Though this might be of some general interest-illustrates the problem of
producing exhibition the staff wants to do rather than the public wants to see.


Rick Beard, Executive Director
Building Audiences with Exhibitions
Throughout the early 1990s, the staff and trustees of the Atlanta History
Center focused their efforts on the creation of the Atlanta History Museum and
a long-term exhibition program. The results -- major exhibitions on the history
of Atlanta, the American Civil War, and Southern folk life have won numerous
state and national awards unanimous praise from visitors. At the same time,
attendance at the History Center has not grown at the rate we would like and it
is increasingly evident that we must entice new, larger audiences to visit if
we are to thrive.


Marketing, whether for a product or an institution, seeks to create an
immediate demand. A sale postponed is often a sale lost. Those of us charged
with the History Center's future might wish otherwise, but it is clear that we
are not creating the sense of urgency that prompts people to visit right away.
The fault appears to rest not in our exhibitions -- our product -- but rather
in their semi-permanent nature. Since they will be on view for years to come,
there is little that demands they be seen immediately. Why should our potential
audience visit now when they can come next week, next month, or next year?



Only a combination of responses will solve this dilemma. One is the creation of
a changing exhibition program that compels people to visit immediately lest
they miss something. Temporary exhibitions have been an important part of our
program since the museum's opening, but they have often been overshadowed by
our larger semi-permanent installations. Furthermore, many have been
collaborative ventures in which others bore the major responsibility for
planning and fund raising. The Herndons: Style and Substance of the Black Upper
Class in Atlanta, 1880-1930, Creating Community: The Jews of Atlanta from 1845
to the Present, and The American South: Past, Present, Future come quickly to
mind.



For the past six months, the staff and the trustee's exhibitions committee have
been shaping an ambitious program of changing exhibitions. Some we will create
ourselves; others we will share with their originating institutions. It is our
goal to present exhibitions relevant to our mission, reflective of sound
historical scholarship, and compelling for the large audience that has rarely,
if ever, visited. Much will depend on funding, so what follows is only a
sampling from a work in progress. This fall Georgia Quilts: Piecing Together a
History revisits a popular subject first explored in our pre-Olympic exhibition
of quilts made as gifts for Games' participants. For the fall of 1999 we are
organizing Native Lands: Indians and Georgia, an examination of the Creek and
Cherokee, and will also host Treasures of Mount Vernon: George Washington
Revealed, a major commemoration of the 200th anniversary of our first
president's death.



In the winter and spring of 2000, Requiem, an exhibition of photographs taken
by photographers killed in Southeast Asia, will help us examine the lasting
impact of the Vietnam War a quarter century after it ended. And early in 2001,
we plan to open our most ambitious temporary exhibition ever, a look at the
fastest growing spectator sport in America -- NASCAR racing. We welcome your
comments on these exhibition ideas, and invite suggestions for topics that
would interest you.

Summer 1998