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Page 8 of 12
Label-writing Guidelines
Introduction
Many art museum visitors do not know enough about art to have a plan for their visit. About 80 percent report that they wander through a museum until something "catches their eye.”1 Their questions are likely to be limited to what things are, how they were used, what the artworks meant to their makers, and why such works are in a museum. Most visitors want their questions answered immediately and will not seek out information, because they consider museum-going a pleasurable leisure-time activity, not a goal-oriented learning experience.2 Most have had little or no specialized training in looking at art objects or learning from them. They need help to understand what they see.
The object label is the most common informational format in art museums and is located closest to works of art. Thus it is the principal source of information for most visitors. Labels should therefore address the broadest possible audience.
If object labels are to serve their purpose, visitors must read, understand, and remember them. This section of the book summarizes current research about how people learn in museums and outlines how labels can be written to help them learn. Sample labels illustrate concepts and formats. Although presented as an aid to preparing labels for works of art in the permanent collection, these principles may also be applied to labels for temporary exhibitions.
Audience
Who Is The Audience
This handbook addresses the needs of visitors with moderate to high interest in art but little or no formal background in art or art history. A profile of these "general visitors" is given in an NEA-funded study by the Denver Art Museum.3
General visitors commonly expect
- Works of art they find pleasing
- A social experience (most come in groups, often with one person as the reader/interpreter for the others4
- A personal association with the works of art
- Help in understanding the art they are viewing
- They are offended or intimidated by
- The implication that their feelings or opinions are wrong
- Incomprehensible jargon and foreign languages
- Inadequate or inappropriate information about artworks
Interpretation is most effective when it focuses on what visitors can see, understand, and respond to based on their own experiences. People learn by relating new ideas, information, or experiences to old ones. At each stage in the learning process they need to feel a sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, and control before they can proceed.5
Questions Visitors Often Ask
The following questions were compiled from evaluations conducted by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Denver Art Museum.6
What?
- What is it?
- What is the subiect?
- What does it mean?
- What were the artist's intentions?
- What was going on in the world when this was made?
Why?
- Why is it in a museum?
- Why is it great?
- Why does it look like that? (issues of condition, style, function, etc.)
- Why was the gallery organized this way?
Who?
- Who is/was the artist?
- Who was it made for?
- Who is represented?
How?
- How was it made?
- How was it used?
- How should I respond to it?
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