Exhibition making: stuff to know before you press go

I’ll unpack these elements in the order I usually approach them.

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Content  

I’m not just talking about the stories and which taonga/objects are involved. Who owns the story? Do we have the permission to tell it? And who is the right knowledge holder we should be consulting with?

 

Te Papa uses the Mana Taonga principle, which has been part of how Te Papa operates since its inception in 1992. Mana Taonga recognises the authority of the creator or maker, their right to speak to it, and rights of its use, and extends beyond Māori taonga. This principle is explained here by Migoto Eria: The mana of taonga and what it means for museums in Aotearoa | Te Papa Blog 

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In the case of the Worcester students, they weren’t proposing use of any taonga, but this prompt did get them thinking about what stories they have the authority to tell – especially as AI and data sovereignty was part of what they wanted to explore. 

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Audience  

The important thing with exhibition making is to remember that you are not your audience. As I touched on in 'Exhibition making: creating an interpretive feast', you aren’t making an exhibition for yourself to enjoy, you are making for visitors. 

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For any concept you need to ask yourself: Who is this for?  Defining a target audience can really help hone the final experience.

 

When you try to make an exhibition ‘for everyone’ you can end up with something mediocre. But if you narrow your field, whether it be to a particular demographic, social group, or a psychographic profile (we use the Morris Hargreaves McIntyre Culture Segments at Te Papa), you can create something far more impactful.  

You can target an experience by understanding their needs, addressing gaps in their knowledge, identifying opportunities for change, as well as knowing how to pitch the content and design. 

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Another question to ask: Why should the audience care? This can be uncomfortable to ask. If you are passionate and know heaps about coins minted in 1968 and want to put them on display in an exhibition, having someone ask why our audience should care about that can be confronting – that doesn’t mean the audience won’t care. In fact, when experts answer this question is often when we reveal a really foundational aspect of the concept. It is also usually when I start getting excited about possibilities!

  

This can be an opportune time to run some focus groups to learn directly from your audience why they care, if at all. And if not, help you find the hook to show them why they should care!

 

The Worcester students had already begun undertaking such research via visitor interviews about AI. This had shown that people who don’t know much about AI are more likely to be nervous of AI, so being able to answer this question was pretty important.

 

Outcomes 

This really leads on from ‘Why should they care?’ in that it is important to articulate what we want the target audience to get out of the exhibition experience. This could be what we want them to think, feel, or do.

 

When I was first mentored as an Experience Developer, I was encouraged to create a series of four or so audience outcomes in the form of statements that focus on changes in knowledge, emotion, behaviour, or skill. I’ve found this has been a useful tool to keep in my kete.

 

There’s lots written about creating audience outcomes, especially in the museum context. I’ve recently been brushing up on interpretive master planning and noted that chapter 4 of Interpretive Planning for Museums by Marcella Wells, Barbara H Butler, Judith Koke (2013) has some really great tips on crafting outcome statements that are measurable.

 

I like to start my outcomes with something like ‘After visiting this exhibition the audience will…’ 

…feel proud of their identity 

…see the world from a migrant perspective 

…make a pledge to compost food scraps 

…be able to make a paper airplane.

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The Worcester students wanted people to come away with a positive experience connected to AI, so focusing on more empowering and uplifting aspects was important for their outcome setting.

 

As a side note: Once you do start ideating, outcomes can be great check-in or measuring tool to ensure all elements of an exhibition have a purpose and are meeting your goals – especially when you hit those all too challenging points of editing or reducing the scope of work! 

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Organisational needs 

Understanding and meeting organisational needs can sometimes come first if you are working to a brief. Other times you may be needing to show how your concept meets such needs and need to do the work above (content, audience, outcomes) to answer that. 

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The types of questions I’d be looking to answer include: 

• Why should the organisation undertake this project? How does it align with the museum’s strategy, vision, and mission? 

• Does the organisation have any priorities or aspirations around audience or subject-matter that you need to consider? 

Then there’s the reality check of knowing any parameters such as delivery time, budget, location, human resourcing, and expectations around sustainable practice.

 

In the case of the Worcester students, they interviewed a range of Te Papa kaimahi to answer these questions and guide their approach. 

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Bring it all together 

Having all of this gathered before you begin ideating can set you up for success in terms of creating audience-centric experiences.

 

Being able to articulate this information not only consolidates your thinking, but can shape your approach to storytelling, design, interpretation, assist with onboarding others, and creating briefs.

 

The Worcester students’ final AI exhibition concept was to ‘tell the story of AI in the context of Aotearoa’. They identified their audience as New Zealanders. To answer my ‘why should they care?’ question, the students drew on their audience research to determine that they would need to set their concept in relevant context (i.e. Aotearoa New Zealand). Their audience research also showed them where there was the biggest gain to be made, and in sticking with the positive perspective they were seeking visitors to leave with, their outcome was: ‘encouraging visitors to recognize that frameworks and consistent collaboration can result in responsible AI use.’ 

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In two hours with these students, I was able to give them some fairly simple questions to answer to set them on a good path to creating an elevator pitch for an exhibition concept. 

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Content + Audience + Outcomes + Organisational needs = Experience 

This model is pretty simple and can be scaled up for a full exhibition, or down to a single exhibit or experience, but also slows you down from resolving a full concept in your head as the first way to pitch an audience-centred exhibition concept.