To Streak or Not to Streak

by: Stephanie Elliott- Curator

I get asked a lot about how we come up with the exhibits we do here at the museum. First you have to start with a topic. Easy enough, right? Well, then you have to decide how you are going to make that topic exciting and engaging for everyone from the 6 year old that is at the museum with his family to the person that was dragged along for the ride and doesn’t really want to be there.  It is our job as museum professionals to educate the public, but also to entertain them.  

So what kind of museum visitor are you?

Do you move quickly through exhibitions, scanning for points of particular interest, but rarely lingering for long? Then you are a streaker.  

Do you move more slowly, paying more attention or less at various places? Then you are a stroller.

Are you conscientious and diligent, moving very slowly through a gallery, trying everything and reading all of the text? Then you are a studier.

Now, I will admit that I have been one or all of these types of visitors in the past. “But you are a museum curator,” you say. I know, I know.  But sometimes an exhibit topic is just not that interesting to me or I’m just not in the mood to read every word on a text panel.  It’s okay to be a streaker sometimes.

So the trick to creating a great exhibit is to have something for everyone.  For example, in planning our current exhibit The Evolution of Recorded Sound, we wanted to include smaller interesting facts that a “streaker” could take away and have a broad sense of what the exhibit was about, but also include the nitty-gritty history for the avid phonograph or record player buff.  We also included several hands-on stations for kids to help occupy them while their parents are reading about the 1900s phonograph or reminiscing about their youth listening to a record player.  

Obviously there is a lot more that goes into the exhibit planning process – a lot of brainstorming sessions, research, budgets, fundraising, and designing – but it is always an exciting process and we hope that each exhibit we do appeals to our broad audience of interested (and sometimes not so interested) visitors. Plus, we are always looking for new ideas for exhibits, so if you have any please share with us in the comment section!