EFFECTIVE EXHIBITIONS SHOULD [FILL IN THE BLANK].

Have you created an approach to exhibition design that has scored exceptionally high with both staff and visitors? Crafted text using a format that has yielded consistently high levels of visitor comprehension? Thought long and hard about how the most effective exhibitions of the future might act, and how they might differ from today's best practices?

At their best, exhibitions can bring diverse people together in a shared space to offer inspiration and revelation, promote critical thinking, provoke new ideas, encourage action, foster community-building, enhance learning, create meaningful moments with lasting impressions-and much more. While exhibitions are often described as an institution's most public face, the COVID-19-incurred closings of the past two years-with visitors unable to visit physical exhibitions in person-may have challenged this assumption.

With AAM's Standards for Museum Exhibitions and Indicators of Excellence last revised nearly a decade ago, this issue encourages practitioners to consider the role, impact, and effectiveness of exhibitions today: are the current notions about audience awareness, evaluation, content, collections use, interpretation, design and production, and comfort/safety/accessibility the best, or only, indicators of an effective exhibition?

Proposals for articles (about physical exhibitions) might explore methods for making design and content more effective-or define/redefine benchmarks for effectiveness. They might focus on one or multiple specific goals; for example: spur imagination; reduce bias; better reflect our diverse population; create calls to action; reach new audiences; strengthen community ties; provide more comprehensive accessibility-or something else. Proposals might also make connections between exhibitions and models from beyond the museum world.

Proposals can focus on a specific exhibition or provide an overview of exhibitions and practices. The exhibitions discussed can be of any size or budget and be created by or for museums of all disciplines, historical sites, galleries, institutions that collect and display living collections, or others. Proposals might come from designers, architects, developers, interpretive planners, curators, writers, educators, or others who create and contribute to exhibitions. In all cases, accepted authors will be expected to write articles that illuminate larger issues; are descriptive and critical and analytical; and evaluation, even if informal, must evidence arguments for the strengths and weaknesses of a project.

HOW TO WRITE A PROPOSAL

There are two parts to a proposal (which must be submitted as a Word doc):

1) a description of the proposed article

The description (250 words max) should do the following:

• convey the author's/authors' thesis and how the proposed article would relate to the issue's theme;

• indicate the approaches, strategies, or knowledge that readers would take away from the article;

• convey how the article would raise questions or illuminate larger issues that are widely applicable (especially if the proposal focuses on a single project);

• take into account that articles will be expected to provide critical, candid discussions about issues and challenges; and

• include a proposed title.

2) a brief bio for each author.

Please provide a brief bio (no more than a paragraph) for each author that describes your background and your qualifications for writing the article (please do not include resumes or cvs).

Deadlines and Information

Proposals are due Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

Our editorial advisory board will vet proposals in a blind review, and you will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance or non acceptance in late January/early February 2022. Articles of 2,000 words maximum will be due in early April 2022.

PLEASE SEND ALL PROPOSALS FOR "PUTTING CHILDREN FIRST" VIA EMAIL TO:

Ellen Snyder-Grenier, Editor, Exhibition at: esnydergrenier@yahoo.com. Submissions from colleagues and students around the world are welcomed and encouraged. 

Press Release