Hi Jean,
I'm the exhibits writer-editor at the National Air and Space Museum. Among
other things, I'm in charge of editing all label scripts for our museum.
Our exhibit process is sort of in flux at the moment as well, but it has
traditionally worked in the following way?not that this is necessarily the
best approach. The curator or curators write a script, then we have a big
review meeting on it (involving the museum director and various pertinent
department heads and team members), after which the script either goes back
to the curators if extensive revisions are needed or is passed on to me for
editing. I work one-on-one with the curator or curators at that point to
hone the script, which often involves much more than just grammar and
spelling. Then we circulate the script for final approval up the chain of
command.
I'm not sure who takes part in your "editing group." (Is that really more
of a review group? I don't think of editing as a group function, but maybe
that's just because that's not quite how I work.) But I think the exhibit
designer should be a part of the process from the start. It helps
enormously to have a designer doing preliminary layouts of objects and
labels as you develop a script to help you determine where problems in
organization and presentation lie. In my experience, we get better results
when design and script development proceed hand in hand than when a
designer is simply handed a completed script. Testing problematic labels
or exhibit panels as you go helps a lot too.
As for who in particular should be involved, I guess that depends a lot on
your own group dynamics and politics. I do think a curator (certainly the
lead curator) should be involved in any decisions regarding content at
every stage.
In regard to the comment by Dave Maschino, the concept of having a
sheriff--someone whom everyone agrees has final say over disagreements--is
important. Who is in charge of the process--who has authority to decide
yes or no--is sometimes a fuzzy issue here, and that can lead to problems.
David Romanowski
Exhibits Writer-Editor
National Air and Space Museum
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Jean Reynolds
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Sent by: Museum Subject: question about editing process for labels
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02/01/02 11:25 AM
Please respond to Museum
discussion list
Hello everyone. I am brand new to the list. I am guessing this is a
question which may have been kicked around before, but here goes:
I work at a museum in the Phoenix, AZ area and we are currently working on
a pretty big exhibit related to late 20th century Arizona history. I am one
of the curators of History in the museum (there are 2 of us). Our job is
mainly to research, write labels, help plan the exhibits, etc.
The staff has been in discussion about the label editing process.
Currently, a draft of a set of labels for a certain section is circulated
among a small group of staff, who then comment on the labels in a group
meeting. We (the curators) revise the labels based on suggestions. The
discussion now is, before it goes to an outside editor to check for
spelling and grammar errors and such, should there be a final editing
group, of 3 to 4 people, who take any further comments from staff as well
as from the public ( for labels that are tested), and edit further.
The second question is, should the 2 curators of History be involved in
that smaller editing group? I would be inclined to say, well, yes of
course. But others on staff say that only one history curator or maybe even
neither of them should be in the final edit group.
The museum seems to be struggling with the concept of how to make the
exhibit a team process. We have done things differently before, but now we
have new leadership in various positions in the museum, and they are trying
to implement different procedures.
I would like to send this out for feedback from anyone who might like to
respond.
Thanks, Jean
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