What is the theme for this exhibition? Here are list of ideas to help you: Impressionism, history of women in art, printmaking, African art, exploring identity in art, early American art, etc. Make sure your theme is broad enough that you can find examples, but not so broad that you have too many works to choose from.
For example: Printmaking (A VERY large pool of work to choose from) vs. contemporary silk screen rock posters (a smaller, more specific pool).
Step 2: Selecting works
What works of art are you going to include in your exhibit that best illustrate your theme? You must pick at least 8 works.
To find works of art to include, you will use the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s online collection. Here is the link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?showOnly=highlights%7CwithImage%7CopenAccess&offset=0&pageSize=0&sortBy=Relevance&sortOrder=asc&perPage=20&searchField=All
Step 3: Think of your audience
When designing your exhibition, always keep your viewer in mind.
Who is your audience for this exhibition? How do you plan to appeal to your intended audience?
Step 4: Design choices
The design of your exhibition will influence how the viewer walks through, views, and understand the works of art.
Question 1: Do you plan to display the art salon style or with a center line? Why?
Center Line
The institutional standard
Artworks are hung with the center of the artwork hitting between 54” and 62”
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Salon Style
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• Artworks are hung from ceiling to floor and fill the entire wall.
Question 2: Which of your chosen works will act as the anchor piece? (Look above at the vocabulary for help).
Question 3: What is the exact order you would like your viewers to see your 8 chosen works?
Step 5: Informing your viewers
Lastly, viewers need to understand the context and theme of your exhibition. Many curator do this by writing introductory text that is placed on a wall near the start of entrance to the exhibit. You will also write labels for the works in the exhibit.
Write the introductory text for your exhibition. It must be 6 sentences long. Keep in mind, you are writing this text with your intended audience in mind.
You will also write a label for 4 of the 8 works that you chose. Your label for the anchor piece must be 4 sentences long, and your label for the other three works must be at least two sentences long. In these labels you are explaining how the work demonstrates your theme. Do not copy and past info from the Met's website.
