I've been casually discussing with exhibition staff here some of the
things that were brought up in the "no more curators" thread a couple of
months (?) ago. One thing I don't recall having been discussed, and which

is a rather hot topic here, is the time frame given a curator or an
exhibition team to produce a temporary exhibition.  To be more precise
(since exibitions can be based on years of prior research & negotiation):

from the moment the executive committee or whomever schedules the opening

date and commits the museum to it, and the exhibition design department
gets out its pencils, to the opening date itself.  This is in no way
handled the same in all museums, and can vary wildly, but I'm trying to
get a feel for the time given to the actual production of an exhibition,
with the clock running and the deadline racing toward one. Even then,
there may be two schedules: the exhibition
design/production/installation, and the production of the catalogue.  Do
most museums produce them simultaneously, or are there those in which a
good part of the catalogue work is gotten out of the way first?

As a bit of background to the urgency of the issue here:  we produce an
average of 25 exhibitions a year, often on a schedule of 3 months prep
time. And I'm talking about some major loan shows from abroad, 200+
objects -- that sort of thing.

In short, I thought the trusty Museum-L crowd might have some
enlightening input on this...?  Thanks.

-------------------------------------
name: amalyah keshet
director, visual resources / the israel museum, jerusalem
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
date: 10/11/96
visit our Web site at http://www.imj.org.il
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