When creating an exhibition, the whole point is to educate visitors on the subject that the exhibit focuses on. So when discussing teams for the exhibit this semester, it seemed natural that there would be a team dedicated to education. What I didn’t realize is how expansive education could be within a single exhibit. The education team this semester has worked on everything from exhibit labels (making sure they give good descriptive history without being too long) to interactives and special events. It is the last category that has been the most fun to plan, but also the most frustrating.
Education in an exhibition is troublesome because you have to find a way to make your panels and artifacts educate both children and adults. This is difficult enough for docents and interpreters who can interact directly with the public, but especially so for an inanimate object that can’t read its audience and react. One way that museums in general, and our team for this particular exhibition specifically, have found is that interactives can be a way to diversify the education and allow for a different style of learning. Because the exhibition focuses on textiles and will include a full size floor loom, the education team has chosen to include a hand loom station that visitors can use and try weaving for themselves. The interactive can be beneficial for many age groups, and can even be a bridge point for adults working with children within the exhibition. Although interactives are more traditionally thought of as children’s activities, weaving is more typically an adult hobby in today’s society, making this interactive good for adults and children.
Hand looms like these will be used in the exhibition, providing a learning experience for both adults and children.
Special events are also a part of making an exhibition more personable, allowing direct contact with people rather than just panels and artifacts. Although the exhibits need to be able to speak for themselves most of the time, it’s always exciting to be able to explain more than you can fit on a 70 word count label to someone in a conversation. And even better, there are so many forms this type of event can take! For example, the education team is putting together a curator’s tour, an opening night weaving demonstration and a question and answer event on how the exhibit was made. All three events will draw different types of visitors, allowing different learning experiences and different ways of presenting information.
If you would like to learn more about our events, or explore some of our online interactives, please e-mail us at textantextiles2014@gmail.com or visit our website at http://www.eiu.edu/ha/exhibits/2014/home.html.
Text and Textiles: Crafting the Lives of Guy and Irene Buzzard 