Planning and Managing an Exhibition Programme

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o Teom 6,lnterpretotive Medio ond Progrommes, created value-added interpretative products using the primary obiect information within the conceptual framework established by Team 2.This included all label texg printed materials, gallery guides, video, audio and interactive, as well as development of related special programs including performances, lectures, curricula, docent tours and others.This group served as liaison to the museum board's Bicentennial Program Committee. fs E i tr . Team T,Morketing and Merchondisng, developed all materials and products that promoted Odyssey and co-ordinated these with the museum's overall marketing and positioning straEegy. . Teom 8, Development ond Events, planned and implemented exhibition-related development fundraising and events. This team co-ordinated its work with ongoing fundraising activities and worked closely with the board's Bicentennial Events Committee. Odysseywas introduced in East India Marine Hall, a grand 4OO0 fii (372 m') Federal interior, completed in 1825 as the first permanent home of the museum. lt was in this hall that the captain entrepreneurs who founded the museum met and displayed their original collections. They were among the first people to experience the entire world's tremendous cultural and artistic'diversity. For Odyssey,the hall was installed to evoke foreign iourneys and experiences that changed and influenced the founders so profoundly. East India Marine Hall was designed as a period re-creation showcasing nearly 200 diverse objects collected by the founders in distant lands. Many were mounted in the original display furniture, then called 'cabinets of curiosities'. For Odyssey, the room functioned as it did in the early 19th century enabling visitors to appreciate and be awed by the amazing diversity of the world and demonstrating the founders' conviction to educate and enlighten in new ways. Originally East India Marine Hall's large gallery also served as a social space, a place for meetings and banguets and celebration. Odyssey sought to do the same 200 years later when the great hall served as the venue for a series of major bicentennial events including a gala ball, celebrity lectures, world music and dance performances and other programmes. In many ways East India Marine Hall embodied a vital connection to the enduring legacy of the founders' vision and values. THEMES Odyssey's three main themes were 'Encountering Place', 'Encountering People', and 'Encountering the Spiritual'. Running like threads through each were core ideas that tied the whole exhibition together.These were t}at every object exhibited represents the maker's desire to transcend boundaries, whether it is a work of fine art or an artful functional object. These creations take both maker and viewer beyond the limits of the material world and into the realms of the aesthetic, the conceptual, the intellectual, or the metaphysical. Each act of creation entails its own unique journey,a journey driven by curiosity and fulfilled by discovery. Each individual who interacts with a created object continues that journey, a journey guided by that individual's own background, knowledge and emotions.To Odyssey, visitors brought their own experience and understanding as they explored both the rich diversity of human beings and the ties that unite them. In each of the three sections, the theme was stated neither explicitly nor didactically.The visitor was encouraged to explore the art, to look for the imprint of the artist reflected in THE MANUAL OF MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
) Products blished by audio and ormances, e museum promoted rositioning ,on-related :h ongoing lommittee. 'al interior, all that the :ollections. :ultural and rxPeriences rs designed lounders in cabinets of ry, enabling nonstrating rdia Marine nquets and lrved as the :ures, world Marine Hall 'alues. €ople', and :hat tied the the maker's ional obiect. rrld and into . Each act of >y discovery. rrney guided ors brought ty of human acticallY. The ; reflected in the skill and originality with which the work was executed; to look for clues of place and time reflected in the style and medium; to look for a spiritual or metaphysical viewpoint reflected in the culture and in the purpose for which the work was intended. Unique groupings, arrangements and juxtapositions of objects, as well as the text labeling identifying objects, were all designed to subtly stimulate awareness of the myriad interconnections among the works. This mandated a new approach to the selection and display of collections which is illustrated in this example from 'Encountering Place', a thematic area that included landscapes and depictions of the natural world,which allowed visitors to consider place and to try to discover the artisr's view of the landscape. Two paintings juxtaposed on a single wall were a 1795 oil by Dutch artist Franz Balthazar Solvyns, Lounching of Gabriel GIIete\ Armed Merchontmon,and contemporary native American artist David Bradley's lndion CountryTodoy.The former is a shorefront scene in colonial Calcutta showing a ship launching attended by a great multitude, but with the European shipt owner and a few upper-class lndians set apart. The latter, a contemporary American painting is of a southwestern Pueblo viewed from above showing a sacred dance performed within the Pueblo while mining, gaming, military manoeuvres and other encroachments threaten from outsideJhe visitor can make comparisons at many levels. They are both visually striking works and superbly executed.They both convey a very still, quiet, peaceful overall atmosphere,yet they show loci of concentrated activity within them. They are both about'lndians', and can be interpreted as statements about colonialism and dominadon, each from its artist! own point of view. Yet, the paintings interact and influence each other both visually, by virtue of dominant yellows in each palette, and intellectually; for example, the overt satire and pessimism expressed in Indion CountyTodoy can be transposed to the Solvyns painting where it would not have existed if viewed by itself.The Solvyns is also a self-portrait, which bridges into the self-portraiture theme developed in the next section of the exhibition,'Encountering People'. NEWTECHNOLOGIES A central objective of Odyssey was to create stimulating educational and recreational experiences thatwere multi-sensory and provocative.To achieve it,audio,video and interactive media were extensively used in the exhibition, marking a dramatic departure from previous Peabody Essex Museum exhibitions.There follow some examples: o r Multiple media components were located in each gallery of the exhibition. A large-screen, rear projection DVD theatre was located just before the entry into East. India Marine Hall.A four-minute introductory video presented a fast-paced series of animated images and music selections that introduced the diversiry of the work and cultures showcased in Odyssey.Very brief narration introduced the three main sections of the exhibition. A visual database with a detailed record for each of the 400 works in the exhibition was developed on CD-ROM for installation on 19 in (48 cm) touch-screen, PC-based kiosks. Kiosks were installed at various locations in the Odyssey galleries, programmed identically to allow visitors in any gallery to navigate through the entire exhibition virtually, in search of detailed information on any work.The individual object screens included at least one large image of the work and extensive textual information. ln many cases,additional views PLANNING AND MANAGING AN EXHIBITION PROGMMME 273
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