Behind the Scenes at a Museum

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Researchers help communicate knowledge from their fields in many ways. One way is through museums—which can help a broad audience to learn about research.

A course that I teach includes material about museums. Last week the class visited a museum. We met with the curator, who is in charge of the exhibits. We also saw an exhibit titled “Genome: The Secret of How Life Works”.

Here are some things we learned from the curator:

• Exhibit topics come from various sources. These include advisory groups, the curator, and companies producing exhibits.
• Because museum exhibits are expensive, fundraising is important.
• The design process has many aspects. Examples can include sketching the exhibit, using computer-aided design to see what it will look like in 3 dimensions, and choosing colors.
• The production process also has many aspects, such as preparing display cases, providing suitable lighting, and writing labels. The text of labels generally must be short, so visitors can read it quickly.
• Different visitors have different ways of going through exhibits. Ideally, an exhibit has “something for everyone”.

Researchers can have important roles regarding museum exhibits. For example, researchers at our university helped ensure that information in the genome exhibit was up-to-date. They also helped develop displays about genome-related work at the university.

Some AuthorAID members have been involved with museums. Such involvement uses some of the same knowledge and skills as doing and reporting research. It can help introduce research to the public.

Until the next post—

Barbara