print advertising and creating a micro-site for the exhibition.

The exhibition is not just about ‘show and tell’, the group hope that it will elicit an emotional response from the audience, which they will share with us.  At the moment we are looking at ways to record and share this feedback.

Karen Jacques & Clare Baker