I would agree with David's comments and, if I may, paraphrase them thusly:
"If you try to be all things to all people, you end up being nothing to
nobody."

Museums (indeed, all organizations and businesses) need to figure out the
one or two things they can do well, and try to do those as best they can.
Perhaps limited resources sometimes force us to establish fairly modest
goals.  That is unfortunate, but better to do one small thing really well
than to do several big things poorly.

Case-in-point: the "in-depth labels" advocated in one post would be very
beneficial to perhaps 1% of our visitors (if that), but would be a barrier
to learning for the other 99%.  Perhaps serving that 1% is the thing you can
do really well.  So be it.  But I think most of us would rather put our
first efforts into reaching the 99%, and have other resources for those who
wish to go further.

What kind of resources?  Depends on the institution, the subject matter, the
visitor, the question.  There is no "one-size-fits-all" solution.  Do the
best you can with what you got.  Maybe for one museum that's better docent
training; maybe for another it's a curator or librarian always available;
maybe for another it's a highly-responsive comment card program.  Probably
it's a combination of these and more.

A couple specific comments:

Erin states most exhibits have published catalogs.  This has not been my
experience, particularly in science, nature, and children's museums.  It is
probably more common in art and, perhaps, history museums.

A collections manager suggested not putting an object on display unless
everything was already known about it.  This raises the interesting
epistemological question of how one defines "everything" (or even how one
defines "know").  But I am curious: would similar restriction apply to
collections?  May no object enter the collection unless "everything" was
already known about it?

Just trying to keep my feet on the ground while reaching for the stars...

-- Gene


Eugene Dillenburg
Lead Exhibit Developer
Philippines Coral Reef Exhibit
John G. Shedd Aquarium
1200 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Ill.  60605

V: (312) 692-3136
F: (312) 939-8001

"The day is fast approaching, if indeed it is not already here, when 51% of
all museum directors will be able to remember making out to Led Zeppeling in
high school."

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