Mary
The Natural History Museum in London, UK has used background sound in
an Art exhibition recently in our Jerwood Gallery. For William
MacGillivray, Scottish natural history artist, a soundtrack was
edited together consisting of birds song, Scottish folk music,
together with sound effects of wind, meadows, and the sea. This
proved very popular with visitors, adding a contextual background to
view the Victorian paintings and helping to lighten the reverence
sometimes found in art exhibitions. The duration is important, ours
was on continuous play but about 20 mins long so as not to drive the
gallery guides up the wall. This was put together in-house taking
care to blend the sounds so there was nothing too distracting, ie.
the Gannet got toned down a lot, and before anyone asks; there were
no bagpipes.
Regards
Simon


>
>
>>Have any of the art museum folks out there made attempts to have
>>recorded music in your galleries on a daily basis for the run of an
>>exhibit?  If so what have your responses been from your audience?
>>Your board?  Has there been a problem with choosing music to suit a
>>range of visitors?  If you have not done this but considered it
>>what has held you back?  I am a curator at a community art museum
>>of American art and our board and director want to consider adding
>>music or other sounds to our exhibits so I thought I would put the
>>question out on the museum discussion list and see what all of you
>>wonderful professionals had to say.  Many thanks!Mary Agnes Beach
>>Curator of Exhibitions and Collections
>>Hickory Museum of Art
>>Box 2572  Hickory, NC  28603
>>828-327-8576  X 203
>>fax 327-7281
>><http://www.hickorymuseumofart.org>www.hickorymuseumofart.org

--
Simon Caslaw
Exhibition officer
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Rd. South Kensington, London SW7 5BD UK

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020 7942 5068

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