Amazing Spaces: an exploration of Exhibition Design with the Museums Association
This thought-provoking online conference (February 2023) emphasised the importance of exhibition design, especially given current opportunities for growth and evolution in the industry. Now, perhaps more than ever, exhibition design done right has the potential to create powerful and engaging experiences that break down barriers.
Two exhibitions presented on the day demonstrated rewarding engagement through storytelling, particularly by sharing previously untold female perspectives.
Bad Bridget at the Ulster American Folk Park (Omagh) advances the stories of ordinary women migrants for the first time. Not only telling important stories, but also using creative methods. The term ‘traces’ explains the use of past possessions, taking an innovative and personal outlook on traditional museum collections, where objects become a creative storytelling tool. Another striking element of this exhibit is the inventive use of smell, with bespoke scents evoking the memories and experiences of female migrants.
The Power of Stories in Colchester + Ipswich Museums (also touring Suffolk venues) positively incorporated the co-curation of designs, displaying costumes from Black Panther (Marvel) as a catalyst for telling real experiences of local Black women.
The project's purpose was to encourage honest conversation and challenging interpretation, finding that traditional museum practices often silence voices needing to be heard. By pushing curator voices to the background, instead allowing communities to tell their stories, audiences become better connected.
Image from powerofstories.co.uk