Planning and Managing an Exhibition Programme

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T E$ s a r F*+.: Britain), which has been presented as an annual temporary exhibition with a highly public opening and reviews. Such an approach is to be preferred to the very limited replacement of particular objects that can be one result of an unplanned approach to permanent collection displaS and is often hardly noticed by the visiting public. However often they are changed, and however they are arranged, it is useful to calculate the display density of the permanent collections. This may be expressed either as how many objects are on display per ftz or m2 of gallery space' or vice versa, how many ft2 or m2 per object on display - since postage stamps will be better expressed in the former mode, while locomotives can be more conveniently discussed in the latter. Display density varies not only with the size of the objects on displaS but also with the mode of exhibition used, and the mode of visitor apprehension (as described in secrion 2.3) that is preferred for each section of the collection. Planning and managing permanent collection display is ultimately about deciding which modes to employ in what measure: o o o o o aesthetic displays that generally have the lowest density thematic exhibits that emphasise comparisons and context room settings that often group many objects in their original historic densities visible srorage displays that usually attain about two-thirds of the density of closed storage combinations of several or all of these in order to give the visitor the greatest variety of experience, with multiple opportunities to appreciate the collection in many ways. An advantage of planning to change permanent collection displays in an existing museum is that there is usually an exhibition already there - indeed, it may have long since passed its reasonable life expectancy! This provides the opportunity for ongoing evaluation by all the means discussed in chapter 4, and for testing responses to the results of that evaluation process. In fact, the planning and management of the permanent collection display can and should become an ongoing process of evaluation and refinement of changes made in response to the results of evaluation. In this way a museum can truly become audience-responsiue and uisitor-centred, while at the same time ensuring that the value of its permanent collection is fully realised. In order to accomplish such an ongoing practice, it is necessary first to plan permanent collection displays responsibly in terms of their 'life expectancy'. Too often displays that looked good originally and in their first five years are left standing ten or 266 THE MANUAL OF MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
with a highly re very limited d approach to ; public. it is useful to rpressed either ice versa, how :r expressed in d in the latter. but also with s described in and managing ; to employ in 'ic densities nsity of closed ;reatest variety ction in many in an existing nay have long ty for ongoing iponses to the lement of the s of evaluation . In this way a ile at the same fifteen years later. A well-planned permanent collection display programme has assigned 'expiry dates' for each gallery. This in turn can only be done if a reasonable budget for exbibition reneual canbe projected with some confidence. The cost of exhibition renewal can be projected on the basis of present exhibition costs, remembering of course that they are stated in the currency values of that year, and allowing for whatever enhancements are proposed. Permanent collection exhibition renewal costs should be allocated as a budget item separate from the maintenance costs for the existing permanent collection displaS and from the temporary exhibition budget. An amount can be calculated in constant currency as a percentage for annual renewal - for instance, a 20,000 ft2 (2,000 m2) gallery can be projected for annual renewal at a 1,0 per cent rate, meaning that the cost of 2,000 ftz (200 m2) should be projected for each year of the exhibitiont intended over-all ten-year life expectancy. This does not mean that a tenth of the exhibition must be changed each year: rather, such a plan might assume that in year 5 half of the gallery will be replaced, if half of the exhibits are planned for only five years, or even that in year 10 the entire gallery will be replaced. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that the funds are provided on an annual incremental basis, so that the museum does not face a huge capital cost at the end of the exhibition's life span. Such long-range budget provisions present challenges for public institutions with annual return of funds to general accounts, but if possible a method should be found to provide for this kind of ongoing refreshment of the permanent collection displays. The following case study 8.1 describes the analysis and subsequent display of the permanent collection of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusens in a particularly striking new exhibition called Odyssey that brought out the strengths of that museum's remarkable and varied collection. r first to plan rcy'. Too often tanding ten or PLANNING AND MANAGING AN EXHIBITION PROGMMME
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Planning and Managing an Exhibition Programme

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