Speaking of "curator heavy" exhibitions, I was at a museum recently that had
intro labels upwards of nine to twelve paragraphs long, between four and
five feet high, some spread over two columns. And the language was somewhere
between tenth grade and sophomore college. As a B.A. and M.A. graduate, I
feel I have a pretty strong vocabulary, yet there were words that I
scratched my head over and wished I had a dictionary handy.

This museum just has not yet grasped the concept of multi-layered exhibit
text. There were no "B" level labels - just the (very long) intro and fairly
succinct (yet still unapproachable) object label copy.

But the list of similar museums goes on and on...


George Garner
Director of Exhibitions
Center for History
808 West Washington, South Bend, IN 46601
www.centerforhistory.org // (574) 235-9664


--------
Celebrate Founders Month in August at the Center for History with a visit to
the exhibitions, From Southold to South Bend and New Order on the Land.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lisa Holley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: Poor Exhibit Label Text


| Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but in
| one of the exhibit cases at National Museum of the
| American Indian, the exhibit labels do not correspond
| with the artifacts. They were installed opposite, the
| labels read one way and the artifacts go the other.
|
|
|
| --- Pete Salmon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
|
| > Would you like to share examples of poor label text
| > you have come across.  I have been compiling
| > examples for a future presentation.
| > Thanks!
| >
| > Pete Salmon
| > Interpretive Planner
| > [log in to unmask]
| >
| >
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