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MANUAL OF
MUSEUM
EXHIBITIONS
MARIA PIACENTE
THIRD EDITION
A Lord Cultural Resources Book
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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Acquisitions Editor: Charles Harmon
Editorial Assistant: Erinn Slanina
Sales and Marketing Inquiries: textbooks@rowman.com
Credits and acknowledgments for material borrowed from other sources, and
reproduced with permission, appear on the appropriate pages within the text.
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE
Copyright © 2022 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Cover image courtesy of Smithsonian National Museum of African American
History and Culture
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Piacente, Maria, author.
Title: Manual of museum exhibitions / Maria Piacente.
Description: Third edition. | Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2022] | “A
Lord cultural resources book.” | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034056 (print) | LCCN 2021034057 (ebook) | ISBN
9781538152805 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538152812 (paperback) | ISBN
9781538152829 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Museum exhibits—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Museum
exhibits—Planning—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Classification: LCC AM151 .M34 2022 (print) | LCC AM151 (ebook) | DDC
069/.5—dc23
LC record available at https:/
/lccn.loc.gov/2021034056
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/lccn.loc.gov/2021034057
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
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iii
Contents
Foreword ix
Gail Dexter Lord
Preface xi
Maria Piacente
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Exhibition Development Process 1
Maria Piacente
PART I: WHY?
Chapter 2 Museums and Their Exhibitions 7
Brad King
2.1. The Trust Factor 8
2.2. Exhibitions as Agents of Transformation 8
2.3. Museums as Activist Institutions 10
2.4. Corporate Sponsorship: How Close is Too Close? 12
2.5. The Way Forward 13
Chapter 3 Where Do Exhibition Ideas Come From? 17
Barry Lord (updated by Maria Piacente)
3.1. Research-Based and Market-Driven Exhibitions 18
3.2. Planning for Exhibition Research 18
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iv Contents
PART II: WHERE?
Chapter 4 Exhibition Facilities 25
Sean Stanwick and Heather Maximea
4.1. A World of Exhibition Spaces 26
4.2. Developing Design Criteria for Exhibition Spaces 27
4.3. Exhibition Space Characteristics 37
4.4. Exhibition Gallery Security 51
4.5. Accessibility, Adjacency, and Circulation 55
PART III: WHAT?
Chapter 5 Permanent Collection Exhibitions 61
Katherine Molineux
5.1. Planning for Permanent Collection Exhibitions 61
5.2. Changing Permanent Collection Displays 63
5.3. Interpreting Collections 64
5.4. Modes of Display 66
Chapter 6 It’s Not Always about Collections 73
Katherine Molineux
6.1. Idea Exhibitions 73
6.2. Children’s Exhibitions 76
6.3. Living History Exhibitions 79
6.4. Science Exhibitions 81
6.5. Digital Immersive Exhibitions 83
Case Study: Weston Family Innovation Learning Centre, Terms of
Engagement at the Ontario Science Centre, by Lesley Lewis and
Kevin von Apen 85
Chapter 7 Virtual Exhibitions 89
Sarah Hill
7.1. What is a Virtual Exhibition? 89
7.2. Why Develop a Virtual Exhibition? 90
7.3. Thinking About Digital Audiences 95
7.4. Virtual Exhibition Considerations 99
7.5. Virtual Exhibition Development Process 111
7.6. Tips for Smaller Museums that Want to go Digital 112
Case Study: Extending the Life of a Traveling Exhibition,
Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, United States 113
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Contents v
Chapter 8 Temporary Exhibitions 119
Maria Piacente and Katherine Molineux
8.1 Types of Exhibitions in a Temporary Exhibition Program 120
8.2 Managing a Temporary Exhibition Program 125
8.3 Making Space for Temporary Exhibitions 127
8.4 Public and Educational Programming 129
8.5 Marketing and Public Relations 129
8.6 Funding and Resourcing a Temporary Exhibition Program 130
8.7 Generating Revenue 131
Chapter 9 Traveling Exhibitions 133
Maria Piacente
9.1 Why Create a Traveling Exhibition Program? 134
9.2 Strategize for Success 135
9.3 Staff and Professional Resources 137
9.4 Loan Agreements 138
9.5 Designing and Preparing an Exhibition for Travel 139
9.6 Managing the Tour 141
9.7 Borrowers and Organizers 144
Case Study: Natural History Museum London’s Touring Exhibition
Program, An Interview with Jan English, Head of Touring Exhibitions 145
Interview: Traveling Exhibitions in a Changing World, with Antonio
Rodriguez, Chairman of the Board, International Committee for
Exhibition Exchange (ICOM, ICEE) 148
PART IV: WHO?
Chapter 10 Exhibitions and Diversity, Equality, Accessibility, and Inclusion 153
Maria Piacente and Karen Carter
10.1 Implications for Exhibitions 154
10.2 Reflections: Fulfillment of Our Promise 157
Case Study: Activating Change: DEAI, Community, and Evaluation,
An Interview with Cheryl Blackman, Director of Museums and
Heritage Services for the City of Toronto, Canada 160
Chapter 11 Curiosity and Motivation 165
Shiralee Hudson Hill and Barbara Soren
11.1 Cultivating Curiosity 165
11.2 Learning and Exhibitions 169
11.3 Understanding Audience Experiences, Motivations,
and Preferences in Exhibitions 171
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vi Contents
Chapter 12 Evaluation 177
Gail Lord, Duncan Grewcock, Barbara Soren, and Jackie Armstrong
12.1 Measuring Success by Gail Lord 177
12.2 Before, During, and After: Front-End, Formative, Remedial,
and Summative Evaluation by Duncan Grewcock 179
12.3 Qualitative and Quantitative Audience by Barbara Soren
and Jackie Armstrong 187
Case Study: University of Michigan Museum of Natural History Front-End
and Formative Visitor Study Using Multiple Methods by Barbara Soren 201
PART V: HOW?
Chapter 13 Roles and Responsibilities 211
Maria Piacente
13.1 Who’s Involved in the Exhibition Process? 211
13.2 Teams and Committees 215
13.3 Contracting Expertise 217
13.4 Making Decisions 217
Case Study: Oakland Museum of California Exhibition Process
with Valerie Huaco, Deputy Director and Chief Content Officer 218
Case Study: Roles and Responsibilities in a Small Museum:
The Central Bank Museum of Trinidad and Tobago 221
Chapter 14 Preparing the Exhibition Brief 223
Maria Piacente and John Nicks
14.1 Formulating the Exhibition Concept 223
14.2 Exhibition Brief 226
Case Study: Canada Day 1 Traveling Exhibition 231
Chapter 15 Interpretive Planning 233
Maria Piacente
15.1 Preplanning, Research, and Visioning 236
15.2 Interpretive Strategy 237
15.3 Organizational and Thematic Frameworks 239
15.4 Organizational and Thematic Frameworks from around the World 241
15.5 Communication Objectives/Visitor Outcomes 248
15.6 Interpretive Plan 249
Case Study: University of Michigan Museum of Natural History,
Exploring Michigan 250
Case Study: Capitol Visitor Center Exhibition Hall, Washington, DC:
Excerpts from the Interpretive Plan 253
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Contents vii
Chapter 16 Content Development 257
Lisa Wright
16.1 Research Planning 258
16.2 Collections Research and Selection 260
16.3 Exhibition Text by Patchen Barss 263
16.4 Image Research and Procurement 268
16.5 Hands-On Exhibits, Models, and Dioramas 273
16.6 Multimedia Exhibits 274
16.7 Subject Matter Experts 278
Case Study: Working with Subject Matter Experts: Canadian Museum
of Immigration at Pier 21, Halifax, Canada 279
16.8 Communities and Content 282
Case Study: Creating with Community The First Peoples Exhibition at
Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum, a Shared
Endeavor of Museums Victoria and the Victorian Aboriginal Community 283
Case Study: Indigenous-Led Design and Content Development:
Indigenous Peoples Garden, Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba 287
Chapter 17 Exhibition Design 289
Yvonne Tang and James Bruer
17.1 The Design Process 290
17.2 Exhibition Display Cases by Mike Chaplin 301
17.3 Lighting Design by Kevin Shaw 308
17.4 Green Design 314
Case Study: Exhibitions and Museums in India:
Challenges and Opportunities by Uttiyo Bhattacharya 317
Chapter 18 Graphic Design 319
Mary Yacob and Jacqueline Tang
18.1 Semiotics in Design 319
18.2 Graphic Design Phases 321
18.3 Graphic Design Elements 323
18.4 Color 330
18.5 Imagery 333
18.6 Design Essentials 333
Chapter 19 Multimedia 335
Cory Timpson
19.1 Strategic Role 336
19.2 Types of Multimedia 337
19.3 Operationalizing Multimedia 351
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viii Contents
Case Study: Rights of Passage Exhibition at Canadian Museum
for Human Rights 356
Case Study: Mandela: Struggle for Freedom Traveling Exhibition 360
Chapter 20 Fabrication and Installation 363
Erich Zuern
20.1 Who Will Produce the Exhibition? 363
20.2 Design-Bid-Build or Design-Build: What’s the Difference? 364
20.3 Contracting 366
20.4 The Production Process 368
20.5 Tracking and Scheduling 375
20.6 Warranty 376
Case Study: Creative Contracting by the North Dakota Heritage Center &
State Museum by Erich Zuern and Genia Hesser 377
Chapter 21 Financial Planning 379
Erich Zuern
21.1 Creating an Exhibition Budget 379
21.2 Direct Exhibition Costs 384
21.3 Related Exhibition Costs 386
21.4 Managing the Budget 387
Case Study: Budget Stretching with In-Kind Contributions 389
Chapter 22. Effective Exhibition Project Management 391
Robert LaMarre
22.1 The Role of Project Management and Why it is Needed 392
22.2 A Team Effort 392
22.3 Applying Project Management Methodology 394
22.4 Certifications and Continuous Learning 403
22.5 Completing the Tasks 403
Chapter 23 Conclusion: The Future of Exhibition-Making 405
Gail Dexter Lord
Glossary 411
Select Bibliography 425
Index 437
About the Editor 457
About the Contributors 459
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ix
Foreword
Gail Dexter Lord
The foreword to the third edition of the Manual of Museum Exhibitions was written during Lord
Cultural Resources’ fortieth anniversary. While writing Planning our Museums,1
which turned out
to be the first book on museum planning, Barry Lord and I founded Lord Cultural Resources. The
premise of that book was simple but new: “Museums are for people.” This idea quickly found
support around the world because a new generation of museum workers, managers, leaders, and
supporters had already decided that museums were for people and wanted to find systematic
ways of implementing the idea through planning. And so, the idea grew into a series of museum
manuals2
on planning, management, exhibitions, learning, and strategic planning.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce this third edition of the Manual of Museum Exhibitions,
which ushers in a new generation of museum leaders through the visionary and capable edito-
rial direction of Maria Piacente, who has directed exhibitions and event projects for more than
a quarter century. Maria has realized exhibitions in museums around the world, bringing an
exceptional experience to this volume as reflected in the breadth of its contributors, range of
topics, and level of practical detail. Above all, Maria brings a respect for cultural diversity, which
is essential to the success of the museum exhibition as a communication medium.
Thank you to Maria Piacente and the contributors to this new edition of the Manual of Museum
Exhibitions, which is destined to be a classic.
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x Foreword
NOTES
1. Barry Lord and Gail Dextor Lord, eds. Planning Our Museums / National Museums of Canada (Ottawa,
Canada: Museums Assistance Programme, National Museums of Canada, 1983).
2. Gail Dextor Lord, The Manual of Museum Planning (London: Stationary Office Books, 1999, 1st Edition;
2003, 2nd Edition; 2012; 3rd Edition); Gail Dextor Lord, The Manual of Museum Management (London:
Stationary Office Books, 1997, 1st Edition, reprinted 1998; 2009, 2nd Edition); Gail Dextor Lord, Man-
ual of Museum Exhibitions (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2001, 1st Edition; 2014, 2nd Edition; 2021 3rd
Edition); Gail Dextor Lord, The Manual of Strategic Planning for Museums (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press,
2007); Barry Lord, The Manual of Museum Learning (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2007, 1st Edition;
2015, 2nd Edition); Ali Houssani and Ngaire Blakenberg, Manual of Digital Museum Planning (Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017); Gail Dextor Lord and Kate Market, The Manual of Strategic Planning
for Cultural Organizations (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2017).
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xi
Preface
Maria Piacente
When I began contemplating a third edition to the Manual of Museum Exhibitions, I thought my
biggest challenge was going to be addressing the mounting complexity and cost of technology
and the growing desire for digital and immersive experiences in addition to exploring trends in
visitor centered approaches to exhibition development. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck in
early 2020 and the world changed. What did this mean for the role of exhibitions? Would the
“blockbuster” as we know it ever make its return, and if so in what form? How would design
address the new reality of physical distancing and what would it mean to “interact” in a gallery
in the short and long term?
Massive protests also marked societal change as people rightly demanded equality, inclusion, and
justice in the antiracism movements that began in the United States and sparked a movement
worldwide. In Hong Kong, young leaders protested for democracy and freedom, reminding us of
the ongoing changes triggered by the Arab Spring and #MeToo movements.
It’s not enough just to present the information—museums are taking a stand—entering the realm
of advocacy and reinforcing that “truth” must be sought in facts, science, and public discourse.
As museums shine a critical light on their practice and the way in which they engage with diverse
communities, how will the relationship between the visitor, the object, and the story change?
Despite these seismic changes and pressures, I still believe that all museum activities, from
research and conservation to education and outreach, converge in the very public forum of the
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xii Preface
exhibition. Since the previous manual was published in 2014, new types of experience-driven
venues have surfaced, drawing on the core of what makes museum experiences unique—
authenticity—while building on the public’s desire for storytelling, full-body immersive, and
singular cross-disciplinary collaborations.
From the very first version of the publication, visitors have always been at the core of the Manual
of Museum Exhibitions. What has become clear is that visitor-centricity has become even more
prevalent as museums and art galleries are committed to creating exhibitions that appeal to their
audiences. Many of the examples and case studies peppered throughout the manual are excel-
lent models of this approach which, considering the growing and justifiable focus on diversity and
inclusion, is more important than ever.
Our definition of exhibitions is constantly changing as they can now be virtual; nontraditional mi-
gratory and pop-up spaces play host to temporary displays; engaging visits must be story-based,
participatory, and experience-driven; social media has shifted authority away from experts to
the public; and as time-constrained audiences demand more dynamic, interactive, and mobile
applications, museum leadership, managers, staff, and designers are rising to these challenges in
innovative ways. This new edition of the Manual of Museum Exhibitions aspires to address these
cultural and technological changes in the context of professional museum practice.
The third edition of Manual of Museum Exhibitions, while addressing new challenges, continues
to be, at its heart, a sensible guide to the exhibition development process. New and experienced
museum and design professionals will find the technical and detailed methodologies practical
and adaptable to any project—big or small, physical, or digital. It will still be your favorite “go-to”
guide for “How do I . . .” The manual includes more examples of cool exhibitions from around the
world that will inspire you.
The manual is organized in five parts:
• Part I: Why? We explore the “why” of museum exhibitions. A new treatise on the purpose of
exhibitions provides context, as museums are on the cusp of responding to a changing world
and greater community engagement.
• Part II: Where? The physical requirements to mount permanent and temporary exhibitions
safely and effectively are described.
• Part III: What? The many different types of exhibitions from science to art to virtual are
defined.
• Part IV: Who? This new and expanded section focuses on the importance of understanding
visitors, what motivates them, and the evaluation techniques to address their needs. In addi-
tion, we explore the impact of Diversity, Equality, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) on the
exhibition development process.
• Part V: How? From concept to opening day, the exhibition development process is analyzed
and described in detail. This is the heart of this new edition. New examples and case studies
are featured.
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xiii
Acknowledgments
Firstly, I would like to thank the contributors who have provided all of us with the benefit of their
experience and expertise in the field of museum exhibitions. Some are experience experts at
Lord Cultural Resources, others are valued collaborators on previous projects, and still others are
included simply because I know and admire the work they have done and are doing. Together,
their contributions tell as comprehensive a story about this complex subject as we aim to tell in
each exhibition.
I would also like to thank the cultural institutions that have allowed us to use photographs, dia-
grams, tables, documents, or data from their exhibition projects as illustrations or case studies
in this manual. These examples demonstrate the exhibition process in action and provide new
and experienced professionals with tangible ways of connecting theory and practice to real
life solutions.
The Manual of Museum Exhibitions, 3rd edition, has benefitted greatly from the professional at-
tention of my editors at Rowman & Littlefield. I know that everyone in the museum profession
appreciates their dedication and support of publications in the cultural sector.
Finally, this manual is dedicated to the late Barry Lord, cofounder of Lord Cultural Resources. He
was my coeditor for the 2014 version of this book, and his wisdom and guidance continued to
inspire me as I prepared this new volume. Barry loved exhibitions, their transformative power,
and the way they revealed the world of science, culture, and art in ways like no other medium.
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1
Introduction
The Exhibition Development Process
Maria Piacente
As opportunities and demand for exhibitions have increased, so too has the need for a broader
understanding of where exhibition ideas come from; how they’re developed; what the choices
are with regard to approach; who makes those choices; what exhibitions cost; how to incorporate
complex and expensive new technologies; what impact they will have on museum finances; and
what benefits can reasonably be expected from exhibitions in terms of engaging the public and
creating new knowledge.
Often, decision makers are aware of neither the high cost of exhibitions nor how these costs can
be controlled. Exhibitions may be initiated in the hopes of achieving high attendance levels, yet
no market research is conducted. Alternatively, market research and front-end evaluation is con-
ducted, but ignored in the design. Sometimes, the design is completed with minimal involvement
of curators and educators, with the result that neither artifacts nor learning objectives fit quite
the way they should. With the growing imperative for community consultation and co-curation,
exhibition processes need to be further adapted to ensure a responsible and meaningful dialogue
that is reflected in the final product.
Chapter 1
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Figure 1.1. Exhibition Development Process. LORD CULTURAL RESOURCES
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Introduction 3
Figure 1.1 presents a template for the exhibition development process from initial concept to
opening day. This flexible and adaptable process holds true for all project types whether a small
temporary exhibition on a tight timeframe or a multimillion-dollar renovation of a national mu-
seum’s permanent collection gallery. If your museum is committed to visitor centricity, the role
of interpretive planning in your exhibition development process is essential.
As the figure illustrates, the process can be understood in three phases: development, design,
and implementation.
1. In the development phase the exhibition idea or concept is created, tested, and refined. The
principal outcome of this phase is a deep institutional understanding of what the exhibition
is about and why the museum is doing it at this time, in this way, and at this scale. This
understanding is recorded in the exhibition brief. The heart of the development phase is the
interpretive plan, which is explored in chapter 15. Many museums fail to develop a robust
plan for an exhibition, with potentially disastrous results that are laid at the feet of designers
(not enough engagement), or marketing (not enough advertising), or development (not
enough money). In fact, the problems are more likely to be rooted in a divided museum staff;
lack of clarity of purpose; lack of appropriate funding to match expectations; and insufficient
research into the subject, the audience, or both.
2. The design and content coordination phase takes place when the interpretive plan and
all the research conducted to date is transformed into three-dimensional reality through
the creativity and insight of designers working collaboratively with curators, interpretive
planners, and evaluators. With the growing use of technology in exhibitions, multimedia
specialists should be engaged in the design phase in order to maximize the creative power
of digital while keeping an eye on costs. Parallel to the design process is content develop-
ment and coordination. This is to ensure the content leads design and not vice versa. Object,
specimen, and artwork lists are refined, and curatorial research is turned into specific stories,
interactive experiences, gallery text, and scripts for multimedia.
3. The implementation phase is the production and installation of the exhibition. Project and
financial management throughout the development and design phases are crucial to ensure
an on-time and on-budget culmination of the exhibition process.
Budget oversight, cost control, and financial evaluation are ongoing throughout the process. As
well, curators, designers, and interpretive planners will be quick to point out that their work does
not end until opening day or later. Exhibition development is a recurrent and iterative process,
adapting and adjusting to exhibitions of varying sizes and budgets, level of complexity, purpose,
and the expert teams drawn together to complete them. Ongoing evaluation of exhibitions
throughout the planning, design, and installation phase, including a period for adjustments during
a “soft opening” is important enough, but a long-range program of evaluating exhibitions over the
months or years that they are on view is of even greater value.
The exhibition process and strategies outlined in these pages can be adapted to a project of any
type, size, or budget, and can be effectively applied to museums with a staff of five people or five
hundred. The key is committing to a process—once agreed upon—and a management approach
that will lead you to success.
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PART I
WHY?
North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum/Herb Byers
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6 Part I
Today, human beings are highly aware of the connectivity among us all. We are acutely in-
formed of how subjects as diverse as our choice and use of energy sources, our tolerance for
each other’s beliefs and practices, our extreme disparities of income, our understanding of
each other’s cultures, and many other features of the natural world or what we have fashioned
from it are all interrelated. And we question the presuppositions underlying each of these sub-
jects, especially because we can see how one set of assumptions affects all the others.
As trusted sources of information, museums can be of great value as we explore deep, powerful,
and sometimes traumatic subjects. The arts evoke the essential meanings of our lives sensually
and imaginatively. Understanding human history is necessary for an incisive awareness of the
present, and museums of archaeology or historic sites can present and interpret the past more
vividly than a textbook or a lecture. Keeping abreast of contemporary science and technology
is a bracing challenge that science centers, natural history museums, zoos, botanical gardens,
or industrial museums can help us meet. Children’s museums and specialized institutions on
all subjects can speak to more focused interests. Museums of ideas can directly address such
fundamental questions related to human rights, tolerance, and identity.
Exhibitions are the principal means by which museums can be of service to us. They can confirm,
question, or shake our beliefs. They may arouse a new interest or deepen our understanding of
ourselves or the world we live in. Exhibitions entertain, delight, and amuse us. They transport us
to faraway places and tell stories. They have the ability—if done well and responsibly—to present
complex and traumatic content and histories from multiple perspectives to ensure we are getting
the whole story. We expect authenticity from exhibitions—original works of art, genuine artifacts,
and the most advanced and best informed research on their subjects.
Are exhibitions really necessary? Will they make a difference, and if so to whom? Are they the
best way to communicate content? Can we use other types of media to make them more effec-
tive? Why are they worth the dedication of the museum’s collections, space, time, and money—
and most especially—the human resources needed to make them happen?

7
Chapter 2
Museums and
Their Exhibitions
Brad King
Exhibitions are a museum’s primary public function. Small wonder: exhibitions, particularly tem-
porary and traveling shows, are often high-profile events involving advertising, media coverage,
social media campaigns, and direct marketing. Exhibitions are more prominent than major ac-
quisitions, publications, research, and educational programs and other important but less visible
activities. The public knows museums through their exhibitions, which makes them powerful
tools of communication. Be they traditional gallery installations or online experiences, exhibitions
have a unique power not only to capture the public’s imagination, but to transform how people
view the world.
In an earlier edition of this book, Barry Lord wrote that “transformation takes place because the
visitor is moved by the perceived authenticity of the exhibit to discover meaning in the objects
on display . . . the apprehension of that content is itself a transformative experience that the
exhibits uniquely make possible.”1
No other public communication medium can accomplish
this feat in quite the same way. The long history of museum exhibitions—from the “cabinet of
curiosities” in the eighteenth century, to the edification of the working classes in the nineteenth
century, to more recent advances in informal learning—have proven the constancy of their
transformative power.
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8 Chapter 2
This ability to transform is augmented by trust. Public trust in museums is known to be high. This
chapter argues that the former is most effective when combined with the latter—that exhibitions’
power to capture hearts and minds is directly proportional to the level of trust in which museums
are held. Preservation of that trust is one of the keys for maximum effectiveness, but it can never
be taken for granted. The goal of this chapter is to provide guidance for exhibition-making during
a period of political instability, declining trust, and transformational change in the museum world
and in society as a whole.
2.1 THE TRUST FACTOR
Trust is a crucially important factor in society. High-trust societies are more successful econom-
ically, more stable politically, and more successful overall.
Overall, trust levels have been declining across Western societies. Tribal media, political parties,
race, class, age, geography, and many other forces often divide society and produce declines in
trust, whether that be in institutions, individuals, or governments. Unifying, trusted influences
are less common, but this is where museums have an advantage: they have unmatched reserves
of “trust capital,” which puts them in a unique position to create exhibitions that can help heal
social and political fractures.
Why is trust so important? Former US secretary of state George Schultz called it “the coin of
the realm.” Trust, he said, is at the very heart of diplomacy, a necessary precondition to make
things happen.2
Museum leaders who want to “make things happen” need to maintain their trust
advantage in their exhibitions.
Studies released over the past twenty years (the most recent cited here is from 2019) document
museums’ remarkably consistent levels of public trust,3
even as other public institutions have
been diminished. The 2017 National Awareness, Attitudes and Usage Study of Visitor-Serving
Organizations highlights how museums are perceived as free from political agendas, which
correlates with greater perceived trustworthiness. Data analyst and museum consultant Colleen
Dilenschneider calls it museums’ “superpower.”4
But this trust cannot be taken for granted. The
vast majority of museums are scholarly, fact-based, and scientifically sound. In less polarized
times, these virtues made trust something of a given. Today, though, science and scholarship
themselves are often under attack. Museums must work to not only maintain trust but to build it.
This is important because, as is widely agreed, museums and their exhibitions can make a posi-
tive contribution to society and can be a driving force in solving society’s “wicked problems,” as
coined by designer Jon Kolko. He describes “a social or cultural problem that is difficult or impos-
sible to solve for as many as four reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of
people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and the interconnected nature of these
problems with other problems.”5
Climate change, social inequality, racial injustice, and a host of
other contemporary issues clearly meet these criteria. But preserving their trust capital is vital if
museums are to achieve their potential as agents of positive change.
2.2 EXHIBITIONS AS AGENTS OF TRANSFORMATION
The way in which museum exhibitions communicate with the public can benefit society by
providing a platform to discuss solutions to wicked problems. As Rebecca Carlsson says in a
recent MuseumNext post, museums (via, in large part, their exhibitions) can play a major role in
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Museums and Their Exhibitions 9
reestablishing common ground and a shared sense of purpose around society’s issues.6
They can
be mediators and facilitators, not just between curators and audiences, but also between different
audiences themselves. The gallery and its digital extensions serve as connection points, places
of discussion and debate. This role reflects recent fundamental changes in exhibition philosophy.
Many authors, including those writing in earlier editions of this manual, suggest communication
was the primary purpose of exhibitions, in the sense that the effectiveness of an exhibition’s abil-
ity to communicate is a measure of its ability to transform.7
In decades past, the nature of com-
munication in exhibitions tended to be one-way: from authoritative museum professionals to the
receiving public. This is no longer so. Today, museum exhibitions are more likely to be avenues for
two-way or multidirectional communication—from museum professionals and content experts
to the museum’s audiences, but also from the museum’s audiences back to the professionals, and
from one visitor to another. Indeed, the very term “visitor” is no longer as accurate as it once was;
in many ways, visitors have become participants, actively engaging in the content. That shift puts
the building blocks in place to build consensus, or at least meaningful and respectful discussions
of opposing viewpoints, making the way in which exhibitions communicate an important building
block in problem-solving and social unification.
The origins of this trend stem from a refocus on “visitor centricity,” which resulted from a com-
bination of scholarship and a drive for increased relevance. In visitor-centric museums, formal
and informal communication between audiences and museum professionals happens all the
time—before, during, and after exhibition experiences. Museums stay connected to their audi-
ences and vice versa. Thanks to the work of scholars like John Falk, Lynn Dierking, and others, we
now understand far more about how people interact and learn in museums. Didactic, behaviorist
approaches where knowledge transmission is authoritative and top-down have been superseded
by more participatory approaches. Museums have become places where visitors can “create,
share, and connect with one another around content,” according to museologist Nina Simon.8
This change of emphasis has altered the nature of what people learn in museum exhibitions.
A “shared authority” model based on dialogue, participation, and co-curation is a model that
moves away from one-way transmittal of facts and conclusions that few visitors absorb and
makes it possible to think about learning in a different way. Subject matter content becomes
a vehicle for developing soft skills such as critical thinking and active citizenship. Visitors still
learn about the subject matter, but they also learn how to critically engage more generally in
other aspects of their lives.
Two-way or multidirectional communication also signals the end of single or universal narratives.
Exhibitions now need to approach subject matter from multiple perspectives. This means victors
no longer write (or interpret history)—at least not in museum exhibitions. Museumgoers have
greater power to make their own history, identity, and cultural belonging part of the narrative.
According to the Swedish academic Kersten Smeds,
Visitors create their own meanings. The museum will become a stage for action, a meeting place, a
“switchboard” for information, and a showroom for a pluralistic reality. . . . This mode of organizing
exhibitions fits well into the new pedagogy of self-formation . . . thus new narratives of history and
social development can be created. . . . The situation has created a “connecting people” kind of
experience which opens possibilities to collectively sharing information and resources with others,
with people you choose yourself, locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally. In my opinion we
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10 Chapter 2
are witnessing new kinds of collectivism which, in my view, may, in a fascinating way, restore the
creativity of memory, the unpredictability of History that was lost at the time of the introduction
of national narratives, of the one-way things are.9
These principles support the role of museum exhibitions as a unifying force by making room
for dissent and debate. They are more democratic than unidirectional communication media.
They also benefit museums, making exhibitions welcoming to people with differing mindsets
and preferences who would otherwise be alienated by authoritative narratives that dismiss
their perspective.
New ideas about exhibition content bolster the multiple-perspective approach. Museums in-
creasingly work to connect content to audience members’ lived experiences. Visitor-centered
relevance has never been more crucial for museums. Engaging with real-world problems con-
tributes to the idea of the museum as modern-day athenaeums, through which scholars and the
public discuss current issues and everyday life. More than ever, museums are civic society insti-
tutions supporting both informal learning and also a kind of “school for living” and citizenship.
All these trends and techniques make the exhibition’s power to transform all the more potent.
2.3 MUSEUMS AS ACTIVIST INSTITUTIONS
As the drive to be more relevant and constructive in society becomes more urgent, some muse-
ums have become more strident in how they advocate through their exhibitions. Even pop culture
subject matter now explore serious questions about contemporary issues, and increasingly call
for real-world action from their audiences. We have seen how the transformative power of exhi-
bitions as communication platforms can inspire such action. The question is how far can they go
in this direction before their precious reserves of trust capital—and their overall effectiveness in
achieving their goals—begins to diminish. How can museums grapple with divisive current issues
without falling into traps of false equivalency (presenting two sides of an issue as if each had an
equal claim on the evidence) or the pitfalls of political advocacy? To what extent can museums
take a stand on controversial issues? How do museums ensure they heal social divisions rather
than exacerbate them? One way to answer these questions is to consider the likely impact of an
activist exhibition on trust levels.
There is no doubt that museums exert influence, no matter how much they might try to be neu-
tral. They are, in fact, “soft power” institutions, a concept developed by the scholar Joseph Nye
and explored in the museum context by Gail Lord and Ngaire Blankenberg and others.10
These
thought leaders have noted museums’ ability to project soft power, a form of diplomacy, in the
service of this or that point of view. Museum soft power can be exerted at various levels: at the
level of the individual, at the municipal or city level, or even an international level (e.g., the use of
museums to advance national pride or status). Persuasion is its stock in trade.
Soft power has a wide spectrum of applications. At one end, it can involve a more-or-less objec-
tive presentation of hard facts and their resulting conclusions. As noted, a museum deploying
even this mild version of soft power is not neutral. As Marcie M. Muscat says, the museum is “a
subtle peddler of influence, promoting an agenda of its own devising” with exhibition narratives
“dictated by the objects shown and their means of display, and the prescriptiveness of the story
is made less perceptible through careful curation.”11
But the unavoidable fact of curation in and
of itself eliminates any possibility of neutrality.
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At the other end of the spectrum is more overt activism. Most museums continue to shy away
from this “harder” form of soft power, but there are growing pressures for that to change.
Some pressures come from within; for museum staff who make morally powerful arguments
regarding funding ethics or hiring inequities, a step in the direction of political activism in ex-
hibitions is not a large one. The pressure for change can also extend to museums’ relationships
with the outside world. External stakeholders can also influence senior administrators and
board members toward more activist or even militant directions in exhibition development.
For them, morality, ethics, and global existential threats mean unequivocally that if you’re not
part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. This trend has put museum leaders in a very
difficult position, since they must now tread carefully between the demands of activist staff,
the expectations of their audiences, and their board members and donors, many of whom are
wary of wading into politics and other controversial issues.
Some thought leaders believe it is time for museums to become more vocal in their defense
of facts and reason and on issues of political and social justice. As Richard Sandell and Robert
R. Janes say in the very first lines of their preface to their 2019 book Museum Activism, “Only
a decade ago, the notion that museums, galleries and heritage organisations might engage in
activist practice—marshalling and directing their unique resources with explicit intent to act
upon inequalities, injustices, and environmental crises—was met with widespread skepticism
and often derision.”12
This is no longer the case. For Sandell and Janes, museums are a “sleeping giant” and a po-
tentially powerful “force for good.”13
As social and political divides grow broader, as existential
planetary crises become deeper, and as society at large and the museums in particular become
more diverse, institutions consider the question of activism more and more seriously. In their
volume, Sandell and Janes say that museums can communicate an alternative to the corporatist
narrative of early twenty-first-century history. For them, activism is a moral duty, necessitated
by the failure of political leadership and business elites to confront the emergencies of the times.
Museums are not isolated from the volatility of contemporary society (and never were). But
how should they exercise their power in this context? How far can museums go while remaining
effective agents of change? Should they “harden” their soft power?
Obviously, some areas are noncontroversial: a museum that did not take an unequivocal stand
against racism or some other clear-cut moral question would lose all credibility. But for more
contentious issues, “hardening” its soft power influence has risks, especially in some societies
where basic acts of good citizenship and common decency—such as wearing masks during the
COVID-19 pandemic—are politicized. The main risk is that activist museums will become “tribal
signifiers,” especially in low-trust societies, with the practice of museum-going becoming a badge
of membership in a specific sociopolitical group. Given the progressive political leanings of most
museum staff members, this tribal signifier would likely be characterized as “left wing,” “liberal,”
or “elite” but of course this can vary. The implications must be carefully considered. How will
activism affect the value of its well-deserved reserves of trust capital, its ability to build up social
trust overall, and, therefore, its ability to effect positive change?
The answer will vary from society to society, but the main point is that museums should consider
implications for staff and funding as well as reputation in exhibition planning. There are many
instructive examples. One controversy that took place at the Museum of Art and Design at Miami
Dade College in Florida in 2020–2021, underscores the potential for damage. The museum had
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12 Chapter 2
undertaken an exhibition in partnership with a London-based group called Forensic Architecture,
which investigates human rights violations. The exhibition, Forensic Architecture: True to Scale, was
intended to be a vehicle for investigating a nearby detention center for immigrant children funded
by the US government through a private operator. This exhibition was seen to have entered the
realm of investigative journalism, in essence a three-dimensional version of the press (and it is
worth remembering that the press is not nearly as well-trusted as museums, according to the
surveys cited above). The exhibition’s political overtones likely cost its curator her job while rais-
ing alarm among many of the museum’s trustees.14
Museums must also consider their potential visitors. Some survey results show lower income
and younger segments of society much less trusting of institutions and authority.15
If their goal is
inclusivity and effectiveness, museums must understand the psychology of those who are not as
open to new experiences, the questioning of formerly accepted narratives, or embracing multiple
perspectives. In commenting on the 2020 film Hillbilly Elegy, one conservative writer noted how
the rural people depicted in the film reject new experiences as a defensive measure against so-
called urban elites in order to preserve their established values, and also to avoid the “reverse
snobbery” to which they might be subject from their peers.16
Museums already struggle to attract
this demographic; an activist approach is likely to make that struggle all the more difficult, further
isolating museums from a large percentage of the population and compromising their ability to
maximize unity in the fight against common problems. It is therefore necessary for museums to
do the work that will allow them to better understand the questions, concerns, and lived experi-
ence of less trusting segments of society in order to properly communicate with them.
Finally, and most importantly, there is the question of how effective activist exhibitions can be at
effecting the transformations needed to achieve consensus on wicked problems. If an exhibition
reaches only the people who already agree with its position, it is merely preaching to the con-
verted. Can a museum exhibition be a vehicle of inclusivity and reconciliation when a large and
influential proportion of the population are neither open nor interested in engaging with it? Is it
enough merely to mobilize audiences who are already sympathetic to the cause?
All of this is to say that museums should ponder the likely impact on trust levels—both in main-
taining their existing levels of public trust, and in their potential to build it more generally—when
considering exhibition projects. It is also important that they try to understand the concerns of a
broad swath of the potential audience in order to be most effective in change-making.
2.4 CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP: HOW CLOSE IS TOO CLOSE?
In considering the need to preserve trust capital, the always-present need to generate revenue
can also produce problems. With the long-term decline in government subsidies, museums have
focused on increased revenues from earned and contributed sources to fill the gap. But there are
dangers for museums’ credibility as trusted sources of information here as well.
The need to generate increased revenue is real, and while financial pressures long predated the
COVID-19 pandemic, that world-historical event was catastrophic for museums’ balance sheets.
One report stated that the average American museum had lost some US$850,000 in revenue in
the first several months of the pandemic, and that many were in danger of permanent closure.17
As with so many other things, the pandemic accelerated preexisting trends toward innovation
in revenue generation, leading museums to think more expansively about increasing nongovern-
ment revenue streams for some time.
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The phenomenon of “exhibits for hire” is one manifestation of that thinking. Exhibitions that
some have called “sponsored content” skate perilously close to ethical lines, mirroring similar
trends in journalism.18
Just as traditional media, such as newspapers, have tried to reverse
losses from declining ad revenue by publishing such content, so too have some museums done
the same via exhibitions. And there are other instances of trust-threatening proximity to corpo-
rate concerns: for example, the ethical conflicts of for-profit art galleries sponsoring museum
exhibitions of artists they represent, since such exposure might increase auction prices or a
gallery’s future business prospects.19
Corporate partnerships have long been a feature of museum business strategies, and these will
continue to be important in the future. To maintain appropriate distance, a key issue is curatorial
independence where sponsors influence curatorial choices, however questions around credibility
thus emerge. The other safeguard is clarity wherein complete transparency around a company’s
role in exhibit-making is needed. Awareness of these two principles in exhibition development
can help museums maintain trust.
2.5 THE WAY FORWARD
This is a time when many formerly unquestioned tenets of museum ethics and operations are
being tested. From debates around the use of monies, from collection deaccessioning to questions
around ethically correct funding sources, to the proper role of museums in solving our large-scale
“wicked problems,” what was once taken for granted is now up for revision, and it will be some
time before a consensus is reestablished. While this chapter has focused on the latter issue, its
topic is of a piece with many contemporary issues in the field. Assessing an exhibition project’s
impact on trust and effectiveness is one tool to help museums navigate such a fraught landscape.
Due to their prominence, exhibitions are at the center of many of these debates. At their best,
they can be effective tools to rally majorities around solutions to serious societal problems. Due
to the trust they enjoy, museums can be a force for unification, using the transformative power
of exhibitions as a kind of antidote to the division fostered by so many other public platforms.
Current trends in exhibitions reinforce this potential, since the “public town hall” nature of many
exhibitions fosters debate and discussion, affective learning, and changed perspectives. Multi-
perspective exhibitions have all but erased the idea of a universal narrative, which leaves room
for competing opinions and, hopefully, some consideration of opposite viewpoints. The ultimate
goal is consensus and action.
For this mediation role to work, trust is the single most important factor. We know that museums
are trusted, amplifying their ability to influence. George Schultz sums it up:
Trust is fundamental, reciprocal, and, ideally, pervasive. If it is present, anything is possible. If it
is absent, nothing is possible. The best leaders trust their followers with the truth, and you know
what happens as a result? Their followers trust them back. With that bond, they can do big, hard
things together, changing the world for the better.20
Trust is the linchpin: with it, things can happen. Without it, effectiveness is diminished.
It is important to be clear: the need for museums to maintain public trust does not imply they
should avoid taking a stand on obvious injustices, nor should they shy away from controversial
topics. A major source of museums’ trust capital springs from truth-telling: we must go where the
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14 Chapter 2
facts take us, and not succumb to false equivalency or “alternative facts.” Museums actually do
have “a duty to be political” as one writer states, not only to help solve existential problems, but
also to be on the front lines in the fight against racism, for example, or in the defense of scientific
integrity.21
But they also have a duty to be effective, which means that the preservation of trust
capital must be a consideration in exhibition-making.
The process of exhibition development discussed in subsequent chapters of this book lays out all
the considerations for creating excellent experiences. This chapter has hopefully provided broad
parameters for the approach to those experiences to empower many new exhibitions to generate
positive social change in a world that desperately needs it. Museums can provide a venue for dis-
cussions that generate the unity to tackle society’s wicked problems—even as polarization itself
has become a wicked problem. The answers are complex, but a reconceptualization of exhibition
development processes is an important component. Staff will likely need to acquire and cultivate
new kinds of skills.
Evaluation of exhibition proposals is another angle: Does a proposal preserve and build trust as
it tries to advance a social good? Do we truly understand the questions and concerns of the seg-
ments of society we are trying to reach, especially those with lower levels of trust? How far can
we push boundaries and maintain trust? These types of questions can help build understanding
and guide exhibition development, or at the very least help museums approach their exhibitions
with their eyes wide open to the potential implications.
To solve our wicked problems, we need to talk to one another. The multidirectional communica-
tion in modern-day museum exhibitions can be an effective platform. When founded on public
trust, exhibitions have the power to leverage their transformative power as never before by using
their trusted status to not only help achieve consensus, but also to build trust in society gener-
ally, using this advantage to contribute to a successful, higher-trust society. As the purpose of
museum exhibitions continues to evolve, so too must the process of creating them, if we are to
fully realize opportunities for positive change.
NOTES
1. Barry Lord, “The Purpose of Museum Exhibitions,” in Barry Lord and Maria Piacente, eds., The Manual
of Museum Exhibitions, second edition (Lanham, MD and Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield 2014), 12.
2. George P. Schultz, “The ten most important things I’ve learned about trust over my 100 years, Wash-
ington Post, December 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/11/10-most
-important-things-ive-learned-about-trust-over-my-100-years/?arc404=true.
3. There are several such studies. From the United Kingdom, see the Museums Association, “Public
perceptions of—and attitudes to—the purpose of museums in society” (2013), https://www.muse
umsassociation.org/app/uploads/2020/06/03042013-britain-thinks.pdf, a British companion to
the oft-cited Lake, Snell, and Perry survey released in 2001 and commissioned by the American Al-
liance of Museums. For the 2017 study, see Colleen Dilenschneider, “People Trust Museums More
than Newspapers. Here’s Why That Matters Right Now,” April 26, 2017, at https://www.colleendilen
.com/2017/04/26/people-trust-museums-more-than-newspapers-here-is-why-that-matters-right
-now-data/. A 2019 update appears at https://www.colleendilen.com/2019/03/06/in-museums-we
-trust-heres-how-much-data-update/.
4. Dilenschneider, “People Trust Museums More Than Newspapers.”
5. Jon Kolko, “Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving,” March 6, 2012, https://ssir.org/books
/excerpts/entry/wicked_problems_problems_worth_solving#:~:text=A%20wicked%20problem%20
is%20a,these%20problems%20with%20other%20problems.
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6. Rebecca Carlsson, “Why We Need Museums Now More Than Ever,” MuseumNext, Oct. 8, 2020,
https://www.museumnext.com/article/why-we-need-museums-now-more-than-ever/.
7. Lord, “The Purpose of Museum Exhibitions,” 12.
8. Nina Simon, The Participatory Museum (Santa Cruz, CA: Museum 2.0, 2010), ii.
9. Kersten Smeds, “On the Meaning of Exhibitions—Exhibition Epistèmes in a Historical Perspective,”
Designs for Learning 5, nos. 1–2 (2012): 69, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285980155
_On_the_Meaning_of_Exhibitions_-_Exhibition_Epistemes_in_a_Historical_Perspective.
10. Gail Lord and Ngaire Blankenberg, eds., Museums, Cities and Soft Power. (Washington, DC: The AAM
Press, 2015).
11. Marcie M. Muscat, “The Art of Diplomacy: Museums and Soft Power,” November 9, 2020, https://
www.e-ir.info/2020/11/09/the-art-of-diplomacy-museums-and-soft-power/.
12. Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes, “Preface” in Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes, eds., Museum
Activism (London and New York: Routledge, 2019), xxvii.
13. Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes, “Introduction” in Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes, eds., Mu-
seum Activism (London and New York: Routledge, 2019) 1.
14. See Colin Moynihan, “What did the museum sign up for: exhibition or investigation?”, New York Times,
January 11, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/arts/design/forensic-architecture-miami
-dade-college.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Art%20%20Design.
15. While this will vary from country to country, a recent Canadian example can be found at www.cantrust
index.ca.
16. Rod Dreher, “Hillbilly Elegy, Class Conflict and Mercy,” The American Conservative, November 25, 2020,
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/hillbilly-elegy-class-conflict-mercy/.
17. “Museums losing millions, job losses mount as COVID-19 cases surge,” American Alliance of Muse-
ums, November 17, 2020, https://www.aam-us.org/2020/11/17/museums-losing-millions-job-loss
es-mount-as-covid-19-cases-surge/.
18. Eileen Kinsella, “‘We’d love to work with Netflix again’: cash-strapped museums looking for new au-
diences are increasingly doing exhibits-for-hire,” ArtNet, January 4, 2021, https://news.artnet.com
/art-world/its-a-deal-is-the-rise-in-museum-sponcon-linked-to-lockdown-1933514.
19. Anny Shaw, “How serious are the dangers of market sponsorship of museum exhibitions?,” The
Art Newspaper, January 27, 2020, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/analysis/public-spaces-pri
vate-money.
20. Schultz, “The ten things I learned about trust.”
21. Jillian Steinhauer, “Museums have a duty to be political,” The Art Newspaper, March 20, 2018, https://
www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/museums-have-a-duty-to-be-political.
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17
Chapter 3
Where Do Exhibition
Ideas Come From?
Barry Lord (updated by Maria Piacente)1
If museum exhibitions at their best offer a transformative experience expanding or altering vis-
itors’ awareness of, interest in, and valuation of many aspects of themselves and their world, it
might be thought that ideas for such exhibitions could originate only with museum professionals
who are experts in their respective fields. A few decades ago, this assumption would have been
taken for granted, and this chapter would not have been considered necessary in a book on mu-
seum exhibitions. Indeed, it is still often true, and the role of the informed connoisseur in sparking
museum exhibition ideas remains critical, often crucial, to the genesis of a great exhibition.
Nevertheless, such an approach to the museum exhibition also points to other possibilities.
Should the museum exhibition arise from a problem in that discipline’s research on the topic? Or
should the subject matter respond to public interest, or public demand? What is the role of the
community for whom the exhibition is intended, some of whom may not previously have been
museum visitors at all? How can they participate in the creation of museum exhibition ideas that
are relevant to them? This chapter explores these issues as they affect the planning and devel-
opment of museum exhibitions and suggests a visitor-centered approach.
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18 Chapter 3
3.1 RESEARCH-BASED AND MARKET-DRIVEN EXHIBITIONS
The questions posed above are often presented as an irreconcilable alternative based on the
widely held belief that museum exhibitions must either be research-based or market-driven:
1. A research-based exhibition program is one that arises from the discipline itself, from an
analysis of the museum collection, or from the interests of the museum’s curators. It is pro-
posed as worth doing because it will advance our knowledge of the field—our appreciation
of the importance of a hitherto undervalued artist, the discovery or interpretation of an
archaeological site, or the ecology of an endangered species, for example.
2. By contrast, a market-driven exhibition program arises from public interest or demand, as
interpreted by the museum. Political events may suggest the need for an exhibition on the
culture of a foreign country. The popularity of an artist may prompt a retrospective. Growing
concerns with climate might generate a widespread interest in environmental education and
climate change. Or health concerns might suggest an exhibition on wellness and mental health.
Although these alternatives have often been presented in professional discussions of the subject
as if they were opposed, their opposition is in practice a false dichotomy. This may be expressed
in the following statement of principle:
On the one hand, research, even in the most rarified of disciplines, does not take place in a so-
cial vacuum, and on the other hand public interest is always relevant to the direction of socially
responsible research. It is precisely the challenge of museum professionals to forge these links.
Thus, a successful museum exhibition program should be both research-based and market-driven.
The exhibition policy should articulate this objective in terms relevant to the specific discipline(s)
of the museum and should indicate how the museum proposes to be responsive to its community
and its audience.
Turner, Whistler, Monet: Impressionist Visions was a major traveling exhibition organized by the
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada), the Tate Britain (London, United Kingdom), and the
Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France). It is a true example of a re-
search-driven exhibition that interprets how each artist changed the course of landscape painting
and how a pattern of themes and variations begun by Turner appears to have been developed in
the artistic interchange between the younger artists Whistler and Monet.
In extreme contrast, Game of Thrones: The Touring Exhibition was created by HBO in partnership
with GES Events, featuring actual props and costumes used in the popular series, themed re-
constructed immersive environments of the North, Westeros, and Meereen, as well as special
effects, interactive multimedia, and of course, the iconic Iron Throne. This market-driven exhibi-
tion took advantage of the worldwide appeal of the books and television series. While it can be
argued that the Game of Thrones exhibition does not have the curatorial and perhaps perceived
gravitas of a Turner, Whistler, Monet exhibition, both have a place in a museum’s responsibility
to serve it audiences and meet institutional needs that include the creation of new knowledge,
revenue generation, and increased attendance.
3.2 PLANNING FOR EXHIBITION RESEARCH
Desirable as such practices may be, many museum professionals may view the principle of merg-
ing research-based with market-driven considerations in an exhibition program as merely a pious
wish—a laudable objective, but one that defies achievement in the day-to-day deployment of
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Figure 3.1. Banners promoting the Turner, Whistler, Monet: Impressionist Visions exhibition, June 12 to
September 12, 2004, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. © ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO. A-17661
Figure 3.2. The Game of Thrones Touring Exhibition at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, Northern
Ireland. PA IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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20 Chapter 3
time, money, resources, and personnel to operate a museum exhibition program. Indeed, curators
responsible for exhibition programs but also trying to conduct research are often encountered in
one or the other of two scenarios, neither of which is desirable:
• Some curators may attempt to oblige the research requirements of a constantly chang-
ing exhibition program that is responsive to public interest. In this position they are able
to accomplish only a series of brief forays into an unrelated sequence of research topics,
developing each subject only as far as the limited time allowed in a demanding schedule.
Exhibition catalogs and storylines may get written, and shows are installed on time, but the
curator remains a generalist unable to pursue any one topic, while the permanent collection
and even new acquisitions may remain indefinitely without the research that is needed in
order to realize their full value.
• The other alternative, equally unsatisfactory for both the museum and its staff, is for the cu-
rator to withdraw from the exhibition program, delegating their responsibility to an assistant,
a designer, or an exhibition officer, freeing the curator to pursue research that may be only
tangentially related to the collection, and is often expressed only in the form of scholarly arti-
cles in the learned journals of that profession. In this scenario, the curator aspires to become
a research professor who does not teach.
Although many museum professionals may not be faced with these dire alternatives, they are
likely to recognize them as the opposite poles of a spectrum of options, none of which are
entirely satisfactory to the museum or to its staff. The solution is for the museum to develop
a research policy, and for the curators, conservators, designers, educators, and exhibition offi-
cers to develop research plans:
• A museum’s research policy should establish the museum’s commitment to research, con-
firming that time, money, personnel, and facilities will be dedicated to and in keeping with the
museum’s mission. This may vary from a commitment to keep abreast of the latest develop-
ments at a kunsthalle exhibiting contemporary art, to a long-term commitment to undertake
studies of environmental changes on regional flora or fauna based on the study of specimens
at a university’s natural history museum. The research policy should articulate the museum’s
position on supporting grant applications for its staff to pursue research interests, and the
museum’s approach to intellectual property issues, distinguishing publications or other
results of research that are based on work done at the museum from the fruits of research
done on the staff members’ own time. The policy should describe the range of research to
be undertaken at the museum, hopefully including research on the museum’s market, its
communications, and education programs, as well as curatorial and conservation studies.
Above all, the research policy should require all museum personnel who wish to undertake
research to prepare an annual personal research plan, which after approval the museum can
integrate into a general research plan for the whole institution.
• Each museum staff member who wishes to do research—and this might include docents,
volunteers, educators, marketing or development officers, membership clerks, or building
managers as well as curators, curatorial assistants, and conservators—should be asked
to prepare an annual personal research plan. This plan should set out objectives for that
individual’s research and relate those objectives to the permanent collection and the mu-
seum’s public programs, which may include exhibitions, but may also extend to education,
market development, or other programs. The research plan should describe the researcher’s
particular qualifications and propose a methodology that addresses both the academic and
practical implications, such as financial or travel needs. The research plan should also proj-
ect a schedule, over many years, if necessary, for completion of the research. Each annual
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Where Do Exhibition Ideas Come From? 21
research plan should be an update of the last, reporting progress or obstacles encountered,
and recommending changes if necessary.
Each individual’s research plan should be subject to review and approval by the level to which each
staff member reports, culminating in a general review and approval by the director, who should
undertake integrating all the personal research plans into a general research plan for the entire
museum. In this process meetings to discuss each personal research plan may be necessary in
order to adjust personal priorities to the mission or corporate plan of the institution, or vice versa.
Many curators and some museum directors are anxious about the introduction of research plans,
fearing that they may limit academic freedom of inquiry. With curators especially affected by
change on all sides and fighting to retain the role of research within museums, these concerns
are understandable. But in fact, research plans as described here can be instrumental in resolving
the dilemma implied by the alternative outlined above: of curators being dragged from one exhi-
bition to another versus the equally unsatisfactory option of the curator who withdraws from the
exhibition program in order to pursue other research interests. A museum is neither a university
nor a research institution, but it can be a vital center of research in all disciplines, both in relation
to the permanent collection and in serving the institution’s public programs. An annually updated
general research plan for the entire museum that is based on the personal research plans of all
the interested staff can be a dynamic way of keeping research at the heart of the museum.
For example, the general research plan for a natural history museum might include the ornithology
curator’s personal research plan to investigate the species relationships within a particular genus
of birds based on DNA analysis, song analysis, and field research. The schedule for this work may
be projected over several years. The director, advised by the marketing and education departments,
may decide that the museum’s exhibition program really needs a Birds in Backyards exhibition, which
will meet a school curriculum need related to climate change and pollution, and will also be fun for
family visitors. The decision as to whether to shift the direction of the ornithology curator’s research
work over the next year in order to plan and develop this exhibition may now be considered in the
light of the long-term research plan that has already been integrated into the museum’s general
research plan. One alternative might be to engage a guest curator for the special exhibition, and to
prepare a marketing and retail program that will increase attendance, revenue, private donations,
sponsorships, or government grants to justify the additional expense.
An important consideration in resolving this example is that the ornithological species research
project should be included in the museum’s general research plan only if it is itself related to the
museum’s public program objectives: a major new display of the permanent collection of birds,
together with an associated education program, scheduled to be launched three years from now,
for instance. The decision then becomes one of weighing one longer-range museum public pro-
gramming objective against another, shorter-range one. Whatever decision is made, with the aid
of the research plan and a research policy, curatorial research can be integrated with the muse-
um’s public programs, the curator is no longer being dragged from one topic to another without
regard for continuity or for the museum’s long-term needs, and the decision about the exhibition
program is now perceived as integrally related to decisions about priorities for the museum’s re-
search activity. Museum research can be transformed from its frequent status as a desirable but
too often impractical pursuit into the light of museum policy, planning, and prioritizing procedures.
NOTE
1. Maria Piacente has updated the chapter on behalf of Barry Lord, who died March 9, 2017, and who
inspired their collaboration on the second edition of this Manual, 2014.
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PART II
WHERE?
© Tate Britain
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24 Part II
Museum exhibitions are installed in purpose-built galleries, designed to meet the specific
needs of the specimens, artifacts, and works of art that will be displayed within them. While
exhibitions may be hosted in nonconventional venues and public spaces for pop-up displays
as well as contemporary art and multimedia installations, this section focuses on traditional
exhibition galleries.
The exhibition gallery provides the space within which objects on display are placed. Yet the
gallery itself is conditioned by the museum building as a whole, and that in turn is affected by
the building’s site. A white cube in a modern building in the heart of the city may be considered
appropriate for a contemporary art exhibition or an interactive science center, whereas an exhi-
bition in a historic structure that is itself part of the cultural heritage on display will inform a very
different kind of exhibition.
Exhibition galleries used to be predictable boxes, but in recent years their architecture has been
far more diverse. Consider the vast swathe of space that accommodates Richard Serra’s enor-
mous steel sculpture, which is placed under high ceilings in Frank Gehry’s Museo Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain, complete with a mezzanine at one end that allows visitors to appreciate the heft
and swoop of the massive sculpture from above. At the other extreme are low-ceilinged spaces
of modest size and proportions that provide a comfortable setting for a few visitors at a time to
enjoy some rare etchings or drawings at a level of lighting kept deliberately low to reduce the
lux-hours of exposure of the precious works on paper.
Understanding the nuts and bolts of what makes galleries work not only ensures that an exhibi-
tion will be fully accommodated, but that visitors will enjoy experiencing the gallery space. This
section provides an overview of design criteria for exhibition spaces and reviews the vast range
of factors that have to be considered when planning to build or renovate a gallery. The differ-
ences between permanent collection displays and temporary exhibition galleries are examined,
as are the functional requirements for security, environmental control, and set-up or striking of
exhibition furnishings.
You might be wondering, “Why do I need to know this? I’m not an architect!” Even though you
may not be an architect or facility manager, understanding how exhibition spaces function within
the museum building envelope will make you a better exhibition planner.
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25
Chapter 4
Exhibition Facilities
Sean Stanwick and Heather Maximea
A museum’s exhibition galleries are its main public areas. They should be splendid spaces that
inspire and engage visitors as they move from one experience to another. Planning and designing
galleries as part of a museum facility is exhilarating but challenging because it requires planners
to envision the completed exhibition product that will someday be housed there, whether it is a
long-term permanent collection display or a series of short-term temporary or traveling exhibi-
tions. This visioning must consider the total experience for visitors and the superlative settings
for the art, artifacts, specimens, and new media that will be part of the overall story.
The design and layout of the gallery spaces, and the sequence of movement through them, is
critical to the experience. Akin to a movie or well-crafted story, the gallery experience should
facilitate ease of movement and clarity of wayfinding. Permanent exhibitions must keep the
attention of visitors as items are often displayed for long periods of time. Changing galleries, on
the other hand, must be flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of works and exhibition
styles and sizes.
Unfortunately, many galleries fall short of the ideal. Lack of consideration for exhibit support
spaces will have significant downstream effects such as repeated delays in getting exhibitions
fully installed in time for openings; insurance claims for damage to art works; and reluctance
or refusal of prestigious lenders to become involved in new projects. Why do these problems
occur? If staff is asked for a candid analysis, they may well identify inconvenient, inefficient, and
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26 Chapter 4
poorly planned building services and support areas as well as gallery spaces that do not meet the
demands placed on them by the museum’s programs.
The ideal time to plan for the best possible facilities to accommodate exhibitions is when new
buildings, expansions, or full-scale building renovations are being considered. Every effort made
at the early planning stages will reap benefits for years to come in exhibition effectiveness.
4.1 A WORLD OF EXHIBITION SPACES
In many cases, a single art museum will require a range of differently sized permanent collection
and temporary exhibition spaces to accommodate its collection and realize its programming
needs. Some options may include:
• Exhibition spaces for small- to medium-sized paintings and sculpture, architecture, and
design of 1,500–3,000 square feet (150–300sq m) with preferred clear ceiling heights of 15
feet (5.5 m) below all ductwork and light fixtures. These may be interconnecting or stand-
alone spaces.
• Small, intimate-scale exhibition spaces for small-scale paintings, sculpture, decorative arts,
photography, and works on paper of 1,000–1,500 square feet (100–150 sq m) with minimum
clear ceiling heights of 13 feet (4 m) below all ductwork and light fixtures.
• Grand exhibition spaces for contemporary art, installation and performance art, large-scale
traditional paintings, textiles, and sculpture of 5,000–8,000 square feet (500–800 sq m)
with at least 18–24 feet (6–8 m) ceilings below all ductwork and light fixtures, maximized
wall and floor space, and ability to use temporary wall systems to subdivide the space.
• A single special installations hall of 8,000–12,000 square feet (800–1,200 sq m) or more,
doubling as a temporary exhibitions hall and capable of accommodating a variety of media.
Ceilings would need to be upward of 24 feet (8 m) below all ductwork and light fixtures, with
excellent suspension capacity and an opportunity to use temporary wall systems or newly
built enclosures to subdivide the space.
• New media exhibition space for art or archives needs to be designed to the specific needs of
the media works, in close consultation with curators engaged in acquiring these new types
of collections. Requirements may include sound and light locks, multiple projection points,
ability to build new enclosures or to change or modify wall and floor coverings, or to incor-
porate living elements or live performance.
• Thematic or contextual galleries that recreate or evoke the original contexts from which
museum objects were taken. A thematic exhibition can vary in format from a walk-through
environment to a curated exhibition that may include vitrines, dioramas, or vignettes. The
exhibition area may vary widely, from 300–500 square feet (30–50 sq m) in the rooms of
a historic house museum to 10,000 square feet (800 sq m) or more of purpose-built mu-
seum space. Such spaces are increasingly used for large, immersive projection experiences
as a means for creating an environment, requiring adequate power in the ceiling and heights
upward of 15 feet (5.5 m).
• “Black box” galleries that feature minimal architectural detailing and exposed structure and
services made to disappear by using matte painting and directed lighting. Temporary or
movable walls or temporary room structures may be used along with casework, panels, and
other exhibition elements to divide the space creatively.
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Exhibition Facilities 27
• Children’s museums, science museums, and science centers are among the fastest growing
museum types around the world and are often oriented toward science and technology, nat-
ural or cultural history, ethnology, or art all presented with the intention to foster learning,
exploration, and intercreativity. Interactivity in the children’s gallery context can be low-tech
storytelling or role playing; medium-tech art making; or high-tech multimedia and digital
applications. A safe assumption for a single children’s discovery exhibition space would be
a minimum of 2,000–3,000 square feet (200–300 sq m).
• Study spaces within the exhibition incorporates research and areas for the public for greater
access to collections and enhanced learning opportunities. The area required for separate
rooms may be as little as 300–500 square feet (30–50 sq m), with ceiling heights not much
above 12 feet (4 m).
• An outdoor art display space such as a sculpture terrace, sculpture walk, or sculpture garden
that extends the exhibition space providing a different context for selected works.
4.2 DEVELOPING DESIGN CRITERIA FOR EXHIBITION SPACES
For every museum and interpretive program that requires gallery and support facilities, there
is a vast range of potential solutions that may be considered, rejected, selected, and modified
according to site, building, and budget opportunities and constraints. What are the best solu-
tions for a particular situation? One method is to develop a set of principles, or design criteria,
that describe, first, the desired result, and second, the means of evaluating success in achieving
that result. The subjective and objective design criteria for exhibition space will be instrumental
in guiding development of facilities that meet exhibition needs over many years. As figure 4.1
Figure 4.1. Vision-Driven design criteria. LORD CULTURAL RESOURCES
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28 Chapter 4
demonstrates a framework for developing criteria, decisions should ultimately be viewed through
three primary lenses: vision, planning, and execution.
1. Vision: Do the galleries support and enhance the institution’s mission and interpretive vision?
2. Planning: Are the galleries “right-sized” to meet program requirements, budget realities, and
ensure sustainable operations?
3. Execution: Does the implementation reflect an intentional approach that understands the
importance of the art environment?
4.2.1 Vision-Driven Design Criteria
Vision-driven design criteria for exhibition galleries center around determining the overall
concept for the space based on the vision, mission, and mandate of the museum. A vision or
conceptual statement expressing the ethos of exhibition spaces underlies design criteria that
suggest their character in conceptual and qualitative terms. The building concept in inspirational
terms may be developed by the architect, reflecting a conceptual statement that expresses the
institution’s vision in more concrete terms applicable to facility planning. This concept can then
be applied to the exhibition galleries. Or the design criteria may derive directly from the vision
statement itself. Qualitative criteria might include the following:
• Visionary: Does it raise aspirations for what the institution can be in the future?
• Galvanizing: Does it reflect consensus around shared values?
• Provoking: Is it a catalyst for rethinking the institution’s larger role?
• Responsible: Does it make the best use of capital and infrastructure resources?
• Flexible: Can it accommodate present needs and future expansion?
• Brand building: Does it express an image reflective of the brand?
• Integrated: Is it woven into, and respectful of the local community?
• Asset building: Can it be a driver for long-term prosperity?
4.2.2 Planning-Driven Design Criteria
The other essential component of the planning process for new or renovated display spaces is a
set of functional or planning design criteria that guide the architects, engineers, building contrac-
tors, and exhibition designers working on the project.
One of the most important considerations for planning display facilities is the relative degree
of flexibility of use that needs to be designed into the space. Museum exhibition halls may be
designed as more or less permanent architectural entities with a strong character of their own;
however, a more compelling case for sustainability considers spaces that are easier to transform
into new environments as the occasion demands. Museums today are incorporating an array of
new types of galleries, specifically designed to meet the needs of particular exhibition types. The
new gallery may or may not be subordinate to the exhibitions installed within it; for example, Tate
Modern’s Tank Galleries carry with them the architectural character of their former use while
being redesigned and retrofitted to meet the need for large volumes of space with high technical
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support for performances, installations, and performance art. Deciding what level of flexibility
and technology will be required by a new display is a high-level decision early in the planning
process that in itself may require extensive exploration of options and costs, usually benefitting
from a dialogue with specialists.
Preliminary objective design criteria begins to emerge in the early stages of planning for a new
facility. These may include:
• Meeting national or international museum accreditation standards
• Meeting collection standards for climate control and security
• Planning for operational efficiency and sustainability objectives
• Considering future expansion options or phasing
• Addressing the spatial requirements of both permanent collection display and temporary
exhibition programs
• Completing the project on time and on budget
• Meeting the physical needs of distinct audiences, such as children
• Considerations for pandemic planning particularly for queuing and social distancing
Addressing each of these requirements with measurable objectives requires quantification of
data on current operations, present and future collections, and close numeric projection of future
needs. Comparables or best practice information may be needed to supplement existing data.
Figure 4.2. The Tank Galleries at the Tate Modern, London, Tate Photography. PHOTO © TATE
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30 Chapter 4
Although planning may begin with either a preliminary capital budget or an initial notion of the
size and complexity of the exhibition facility, these cannot be taken as given. Various strategies of
testing the fit between the desired state-of-the-art display facility and the realities of site, build-
ing, capital budget, and future operating budget are imperative to avoid costly design mistakes
and cost overruns, and to achieve positive, realistic goals. Testing may include:
• Quantitative and qualitative collections analysis and projection of the “design object”—the
largest or most technologically complex and demanding work of art, artifact, specimen,
apparatus, graphic, or design component to be likely or most frequently accommodated.
• Quantification of audience and market data and attendance projections for the “design
day”—the number of people likely to be in the building and in the exhibition on a busy day.
• Projection of sizes and types of display and support facilities based on the planned exhibition
program, considering the workload required to support the given space and activity level.
• Review of the fit between plans for display facilities and overall site and building planning.
To ensure that the galleries fulfill these criteria, an experienced museum planner should work
with the museum’s staff to prepare a “brief” or “functional program” to guide the architects and
designers, and then should work with them to ensure compliance. Most importantly, once de-
veloped and agreed by the museum’s leadership, the functional requirements or design criteria
should be implemented at every stage of gallery design and construction. Changes to the physical
space must not be allowed on a whim of the architect, contractor, or museum director, but should
be a result of deliberate and balanced reconsideration of all factors by the museum planner and
all other members of the planning and design team.
4.2.3 Execution-Driven Design Criteria
At the heart of many museum exhibition projects is the use of collections of art, artifacts, or spec-
imens. These objects are often irreplaceable resources, major assets for their owners, and part of
the cultural heritage of mankind. As such, their preservation for posterity is of great importance,
and is one of the key mandates of the museum enterprise.
The central decision to be made in setting preventive conservation measures for an exhibition,
or for a museum’s entire exhibition program, is choosing the environmental standards to be
maintained. The chosen standards govern the type of building systems installed to serve the gal-
leries, and thus the galleries’ capital cost, as well as lifecycle and operating costs. Environmental
standards for seven crucial factors affecting museum exhibitions should be considered:
1. Climate control
2. Air movement and outdoor air
3. Air cleanliness
4. Light levels
5. Microclimates
6. Pest management
7. Movement and vibration
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4.2.3.1 Climate Control
Best practice for museum and gallery design requires a collection-appropriate climate control
system, whether minimal and passive, or a sophisticated active system. The job of the climate
control system is to stabilize the interior climate of the building and of each room where col-
lections may be present by regulating swings in temperature, relative humidity (RH), and air
movement, which act on each other to influence the environment of a gallery space.
The risks to collections that unsuitable temperatures and relative humidity levels (particularly
fluctuations of those levels) present to museum objects include the development of mold and
mildew, chemical deterioration, the detachment of finish layers, and mechanical and structural
damage (cracks, breaks, loosened joints) when the object responds to changes in the environ-
ment. By providing the optimal environment throughout their collections storage areas, support
areas, and galleries, museums can avoid or mitigate these effects both to permanent collections
and to museum objects on loan. Therefore, most museums need to think in terms of a stable
environment for permanent collections, and in addition, special conditions that may be required
for objects on loan. In the exhibition galleries, human comfort is also a factor in determining an
acceptable environment.
The professional museum associations of many countries encourage museums to invest in
high-quality air-handling equipment and controls as a major criterion of museum accreditation,
which in itself provides an assurance to potential donors and lenders that the museum has the
facilities to care for the precious objects entrusted to it. Additionally, lending institutions gener-
ally require borrowers to fill out a facilities report, which attests to the climate and handling for
loans, and lenders may make specific relative humidity, temperature, and lighting requirements.
Determining the requirements for relative humidity and temperature for museums can be a chal-
lenge, even for professionally trained staff. The question is often asked whether there is a standard
that all museums should meet. The answer to this is that there are indeed standards but that they
in turn need to be understood and used with caution; they may provide good protection for most
objects, but be disastrous for the minority, which tend to be the most fragile. The onus is still on
museums to understand their collections and their specialized needs in adapting any standard.
In 1964, R. D. Buck proposed “A Specification for Museum Air-Conditioning” that recommended
a general museum humidity level of 55±10 percent relative humidity. During the 1970s, the set
point relative humidity recommendation changed to either 50 or 55 percent, and the fluctuation
range was reduced to ±5 percent relative humidity as control equipment improved. The standards
for museums published in the 1999 ASHRAE Applications Handbook as a result of this research
summarize the maximum fluctuations proposed for collection spaces as five classes of control
(AA, A, B, C, and D), and presented the risks and benefits associated with maintaining any par-
ticular class of control. The relative humidity set point for all classes of control is 50 percent or
the annual average relative humidity in areas like the tropics or cold climate regions where the
average annual conditions have been markedly different. The classes relevant to museum exhi-
bitions are AA, A, and B:
• For loan exhibitions, temporary or traveling, the highest standard—AA—will be required
by most loan agreements. Class AA requirements should be met by institutions requiring
AA standards in their loan agreements or in their own permanent collection display and
storage spaces.
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32 Chapter 4
• The difference between AA and A standards for permanent collection display is simply that
the lower standard permits two relative humidity fluctuation choices, either with or without
seasonal set point adjustments.
• The B standard is relevant primarily to seasonal historic sites in the temperate zone that need
to avoid damage to the historic building fabric and may introduce not merely seasonal vari-
ations, but also a winter temperature setback aimed at maintaining relative humidity while
reducing temperature to a minimum consistent with that relative humidity level.
All three of ASHRAE’s (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning En-
gineers) classes require the same types of equipment to be provided, at similar cost levels.
In a building with active control, the equipment would generally consist of air handling units
equipped for:
• Heating
• Cooling
• Humidification
• Controlled dehumidification with reheat
• Particulate air filtration
• Gaseous air filtration
• An accurate and stable control system
There is an advantage to acquiring AA-sized equipment—as long as the building is capable of
containing an AA environment year-round without deteriorating—since it should be possible to
switch the equipment settings between classes at any time. For example, AA may be required
for borrowed temporary exhibitions, even though the museum chooses to operate at A or B
standards at other times, for reasons of cost and energy savings.
Within the various world climate zones, outdoor temperature and relative humidity may rise and
fall rapidly through a daily and seasonal cycle. In some instances, daily cycles may be more sig-
nificant than seasonal cycles; in all instances, specific regional climatic conditions must be con-
sidered. Mechanical engineering consultants can provide extensive analysis of local data and can
assist the museum in modeling the best response to hourly, daily, and seasonal climatic variation.
If traveling exhibitions from temperate climates are to be displayed in a tropical region, the tem-
porary exhibition gallery and its support spaces should be capable of maintaining a 50 percent
relative humidity set point twenty-four hours per day for the length of time the traveling objects
are in the museum. This often means that the suite of rooms used for receiving and displaying
traveling exhibitions will require a dedicated HVAC system. At the absolute minimum, air circu-
lation systems should operate twenty-four hours a day to ensure pockets of hot or cold, damp, or
dry air do not develop. At those times when local collections are on display, the relative humidity
set point would be adjusted to match the level found in the rest of the museum collection spaces.
It should be noted that in 2019 ASHRAE released recommendations suggesting a relaxing of
the environmental standards to be attained and maintained within collection spaces with the
objective of reducing energy consumption and costs. This research also offered that somewhat
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broader ranges of temperature and relative humidity fluctuation may be acceptable for most
objects. However, the risks involved must be assessed for each class of material, in each climate
situation. The differences between tropical, temperate, and arctic climates, and between conti-
nental and maritime climates, impact these general recommendations and must be studied in
the facilities development stages.
4.2.3.2 Air Movement and Outdoor Air
The quality and quantity of outside air that enters the exhibition space affects visitors and collec-
tions alike. Outside air has to be warmed or cooled, with moisture added or removed, for the com-
fort of visitors and for preservation of the collections. It has to be kept moving in order to promote
the right level of exchange and to prevent pockets of stagnant air where mold may grow. At the
same time, gusts of air can chill and dry artifacts even when protected by a vitrine—so excessive
air pressure and too many air changes per hour should be avoided. Carbon dioxide emitted by
visitors can also put additional loads on the climate control systems, as excessive carbon dioxide
can be harmful to sensitive works of art. Carbon dioxide sensors should be installed in galleries
and collection storage areas to monitor air quality and adjust the amount of outdoor air to be pro-
vided by the HVAC system. A museum building and its exhibition spaces should be designed to
provide passive protection for the collections so that in case of equipment breakdown or energy
outages the museum-quality environmental conditions can be maintained. Thermal gradients
should be present in galleries because of stratification—warm air rising and cold air falling—and
because of the heat of the lights in the gallery, the thermal influence of visitors, and the pres-
ence of any exterior walls, roofs, windows, or skylights. To combat stratification and to provide
frequent treatment of the air so that close control is possible, the number of times the volume of
air in the space should pass through the air handling unit between six and eight times per hour,
compared with the non-museum standard of four to six times per hour. As many as eight to
twelve air changes per hour may be required during public hours in popular exhibition galleries.
4.2.3.3 Air Cleanliness
Clean air is essential for a good exhibition environment. There are two main air pollution dangers
for collections: particulate pollution, such as the tiny carbon particles that can permanently mark
and discolor materials, and gaseous pollution, which can deteriorate fragile materials irreversibly.
The museum’s air filtration system needs to be designed to combat both types of air pollution.
Ideally, the entire museum should be treated so that dirty air does not flow into the galleries from
adjacent spaces.
Small, carbon-based particles (less than one micron in diameter) such as diesel soot, which
blacken surfaces, require high-efficiency air filters to keep them at bay. Activated carbon filters
located in the mixed air stream of the air handling unit should be used, no matter what the ex-
terior gaseous pollutants and their levels are. The use of high voltage electronic (electrostatic)
type air filters is to be avoided because of the danger of ozone generation, which can damage
collections. The efficiency of filters is measured in either of two ways:
• The North American standard is the efficiency test portion of ASHRAE Standard 52.1-1992:
Gravimetric and Dust Spot Procedures for Testing Air Cleaning Devices Used in General
Ventilation for Removing Particulate Matter.
• The European equivalent is Eurovent Test 4/5.
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34 Chapter 4
Applying these standards, the recommended air filter bank should be composed of:
• A pre-filter that is 30 percent efficient (ASHRAE), class EU 4 (Eurovent)
• A medium filter that is 85 percent efficient (ASHRAE), class EU 7 (Eurovent)
• An activated carbon bed filter providing gaseous pollutant removal
• A final filter that is 95 percent efficient to capture activated carbon dust, class EU 8 (Eurovent)
4.2.3.4 Light Levels
Damage that light can cause to fragile museum objects has long been known to collectors and
museum professionals. Increased light on an object will increase surface temperature through in-
frared heating. This in turn can decrease localized relative humidity and dry out the object. Thus,
for both permanent and temporary exhibitions, great care has to be taken not only to control the
overall gallery light levels but also to provide appropriate lighting to each object and case.
Figure 4.3 provides light level recommendations that simplify lighting decisions for both tem-
porary exhibitions and permanent collection displays and that also provide safe conditions for
most materials.
Figure 4.3. Recommended light levels for museum exhibitions. LORD CULTURAL RESOURCES
Assuming that the technical standards for lighting can and will be met to preserve the objects
on display effectively, there are three systems of artificial lighting within the gallery that need to
be considered for different functions:
1. Exhibition lighting, intended to highlight individual works, vitrines, or other exhibit com-
ponents
2. Ambient light for safety and comfort of movement of visitors, which may include lighted
walkways, ambient room lighting, and emergency lighting
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3. Working lights that can be turned up and used during exhibition or equipment installation,
cleaning, and maintenance
These systems should be part of the lighting plan for a new or renovated gallery space, forming
the basic set-up that will be there permanently regardless of future exhibitions. Gallery planning
and design should identify the desired degree of flexibility in changing exhibitions, and the de-
mands that this will place on the basic lighting system.
Track lighting is the most frequently encountered system for exhibitions. In an art or archival
gallery and most temporary exhibition galleries, it should be possible to light any area of wall
or floor surface effectively with an established track lighting system, by moving, adjusting, and
refocusing the luminaries. Thus, the track lighting system needs to be designed to provide as
complete coverage as possible of the display surfaces. A similar level of overall light coverage
using track lighting is a useful basic set-up for thematic and interactive galleries as well, providing
the option of focusing a spread of light or a spotlight on a wall, floor, or even a ceiling without
having to build this feature into the exhibitry. Having such a basic lighting setup may well help
keep costs of special exhibition fabrication down.
Track lighting systems can also accommodate ambient uplighting, working lights, and a drop-
down power supply. Control panels for lights in a gallery need to be located near a service en-
trance, where the person making adjustments can see the entire space. If possible, dimmers and
other lighting controls should be accessible to staff, but not to the public. Lamp replacement may
be an important consideration in galleries that are high up, requiring a movable sky jack lift or
catwalk to access the lights, as in the highest galleries in the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao.
4.2.3.5 Microclimates
Microclimates are special environments found in enclosers such as display cases or dioramas.
Microclimates provide protection for certain objects that require different environments from
other items in a gallery. For example, the relative humidity set points for many organic objects
and for human comfort will not be dry enough for metals that are corroding. Such metal objects
can be isolated in sealed vitrines with relative humidity and temperature control to bring moisture
levels down to prevent or restrict corrosion.
Microclimates can be useful when a gallery exists within a historic building that cannot provide
a good seal against the outdoor environment. Use of microclimates may help to reduce energy
costs, depending on the climatic conditions and proposed building systems. Two types of micro-
climates can be implemented: passive and active.
A passive microclimate can be as simple as a framed, matted print with dust-proof backing
paper or a more complex system such as an air-tight case with a reconditionable humidity buffer
material. Regardless of which method is employed, an important consideration in creating any
microclimate is air tightness. Per the 1999 ASHRAE applications handbook, “Most museum
cases leak in the range of 10 to 100 air changes per day, but careful design can limit this to 0.1
AC/D.” Thus, the better the display case is sealed from outside air, the less need for buffering
materials or gallery-wide methods for environmental control.
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zelf de strekking er van aangegeven in zijn beoordeeling van H u y g e n s ’
Cluyswerk waar hij over de miskenning klaagt, die een recensent zoo
dikwijls ondervindt. „Doe wat ge wilt,” zegt hij daar, „doe wat ge wilt, ge
zult toch den laster niet ontgaan,” hebben wij dikwijls in onze gedachten de
redactie van De Gids toegeroepen, wanneer wij haar i n h e t a f b r e k e n
e n i n h e t o p b o u w e n evenzeer hoorden verketteren. Het beginsel
waarvan zij bij beide uitging, was hetzelfde, waaraan wij ons volksbestaan,
onzen volksrijkdom, onzen volksroem, onze volksdeugden verpligt zijn; het
is het streven naar degelijkheid, het woord, dat de lofspraak onzer vaderen
in zich sluit. Aangespoord door de overtuiging, dat er geen kwaad in het
land is, hetwelk niet aan de verdooving van dat levenwekkend beginsel te
wijten valt,—opgebeurd door het vertrouwen, dat er bij ons volk nog kracht
genoeg schuilt, om zich op de hoogte zijns tijds te handhaven, mits die
sluimerende vonken worden opgerakeld en aangeblazen, spiegelde zij ons
beurtelings ter beschaming en ter opwekking, de glorierijkste dagen van ons
gemeenebest af. Vreemd aan de vergoding onzer voorouders, ten onzent
verschoonbaar in de dagen der Fransche heerschappij—want wie staart uit
den nacht der schande niet gaarne de zweem van luister aan, die nog aan de
kimmen van het verleden wijlt, schoon er meer verwachting is van het
berouw, dat in zijne ellende aan zijne zonde gedenkt?—vreemd aan dien
vergodingsgeest, maar zelfbewust door het besef, vanwaar wij zijn
uitgevallen, wees zij ons, waar het ijver voor kennis of liefde voor kunst
gold, waar sprake was van omvang van studie of kracht van stijl, waar
schrijvers en dichters naar stoffe en beelden omzagen, op de gulden eeuw
van Frederik Hendrik. Dank zij ons volk, dat zij sympathie vond voor haar
doel,—schoon zij der laster niet ontging! Zoo dikwijls zij afbrak—en haar
beginsel dwong er haar meermalen toe, en wij zouden de waarheid geweld
aandoen, wanneer wij ontkenden, dat de moker der critiek bijwijlen hard op
het middelmatige is neergevallen, dat hij menig bolwerk heeft omgehaald,
waarachter zich aanmatiging en verwaandheid vrij waanden—zoo dikwijls
hoorden wij den kreet opgaan: „De man is toch zoo braaf!”—of: „Hij geeft
zooveel aan den arme!”—of: „Wanneer gij wist hoe wèl hij het meende!”
En of het zijne meening, zijne menschlievendheid, zijn burgerlijk karakter
had gegolden, en niet zijn werk; ondegelijke, onverstandige, onware
beschouwing van den pligt der critiek! Zoo vaak zij opbouwde—en wijs mij
een letterkundig tijdschrift ten onzent, dat met hare warmte prijst wat het

bewondert, dat als zij de waarde van dien lof verhoogt, door den schrijver
of dichter de gave toe te kennen iets nog beters te kunnen leveren, dan hij
aanvankelijk schonk—zoo vaak hoorden wij de opmerking maken: „Och,
die zeventiende eeuw!”—of: „Het was ook niet alles goud, wat toen
blonk!”—of: „Wanneer die modellen nu leefden, het zou wel anders
luiden!” Wij verheugen ons, door de uitnoodiging een woord over het
Cluys-werk van Huygens bij te dragen, in staat te zijn het laatste te
logenstraffen.”
De aanhaling is lang, maar ze was noodig, omdat in deze bladzij de
voornaamste grondslagen van Potgieters critiek liggen opgesloten, omdat
hij zelf hierin heeft aangegeven door welke middelen hij zijn doel hoopt te
bereiken. De voornaamste dezer middelen wenschen we thans
achtereenvolgens aan te geven en te bespreken.
De 17e eeuw tot voorbeeld. I. De 17e eeuw wordt door Potgieter steeds als een
ideaal vol kracht en schoonheid aan zijne tijdgenooten voorgehouden, de
roem der voorvaderen moet den nazaat eenerzijds prikkelen tot daden, dat
voorgeslacht waardig, aan den anderen kant hem zijn zwakheid en
krachteloosheid leeren inzien, want dan eerst is verbetering mogelijk.
In bijna alle critieken straalt dat beginsel door. Reeds L o o t s werd
geprezen, omdat hij voortdurend wees op dat volschoone verleden, omdat
hij naar zijn vermogen die groote meesters trachtte te volgen en te
waardeeren. Hij „vergeleek beurtelings, in meesterlijke trekken, het laffe
tegenwoordige met het schitterend verleden” en bestraft zijn tijdgenooten,
die in dagen van schande schaamteloos durfden feestvieren, alsof niet de
vaderen minachtend op zulk een verbasterd kroost neerzagen. En
S t a r i n g ! hoe wordt niet zijn liefde voor de gouden eeuw geprezen; de
criticus stelt hem daarom zelfs ten voorbeeld aan anderen. „Wij wenschten
dat onze jeugdige dichters, zooals Staring deed, de poëten der zeventiende
eeuw bestudeerden; hunne werken getuigen van eene verstandige,
opgeruimde, kloeke levensbeschouwing, die wij ongaarne in de geschriften
onzes tijds missen.” Mejuffrouw To u s s a i n t , die in navolging van
S c o t t de graaf van Devonshire had geschreven, wordt er op gewezen, dat
daar niet haar weg ligt: de burgers der 17e
eeuw, de mannen die Nederland

tot grootheid voerden, dat zijn de ware helden voor een Nederlandschen
roman. „Mejuffr. T. gevoelt, schoon zij het misschien niet begrijpt, dat onze
historie niet de personaadjes oplevert welke zij behoeft; g r o o t in dien
romantischen, hier niet geheel Walter Scottschen zin, waren eigenlijk de
eerzame burgers onzer republiek nooit. Maar dat de lauwer, die het hoofd
zal omkransen, van wie de poezij, welke er in onze eenvoudiger toestanden
ligt, aanschouwelijker zal weten te maken, niet frisscher,
benijdenswaardiger, duurzamer zal zijn dan de lof voor een aardig tafereel
van riddermoed of hofintrigue, vaak en aan velen bedeeld: wie loochent
het?”
In dezelfde beoordeeling wordt het betreurd dat Va n L e n n e p zich
eveneens te veel overgeeft aan navolging van Scott, en zich niet toelegt op
schildering van echt Hollandsche toestanden. „Indien hij zich de helft der
studie, welke hij der middeleeuwen wijdde, voor onze zeehelden, onze
handelaars, onze Staats- en Prinsgezinden, getroost had, hoeveel
verdienstelijker zoude zijn populariteit, hoeveel duurzamer de
vermaardheid zijner schriften zijn!”
Zijn allesoverheerschende bewondering voor dien geliefden tijd van
Frederik Hendrik heeft Potgieter uitgesproken in de critiek van Huygens’
Cluyswerk, het geheele artikel is bijna éen doorloopende lofspraak op die
glansperiode uit onze geschiedenis, zoo zelfs, dat de schrijver onwillekeurig
eenigszins partijdig is geworden. H u y g e n s , „een d e g e l i j k , een
g e h e e l , een w a a r man,” is voor hem de incarnatie van de 17e
eeuw, alle
goede eigenschappen welke Potgieter aan dien tijd toekent, draagt hij—en
meestal niet ten onrechte—over op Huygens en juist daardoor wordt dat
beeld te idealistisch en dus onwaar. Vooral blijkt dat, als de bewondering
ook overgedragen wordt op de verzen: Potgieter eert den dichter om den
mensch, een stelling, die hij anders steeds verre van zich werpt.
Nationale kunst. II. In verband met het voorgaande eischt Potgieter van ieder
schrijver, dat hij nationaal, echt Hollandsch zij.
Dit echt Nederlandsche prijst hij in S t a r i n g en H u y g e n s , „die altijd
Hollander was,” hij waarschuwt Va n L e n n e p : de middeleeuwen, de

riddertijd is voor ons niet het nationale; mej. To u s s a i n t , die Scott
navolgt, moet op den rechten weg gebracht worden: „een waarlijk
Nederlandsche roman, door een vrouw van haren aanleg, na ijverige studie,
geschreven, zou, verbeelden wij ons, een uitnemend werk zijn,”—van de
Pastorij te Mastland wordt gezegd: „En echter wij durven onzen schrijver
opgang beloven; Hollandsche toestanden, met een Hollandsch hoofd
gedacht, met een Hollandsch hart gevoeld, vinden nog sympathie.”
Geen chauvinisme. III. Die zin voor ’t nationale, de ware vaderlandsliefde,
mag nooit tot chauvinisme worden. In het prospectus van de Gids werd het
„lafhartige vleien der Hollandsche eigenliefde” scherp gelaakt, en nooit zal
men Potgieter kunnen beschuldigen van een dergelijke handelwijze; hij
durfde ook Nederlandsche kunst, als die ons land onwaardig was, openlijk
en luid afkeuren. „Wij hebben een afkeer van de bekrompene nationaliteit
welke het voortreffelijke loochent, dewijl het uit den vreemde komt, en het
gebrekkige opvijzelt, omdat het inheemsch is,” zoo zegt hij in een artikel
over „De kopijeerlust des dagelijkschen levens” en uitgaande van dat
beginsel spreekt hij een vernietigend vonnis uit over een bij uitstek
Nederlandsche onderneming: De Nederlanden. Karakterschetsen,
kleederdragten, houding en voorkomen van verschillende standen, of zooals
Potgieter het uitdrukt: d e N e d e r l a n d e r s d u s , n a a r l i j f e n
z i e l . Kort en krachtig is het oordeel, dat zeer zeker niet van chauvinisme
getuigt: „Stook een vuurtje van krullen onder de schetsen, goed hout zijn ze
niet waardig!”
Van zoo iemand is het te verwachten, dat hij ook het goede in de vreemde
letterkunde zal waardeeren, geen wonder dus dat Potgieter steeds aanspoort
tot bestudeering van ’t schoone, dat de buitenlandsche literatuur te genieten
geeft. Als volgende eisch van zijn critiek noemen we daarom:
Studie van buitenlandsche werken. IV. Bestudeering van de buitenlandsche
letterkunde om daardoor de inheemsche schooner en krachtiger te doen
worden.
In zijn eerste critiek, een beoordeeling van de Verzameling van
Voortbrengselen van Uitheemsche Vernuften, die in de Vr i e n d d e s

Va d e r l a n d s van 1833 verscheen, prees Potgieter de onderneming,
welke ten doel had: „ons in de Poëzij voor de eenzijdigheid te bewaren,
welke den dood der kunst tengevolge heeft.”
In 1837 kende hij reeds de belangrijkste schrijvers uit het buitenland en had
zich ook een oordeel omtrent den toestand der literatuur in Engeland en
Frankrijk gevormd. De invloed der Duitschers is in de eerste gedichten niet
te miskennen, de neiging tot het sentimenteele, welke in die verzen te
bespeuren is, moet voor een goed deel daaraan worden toegeschreven,
zooals Potgieter trouwens zelf in zijn Leven van Bakhuizen erkent, waar hij
zegt: „Als de meeste eerstelingen waren zij, wat de manier betreft,
navolging: Feith had mij voor de vroegste tot model gestrekt, vervolgens
was ik bij de meesters onzer oostelijke buren school gegaan….” De reis
naar Zweden breidde zijn kennis bovendien uit over een geheel nieuw en
tevens rijk veld der literatuur, waarvan Potgieter later ruim gebruik maakte.
Hoezeer de criticus ijvert voor ’t bestudeeren der buitenlandsche literatuur,
toch wijst hij er nadrukkelijk op, dat dit nooit mag ontaarden in een
klakkeloos navolgen; wel moet de kunstenaar het goede uit den vreemde
waardeeren en voor zoover ’t met het nationale strookt ook overnemen,
maar steeds moet hij trachten op zijn werk een eigen cachet te drukken;
steeds moet hij oorspronkelijk blijven. In Potgieters critieken keert dan ook
telkens de eisch terug:
Oorspronkelijkheid. V. Wees oorspronkelijk.
D r o s t , die veel invloed op de vorming van den jongen Potgieter heeft
gehad, ijverde steeds voor oorspronkelijkheid en wees zijn vriend met
nadruk op die eigenschap omdat deze op weg was „in Franschen geest” te
gaan werken. In dit opzicht had Drost zeker geen beteren volger kunnen
wenschen; niemand heeft meer dan Potgieter dit beginsel hoog gehouden.
Zijn ideaal was ook hier weer H u y g e n s : „Constantijn levert een der
treffendste voorbeelden op, dat ware oorspronkelijkheid ook onder de
veelzijdigste beschaving niet te loor gaat.”—Vervangen we hier den naam
Constantijn door dien van P o t g i e t e r , dan blijft de zin even waar als
zooeven: veelzijdig beschaafd en toch oorspronkelijk, dat is zijn

hoofdkenmerk als dichter en prozaïst. Alles wat hij geschreven heeft, draagt
zijn stempel, men behoeft slechts enkele regels te lezen, of men herkent
dadelijk zijn stijl, zijn taal, zijn denkbeelden. In bijna alle critieken herhaalt
hij dan ook den eisch: wees individueel, wees u-zelf. In den Vr i e n d d e s
Va d e r l a n d s van 1835 bij een beoordeeling van: Keur van Scherts en
Luim, door onderscheidene Nederlandsche Dichters, hooren we ’t reeds.
Potgieter bespreekt daar: Lof der schoonen en bij mijne Aanteekening als
Bruidegom van A S i f f l é en keurt het vers af, want—zegt hij—„Een
aangeteekende Bruidegom is een alledaagsche situatie, ik geef het u toe,
maar, mijn Hemel! waarom moet er een vers op gemaakt, zoo men niet
oorspronkelijk weet te zijn, als Van Lennep het was bij een diergelijke
gelegenheid!”
L o o t s werd vooral geprezen, omdat hij nationaal en oorspronkelijk was;
de 18e
eeuw noemde Potgieter de eeuw der „belachelijke navolgingszucht,”
de dichtgenootschappen berispten den jongen kunstenaar en keurden zijne
verzen af, „hij is oorspronkelijk, waarom zoude hij niet navolgen als wij?”
Dat wenschten ze.
S t a r i n g is een van Potgieters lievelingsdichters, hij de Geldersman, de
Nederlander in hart en nieren, heeft door de hem eigen kernachtige wijze
van zeggen, „door zijne veelzijdige beschaving en ware
oorspronkelijkheid,” het hart van den criticus gestolen; deze juicht als de
gedichten van den heer Van den Wildenborch ten tweeden male gedrukt
worden, ’t is voor hem een bewijs, dat er vooruitgang te bespeuren is, dat
individualiteit op prijs wordt gesteld.
H a s e b r o e k , die volstrekt niet doorloopend geprezen wordt, stelt
Potgieter toch vrij hoog, en wel vooral wegens zijn oorspronkelijkheid; van
B e e t s ’ José wordt gezegd: „José scheen ons een geniale eersteling. Zijn
gebreken wogen misschien tegen zijn schoonheden op, maar de eerste
waren nagevolgd, de laatste oorspronkelijk”, en juist daarom is er hoop
voor de toekomst; mejuffrouw To u s s a i n t , die in den Graaf van
Devonshire Scott volgde, wordt gewaarschuwd, dat ze niet op den goeden
weg is: enkele bladzijden uit den roman getuigen, dat zij niet behoeft na te
volgen. „Waarom,” vraagt Potgieter haar welmeenend, „waarom toch

n a v o l g i n g e n geleverd, als men zoo goed o o r s p r o n k e l i j k
schrijft!”
Te n K a t e ontvangt een dergelijke, maar veel scherpere waarschuwing:
„Het deert ons, dat iemand, bedeeld met een zoo veel belovend talent, als
dat van Ten Kate, bij zijn optreden in onze letterkundige kringen scheen,
ondanks allen raad, naar geene ontwikkeling van wat er oorspronkelijks in
hem schuilt, streeft,” zegt Potgieter in zijn bekend artikel over „de
Kopijeerlust des dagelijkschen levens,” een zevental schetsen van Ten Kate
besprekende. Veel hooger stelt de criticus in diezelfde beoordeeling een
schetsje van den onbekenden G . H . C l e m e n s , alleen omdat deze wel
zichzelf is. „Het scheen ons, dat de oorzaak van zijn opgang in het talent
school, waarmede hij van zijne individualiteit partij trok.”
En K l i k s p a a n : „courage monsieur,” roept Potgieter hem aanmoedigend
toe, „courage monsieur, voilà de l’originalité!” B e e l o o wordt geroemd,
omdat hij een „oorspronkelijk lierdichter is”; op B u s k e n H u e t
eindelijk wordt de bekende versregels van A l f r e d d e M u s s e t
toegepast: „Mon verre n’est pas grand, mais je bois dans mon verre,” en,
voegt Potgieter erbij: „Daarop komt het aan; dat doet leven!”
We besluiten onze bespreking van dit gedeelte met een aanhaling uit de
critiek op Huygens’ Cluyswerck, waarin het geheele streven van Potgieter
in enkele woorden is samengevat: „Wedijveren met den vreemde,—geen
navolging van deze—moet ons doel zijn! Waardeering, ontwikkeling,
volmaking van hetgeen er oorspronkelijks in ons schuilt, och of zij de plaats
verving van gehuichelde geestdrift, die slechts tot naäperij leidt!”
Juist omdat Potgieter wenscht: Wedijver met den vreemde, doch geene
navolging, is hij geen beslist aanhanger van de romantiek, maar evenmin
een volgeling van Bilderdijk en zijne school. We stellen daarom als volgend
kenmerk:
Nieuwe nationale letterkunde. VI. Potgieter is nòch een aanhanger der
romantiek, nòch een volgeling van Bilderdijk, maar wordt de stichter van
een nieuwe nationale letterkunde.

In een paar zinnen heeft hij in de beoordeeling van den Graaf van
Devonshire zijn standpunt uiteengezet. „Wij weten niet,” zegt hij, terwijl hij
zich afkeurend uitlaat over de ophemeling van Va n L e n n e p s
geschiedkundige romans, „wij weten niet wat gevaarlijker is, òf deze
maatstaf voor onze romantiek, òf de onoordeelkundig aangeprezen
navolging van Bilderdijk voor onze poëzij. De eerste overlaadt ons met
kopijen van kopijen, de laatste bedreigt ons met overvloed van klinkende
woorden, bij armoede van gedachten; beide weren alle zelfstandige
ontwikkeling van het talent, dat er in onze jeugdige schrijvers schuilen
mogt.”
Daarom waarschuwt hij telkens Va n L e n n e p , hij tracht dezen te
brengen tot de 17e
eeuw, maar het gelukt niet; bij Mejuffrouw
To u s s a i n t slagen dezelfde pogingen beter. Byroniaansche
zwartgalligheid wordt gecritiseerd: „Levensmoeheid in de jaren, waarin
men levensbloei verwachten mogt, eene negatieve rigting, die eindigt met
ook over zich zelven onvoldaan te zijn…. valt in 1838 de studie van dien
dichter nog aan te bevelen? Laat men ons veroorloven er zedig aan te
twijfelen; misduide men het niet, wanneer wij er onze jeugdige dichters
voor waarschuwen.”
Het grillige, akelige en doellooze in de romantiek wordt eveneens
bestreden; hij wenscht motiveering van de handeling, niet een louter
heerschen van ’t toeval. Tegen deze overdrijving van een in vele opzichten
goed beginsel waarschuwt hij ernstig in de beoordeeling van B e e t s ’ Guy
de Vlaming. Hij zegt hieromtrent het volgende: „Een woord over het
akelige, eer wij voortgaan. Verstaat gij door akelig een wereld bij toeval
ontstaan, met wezens bevolkt, die onderling de grilligste tegenstelling
opleveren, als Quasimodo, de Esmeralde en Claude Frollo b.v., waarin, om
eene treffende verwarring te doen plaats grijpen, een bruiloftsstoet een
lijkstaatsie overrijdt;—waarin dat erger is, zoowel de tuchtigende roede van
de Nemesis der Ouden, als het Alziend oog onzer Voorzienigheid ontbreekt,
en even teugellooze als redelooze driften aldus heerschappij voeren; neen,
elkander doelloos bestrijden;—noemt ge die wereld de wereld der
Romantiek, ik zal met u uitroepen: „horrible, horrible, most horrible!” En
iets verder: „Een rustiger tijdperk is aangebroken, het gewone leven is weer

prozaïscher; al wie idealiseert vindt een luisterend gehoor. Wij keurden
daarom de gruwelen in José af, wij prijzen in Kuser het overwigt der
vrouwen, het weinig feitelijke van den moord;—hoe verdedigen wij dan het
sombere van Guy de Vlaming?”
Potgieter heeft dus tegenover de Romantiek zijne gewone wijze van doen
gevolgd: wat hij in dit voortbrengsel van vreemden bodem goed vond: de
dichterlijke taal, de stoute beeldspraak, de kracht waarmee de dichter door
zijn overtuiging wist uit te komen, in ’t algemeen gezegd het verjongende
element, heeft hij gewaardeerd en geprezen, maar voor overdrijving, die
hem schadelijk voor den bloei onzer letteren voorkwam, meende hij te
moeten waarschuwen. Mede door zijn critiek en door zijn besliste afkeuring
van ’t geen hij in de romantische richting verkeerd vond, heeft deze
beweging nooit een zoo hooge vlucht genomen, als in andere landen het
geval is geweest. Tegenover de sombere, dweepzieke romantiek der
middeleeuwen stelt Potgieter onze kerngezonde 17e
eeuw. De letterkundige
heeft volgens hem een hoogere roeping dan ’t uitwerken van allerlei
fantasieën; zijn doel is niet de prikkeling der zenuwen van de lezers, niet
louter vermaken, maar verbeteren. „Dubbele tanden moeten uitgetrokken.”
Vandaar dat Potgieter wel wenscht realisme, maar gezien met de oogen der
liefde, met oog voor ’t schoone. Hij wil de dingen niet zien zooals ze
precies zijn, maar zooals hij wenschte, dat ze waren. Potgieter is idealist,
dat getuigt bijna ieder zijner werken. Men neme eens het L e v e n v a n
B a k h u i z e n in handen en zie dan hoe hij alles wat daarin beschreven is,
heeft aangeraakt met den tooverstaf van zijn idealisme.
Als een volgend kenmerk van zijn critiek kunnen we dus vaststellen:
Idealistisch realisme. VII. Potgieter wenscht wel realisme, maar geïdealiseerd.
Naturalisme keurt hij streng af. Het duidelijkst komt dat alles uit in het
artikel: De kopijeerlust des dagelijkschen levens, waarin de Camera van
B e e t s , Studententypen van K l i k s p a a n en nog enkele schetsen
besproken worden. Potgieter tracht zijne meening duidelijk te doen
uitkomen, door vergelijking met de Vlaamsche schilderschool, die gewone
huiselijke tooneelen op het doek bracht, dat is wel geen hooge kunst, maar

toch kunst, „wanneer gij talent genoeg bezit om dat te idealiseeren;
wanneer uw open zin er de natuur met liefde in waardeert en geniet.”
D i c k e n s is de voorganger van de tegenwoordige „Schetsen of
Typenmanie”; en kenmerkend voor Potgieters wijze van beschouwing is
het, dat hij, na veel in dezen schrijver te hebben afgekeurd, er op laat
volgen: „Ter vergelijking van dit alles bezit hij groote juistheid van
opmerking in kleine karaktertrekken, veelzijdigen zin voor
maatschappelijke toestanden, eenen bewonderenswaardige stijl, waaraan
onze vertalers slechts zelden regt weten te doen, en hoogste lof! een vurig
geloof, aan het goede, aan het onsterfelijke, aan het goddelijke in den
mensch! Het is vooral om die laatste, onwaardeerbare eigenschap, dat ik
moed heb hem te verwijten, dat hij de kunst van haren vorstelijken zetel
heeft afgerukt, haar—laat mij de woorden van Professor Geel mogen
bezigen:—„een festijn heeft laten geven in een gaarkeuken!”
Eerst als men goed deze beginselen van Potgieter in het oog heeft gevat, is
het mogelijk te begrijpen dat de Camera Obscura in vele opzichten moest
worden veroordeeld, terwijl de Studententypen grooten lof verwierven.
Laten we dit met de woorden van den criticus zelf toelichten.
„Wij zijn van zelven tot de verklaring genoopt, waarom wij niet
onvoorwaardelijk met Hildebrand sympathiseren. Het boek heeft tal van
verdiensten, en wij zullen daaraan straks onbekrompen regt doen, maar er
faalt voor ons gevoel een hoofdverdienste aan, welke wij zoo gaarne bij en
boven die alle zouden huldigen…. O dat eene liefde als die voor de taal,
door zijn werk zoo heerlijk verkondigd, zich over alles had uitgebreid,
hoeveel schoonere vruchten zou het dragen, dan wij er nu aan dank mogen
weten, hoe talrijk zij zijn!”
Omdat deze liefde, dit gevoel voor ’t goede in den mensch, de humane
levensbeschouwing, die afbreekt om te verbeteren en die welwillend het
goede op den voorgrond plaatst, in de beschrijving van de Familie Stastok
ontbreekt, keurt Potgieter zelfs deze, overigens uitstekende schets, in
beginsel af. „Wij zouden haar toejuichen, zoo Hildebrand ook zich zelven
een weinig edelmoediger had prijs gegeven; zoo hier en daar een straal van

licht het donkere tafereel had opgeluisterd: „zoo het doel dier schets hooger
ware.” En zelfs het beroemde gedeelte, waarin K e e s j e , het
Diakenhuismannetje, zijn geschiedenis vertelt, kan de goedkeuring van den
criticus niet wegdragen; hier toont Hildebrand wel gevoel, wel liefde, maar
hij „verkwist het aan iemand, die er weinig regt op heeft.” Keesje had reeds
jaren lang genadebrood gegeten en zoo iemand wekt bij Potgieter geen
sympathie.
K l i k s p a a n daarentegen is een man naar ’t hart van den criticus; zijn
werk stelt hij verre boven dat van B e e t s , niet juist omdat de eerste beter
schrijver is, maar omdat zijne ideeën omtrent de strekking der kunst
volkomen met die van Potgieter overeenstemmen. De laatste zegt het
K l i k s p a a n na: „Dat er iets edelers en moedigers is in het uit liefde
berispen, al valt de tong of de pen wat scherp en vinnig uit, dan in het
eentoonig steken van de loftrompet.”
De auteur wenscht niets als Beets eenvoudig te teekenen, te berispen, neen,
hij wil verbetering, „zijn doel reikte hooger: zoo het aan hem stond, hij zou
ons vaderland eene schooner, roemrijker, gelukkiger toekomst willen
waarborgen.” „Hij wilde (den student) aanschouwelijk maken in het goede
en in het kwade, opdat al wie invloed op hem uitoefenen, het eerste mogen
waardeeren, het laatste te keer gaan, vooral, omdat hij zich aan hem zelven
spiegelen zou.”
Het hooge ideaal, dat Potgieter in Beets’ Camera tevergeefs zocht, vond hij
in de Studententypen, en daarom beoordeelde hij het laatste werk zooveel
gunstiger dan ’t eerste. Hoe duidelijk komt het hier aan ’t licht, dat het
onmogelijk is, Potgieters critieken goed te begrijpen, als men de
grondslagen er niet van kent.
Uit het bovenstaande volgt noodzakelijk, dat een eenvoudig beschrijven van
de werkelijkheid, zuiver realisme dus, niet in de lijn van Potgieter ligt en
veel minder is van hem te verwachten, dat hij het naturalisme zal
goedkeuren. Een paar aanhalingen mogen dienen om te bewijzen, dat deze
laatste bewering waar is. Beets schreef eenige schetsen in het meermalen
genoemd werk De Nederlanden, o. a. ook de Leidsche Peuëraar en hiervan

zegt de criticus alleen: „Hoe kon de blik van Hildebrand zoo lang op de
afzigtelijkheid wijlen?” Van een andere bijdrage heet het: „Wij maakten
door de Amsterdamsche kermis kennis met den heer J. W. Kirchner, maar
wij passen elkander niet. De wijze waarop hij ons onderscheidene harer
tooneelen schildert, is door en door gemeen, zulk een veraanschouwelijking
daalt beneden de kunst.”
Thans een enkel woord over de verhouding van den criticus tot den
godsdienst. We wenschen dit aldus te formuleeren:
Potgieter en de godsdienst. VIII. Potgieter is niet ongodsdienstig; zijn
godsdienst is een practisch, werkzaam Christendom.
Werk en bid! is zijn zinspreuk; het woord dat ook Willem van Oranje tot
richtsnoer van zijn werkzaam leven had gekozen. Daarom wordt ook het
dwepend geloof van D a C o s t a afgekeurd; bijna al diens verzen eindigen
met een betuiging van vast vertrouwen in de komst van het duizendjarig rijk
en hiervan zegt de beoordeelaar der „Hollandsche Politieke Poëzij: „Laat
ons er opregt voor uitkomen, het staren op die toekomst, ons in de laatste
drie verzen van den heer Da Costa met zoo gloeijende verwen afgemaald,
bedreigt zijne ijverigste pogingen met vruchteloosheid, slaat al zijne
raadgevingen met den vloek van het onbepaalde, en dreigt in een lijdelijk
Christendom gaven en krachten te verteeren aan wier degelijke werking ons
arm vaderland meer dan ooit behoefte heeft.”
Door deze opvatting van het godsdienstige ontstond de strenge kritiek
„Piëtistische Poëzij”, die in 1853 naar aanleiding van de uitgave der
gedichten van de toen pas gestorven jonge dichteres A l b e r t i n e
K e h r e r geschreven werd, en die Beets en Potgieter voor goed van elkaar
verwijderde. „Er schijnt slechts ééne snaar op deze lier geweest te zijn,”
zegt de criticus en nadat hij duidelijk zijn tegenzin omtrent dit slappe,
dwepende Christendom heeft uiteengezet, vervolgt hij: „Zoo er onder onze
grootste mannen geweest zijn, die getuigd hebben, dat zij, in hunne beste
daden, slechts in beoefening bragten, wat zij leerden, staande aan de schoot
hunner moeder, het geheim schuilt daarin, dat de godsvrucht dier even
vroede als vrome vrouwen niets droomzieks noch dweepends had, dat zij

zoowel in verdraagzamen als verheven geest hervormd heeten mogt, dat bij
haar, huiselijk-hollandsch uitgedrukt, „doen vóor zeggen” ging.”
Ook in dit opzicht richt Potgieter zich dus naar de zoo hoogvereerde 17e
eeuw.
Hooge eischen der critiek. Uit al het bovenstaande is gebleken, dat de redactie
van De Gids in zijn beoordeelingen aan den kunstenaar hooge eischen
stelde en niet gemakkelijk te bevredigen was. Reeds het simpele feit, dat
een werk waardig geoordeeld werd gecritiseerd te worden, toonde dat
Potgieter het vrij hoog schatte, prullen wenschte hij niet te beoordeelen.
„Uit de kritiek van het slechte leert men toch eigenlijk niet meer, dan dat het
slechte slecht is; onvruchtbare arbeid!” Treffen we toch een critiek over een
minderwaardig werk aan, dan had Potgieter bij ’t schrijven een
bijbedoeling: de beoordeeling van Galama b.v. geschiedde niet in de eerste
plaats om S c h u t op diens fouten te wijzen, maar om de onbevoegdheid
der toenmalige critiek te demonstreeren; de „Piëtistische Poëzij” van
A l b e r t i n e K e h r e r was een welkome aanleiding om te protesteeren
tegen het dweepzieke in den godsdienst en te wijzen op het groote verschil
tusschen dit Christendom en dat, hetwelk de voorvaderen schraagde in den
zwaren strijd tegen het overmachtige Spanje.
Strenge critiek. Streng is de criticus zeer zeker, dat mòest hij zijn volgens zijn
beginselen: „dubbele tanden moesten uitgetrokken”—maar als de
kunstenaar werkelijk lof verdient, wordt deze hem niet onthouden. Alleen
onvermengde lof wordt hem zelden of nooit toegezwaaid. Potgieter weet,
dat volmaaktheid bij den mensch niet bestaat en hij vindt, dat de criticus
zich zelf een brevet van onbevoegdheid uitreikt, als hij niet anders weet te
doen dan bewierooken. Dat is blind zijn voor de gebreken van een werk.
Daarom vraagt hij ook in zijne beoordeeling van Guy de Vlaming: „welke
waarde zou hij (Beets) aan onze lof mogen hechten, indien wij alles van
hem even fraai vonden?” Dit was de gewoonte der dichtgenootschappen,
door Potgieter zoo afgekeurd.
Waarderende critiek. Dat hij weet te waardeeren, bewijzen de critieken van
L o o t s , S t a r i n g , H u y g e n s , K n e p p e l h o u t , B e e t s (vooral

waardeering van diens taal), H e l v e t i u s v a n d e n B e r g h (De
Neven), K o e t s v e l d , D a C o s t a , B e e l o o , B o g a e r s en B u s k e n
H u e t .
Dit blijkt vooral ook uit het feit, dat de beoordeelingen niet uitsluitend
afbrekend, maar bijna altijd tevens opbouwend zijn. Dit is een bizondere,
zeer te waardeeren eigenschap van Potgieter, en vooral daardoor was zijn
critiek zoo vruchtdragend. We wenschen dit nog even meer in
bizonderheden na te gaan.
Opbouwende critiek. IX. Potgieters critiek is meestal opbouwend.
Hij wenscht verbetering; afbreken is niet voldoende, wel is het uitstekend
den auteur te wijzen op zijn fouten en tekortkomingen, maar tevens moeten
hem de middelen aan de hand gedaan worden die hem op ’t goede spoor
brengen. We behandelen deze beide onderdeelen gelijktijdig.
In de critieken treffen we tal van waarschuwingen en vingerwijzingen aan,
vooral voor de jonge schrijvers.
In de beoordeeling der Poëzij van J . P. H a s e b r o e k legt Potgieter, na
veel goeds in den dichter te hebben geprezen, den vinger op de wonde, hij
wijst aan waar de auteur op den verkeerden weg is en zegt daarom: „de heer
Hasebroek wachte zich voor dat blinkende, zijn hoofdgebrek” en op een
andere plaats: „Zouden wij den heer Hasebroek nog behoeven te
verzekeren, welke grootsche verwachtingen onze letterkunde van hem
koestert, hoe zij bij zoovele oorspronkelijkheid hem slechts voor
overdrijving van deze, die gezochtheid wordt, heeft te waarschuwen, om
hem eene der beste plaatsen op onzen Zangberg toe te kennen?”
Om dezelfde reden raadt Potgieter de jonge dichters aan voorzichtig te zijn
bij het bestudeeren van B y r o n ; kenmerkend voor zijn richting is het
verwijt, dat hij richt tot de vroegere critiek: „Het had de critiek van dien tijd
betaamd te waarschuwen voor eene sombere onware levensbeschouwing,
die eensklaps onder onze jeugdige dichters mode werd”—dit natuurlijk
tengevolge van den verkeerden invloed van den Engelschen meester.

B e e t s wordt, zooals we reeds vroeger zagen, in de beoordeeling van de
Camera er met nadruk op gewezen wat hem ontbrak: de liefde, de ware
humaniteit, en tegenover hem wordt als een voorbeeld K l i k s p a a n
gesteld; Te n K a t e , de dichter, die zich ook aan ’t schrijven van schetsen
waagde en daarin zijn bloemrijkheid van stijl niet verloochende, wordt zeer
hardhandig terecht gezet, maar toch ontbreekt ook hier het opbouwende
element niet. Men hoore slechts:
„Gemis van zin voor het eigenaardige van zulke toestanden, een
voorbeeldeloos gezwollen toon, zij maken de lezing der stukjes van den
Heer t. K. vermoeijend; hij schijnt van geen ding ter wereld meer afkeer te
hebben dan van eenvoud. Luister naar deze beschrijving:
„En nu gij uw oogen slaat op dien glazen kast, waar de geribde
kinkhoornen, de zilverglanzige schelpen, de geschubde meirminnen, de
paarlemoerkleurige doosjes, en de anderhalf duim groote visschertjens u als
de Laren en Penaten aanlachen, nu bevindt gij u geheel in een tooverwereld,
en zijt gij voorbereid op de komst der vrouw des huizes. Zij heeft u
gehoord: daar nadert zij, de nachtegaal van dit rozenbosch, de odaliske van
dezen harem; de Eva van dit Eden…. Der schepping heerlijkheid, wat is zij,
dan de vrouw?”
Al dat moois geldt een hartig, pootig wijf, dat wij, in gramme vlaag, een
vischteef noemen: De Scheveningsche Vischvrouw.”
Te n K a t e zal zeker bij ’t lezen van deze onbarmhartige critiek geen
prettig oogenblik gehad hebben, maar toch, toen hij later kalm nadacht, zal
hij ingezien hebben dat Potgieter gelijk had; deze toonde hem, hoewel op
onzachte wijze, zijn feilen, wees aan wat hem ontbrak, en zoodoende was
verbetering mogelijk. Bovendien de bedenkelijke aard der kwaal wettigde
het krachtig ingrijpen van den geneesheer.
De schoonste triomfen heeft deze wijze van critiseeren gevierd in de
ontwikkeling der talenten van Mejuffrouw To u s s a i n t . De beoordeeling
van haar eersten roman De Graaf van Devonshire is de stoot geweest die
haar in eens op den rechten weg bracht en haar voerde tot een

onvergankelijken roem. Dit te hebben bewerkt is een der grootste
verdiensten van den criticus Potgieter.
We nemen thans eenige regels uit het bedoelde artikel over, om nogmaals
duidelijk in ’t licht te stellen, hoe echt humaan de beginselen van den
schrijver waren en met hoeveel ernst hij de hem opgedragen taak trachtte te
vervullen.
„Het vóór ons liggend boek bewijst, dat haar eene buitengewone
verbeeldingskracht bedeeld is, dat zij een sieraad onzer letterkunde worden
kan, zoo zij haren voortreffelijken aanleg door ijverige studiën ontwikkelt
en volmaakt. Het is de voorwaarde van duurzamen roem: waarom zouden
wij het uit kwalijk begrepen hoffelijkheid verzwijgen? De weg naar de
hoogten der kunst heeft dit met alle wegen des levens gemeen, dat wij ons
dien zelve moeten banen, over menig struikelblok en langs menigen
hinderpaal. Het staat niet in de magt der vriendschap, helaas! het is zelfs der
liefde niet vergund, ons de heide, het distelveld, den woesten vloed te
besparen; slechts de ervaring mag ons bij wijlen welmeenend
waarschuwen: „Niet verder op dat pad, gij zoudt verdwalen!” Waarom
wantrouwt overdreven eigenliefde haar zoo dikwijls; waarom kost het der
schrijveren ijdelheid zooveel, te bekennen dat zij mensch zijn geweest, dat
zij gedwaald hebben!”
Gelukkig Mejuffrouw To u s s a i n t , die op haar weg zulk een ervaren en
welmeenenden raadgever ontmoette; heerlijke voldoening voor den vriend,
die mocht zien, hoe schoon de vruchten waren welke zijn raad droeg.
P o t g i e t e r wees de schrijfster er op dat ze op den verkeerden weg was;
navolgingen te schrijven van S c o t t en Va n L e n n e p mocht niet haar
doel zijn, dat doel moest hooger reiken: oorspronkelijk werk moest geleverd
worden, echt Nederlandsche toestanden, tooneelen uit onze roemrijke
geschiedenis, dàt waren onderwerpen, haar talent waardig. Wel was Mej.
Toussaint in den beginne smartelijk getroffen door de strengheid der critiek,
die met vaste hand de gebreken van den roman aanwees en zoo het
heiligdom, dat zij had opgebouwd, ontwijdde; maar ze erkende weldra dat
de criticus haar een onschatbaren en tevens welmeenenden raad had

gegeven. Eere zij haar, dat ze zich niet door „der schrijveren ijdelheid” liet
verblinden en dat ze zich opmaakte om de goede verwachtingen die de
ervaren vriend van haar koesterde, niet te beschamen. Na twee jaren reeds
kon zij in Het Huis Lauernesse een kunstwerk leveren, dat de hoogst
gespannen verwachtingen verre overtrof en met dankbaarheid dacht ze later
terug aan Potgieter, die door zijn eerlijke critiek de rechte leidsman was
gebleken1.
Potgieter en Braga. We merkten reeds vroeger op, dat Potgieter streng was in
zijne critiek, hij stelde hooge eischen en wees, al was hij in een artikel vol
lof over het werk van een auteur, toch steeds op de schaduwzijden, op het
minder gelukkig geslaagde. Vandaar—en vooral ook omdat hij bij zijne
beoordeelingen uitging van vaste beginselen, die hij nimmer verloochende,
en dus alleen goedkeurde wat voldeed aan de door hem gestelde eischen,—
dat hij den naam kreeg van niet onpartijdig te zijn, dat hij volgens zijn
tegenstanders deel uitmaakte van een letterkundig bentgenootschap,
waarvan de leden elkander onderling bewierookten en al het andere
afkeurden. Niemand heeft deze zoogenaamde partijdigheid scherper
gecritiseerd dan Te n K a t e in Braga, „het tijdschrift heel in rijm.” In de
„Karakteristiek onzer vaderlandsche tijdschriften” wordt de Gids iemand
genoemd, die „zijn vrienden likt, de ontzette groenen dondert” en in „Eene
huishoudelijke Vergadering van de Redacteuren van den Gids; gevolgd door
de plechtige installatie van een nieuw Lid” herhaalt de dichter deze
beschuldiging nogmaals op geestige wijze. De novitius wordt aangenomen,
omdat hij den juisten maatstaf voor de Gids-critiek heeft gevonden:
„Et pro symbolo kiezabo:
„Lik-je mij, ik lik-je weêr!”
Dat zal dus de leus zijn bij ’t beoordeelen van boekwerken. In het artikel:
„Een en ander over het tijdschrift „Braga”, verschenen in den 23sten
jaargang van „Noord en Zuid”, wordt zelfs gezegd: „de Gids, die het alleen
reeds door zijn ingenomenheid met de romantische richting bij hen
verkorven zou hebben, konden ze bovendien niet uitstaan om zijn
zelfingenomenheid, zijn pedanterie en het meedoen aan de onderlinge
aanbidding eener bepaalde kliek.”

Dit is m.i. totale miskenning van Potgieters werken als criticus. Wat de
ingenomenheid met de romantische richting betreft, daaromtrent is in de
voorgaande bladzijde al genoeg gesproken, om in te zien dat deze bewering
in haar consequentie onjuist is; de zelfingenomenheid, de pedanterie, zou ik
willen noemen: bewustzijn van eigen kracht. Potgieter wist wat hij wilde en
wat hij beteekende, zijn beginselen en gaven verbergen kon noch mocht hij
doen; maar wie zijn kritieken onbevooroordeeld en gezet overleest, zal
geenszins den indruk krijgen, dat hier een pedant mensch aan ’t woord is.
Onpartijdigheid. Partijdigheid, „onderlinge aanbidding van een bepaalde
kliek,” lag wel allerminst in zijn karakter. „Naam, levensbetrekking noch
politieke opinie zullen mij doen oordeelen”, zoo schreef D r o s t eens aan
Potgieter en deze kon dat zijn vriend met volle overtuiging nazeggen. Men
leze nog maar eens het gedeelte over uit de critiek op H u y g e n s ’
Cluyswerck, dat we reeds vroeger hebben aangehaald. Voor partijdigheid
staat een karakter als dat van Potgieter te hoog; onderlinge aanbidding,
bewierooking, haatte niemand meer dan hij, zooals we boven met tal van
voorbeelden hebben aangetoond; hoe scherp heeft hij niet dat gebrek, het
euvel der maatschappijen en dichtgenootschappen, gecritiseerd! Bovendien
de redactie van de Gids ging in dezen zóo ver, dat het werk der redacteuren
gewoonlijk niet beoordeeld en zelfs niet in het tijdschrift aangekondigd
werd.
Mochten de kritieken van Potgieter soms eenige aanleiding tot een
dergelijke beschuldiging gegeven hebben, dan vloeit dit voort uit het zeer
verklaarbare feit, dat hij een werk waarin hij zijn eigen gedachten
terugvond, dat rustte op beginselen die ook de zijne waren, gunstig
beoordeelde, terwijl hij afkeurde en moest afkeuren, wat daar tegen
indruischte. Toch wist hij ook in deze gevallen het goede in den schrijver te
waardeeren en steeds was zelfs ook dan zijn critiek opbouwend. En dit is
toch waarlijk niet het werk van een partijdigen criticus.
Beteekenis van Potgieters critiek. Ten slotte nog een enkel woord over de
beteekenis van zijn critiek voor onze letterkunde. In éen zin is het aan te
geven: Potgieter is de leider van de geheele literaire beweging gedurende
het midden der 19e eeuw. Door zijn krachtig ingrijpen is het gelukt een

1
einde te maken aan de heerschappij der dichtgenootschaps-poëten;
voortzetting van de literatuur der 18e
eeuw was na het optreden van De
Gids onmogelijk, de ondergang van Yntema’s tijdschrift De Vaderlandsche
Letteroefeningen, getuigt hiervan. Het sombere, ongemotiveerde en grillige
in de Romantiek keurde hij af, en door zijn waarschuwende stem werden de
dichters ook in dit opzicht op het rechte spoor gebracht, vandaar dat deze
richting in ons land nooit heeft kunnen domineeren. Zoodoende ontstond
langzamerhand weer een nationale letterkunde, die in de werken van
Potgieter zelf en in de romans van mevrouw B o s b o o m - To u s s a i n t
haar hoogtepunt bereikte.
S t a r i n g is zijn populariteit voor een groot gedeelte aan Potgieter
verschuldigd, van H u y g e n s kan hetzelfde worden getuigd, terwijl Cats
na ’t verschijnen van het Rijksmuseum veel van zijn literaire beteekenis
verloor.
Potgieter en de jongeren. Teekenend is het dat zelfs de generatie van 1880, die
zoovele literatoren onbarmhartig van hun voetstuk heeft gestooten, zich
nimmer over Potgieter in ongunstigen zin heeft uitgelaten. Het is bekend
hoeveel P e r k hield van P o t g i e t e r , en K l o o s zegt van hem: „Nooit
heeft misschien een ander schrijver geleefd, bij wien de natuur zóo tot
kunstige kunst, maar tevens die kunstige kunst weer tot natuur was
geworden, als de zeldzame Potgieter, een man zóo eigen, zoo individueel in
heel zijn innigste wezen, dat het eenvoudigste iets ongewoons kreeg onder
zijn behandeling, zonder dat men toch ooit zich behoefde te beklagen, daar
het ongewone zou zijn geworden tot onnatuur. Over twee honderd jaar zal
Potgieter nog omhoog staan als een door geestige gevoeligheid onsterfelijk,
soms subliem auteur.”
Hoogst verblijdend mag ook het feit genoemd worden, dat een der meest
ernstige werkers onder de jongeren, A l b e r t Ve r w e y , in zijn „Leven
van Potgieter” een kunstwerk heeft geschapen, dat getuigt van warme liefde
en diepen eerbied voor den grooten meester.
Men zie de voorrede van den 2en en den 3en druk van De Graaf van Devonshire. ↑

Jan, Jannetje en hun jongste kind.1
Potgieters doel. Potgieter had zijn vaderland lief, hij hield van het
Nederlandsche volk, en zijn geheele leven is één strijd geweest om dat volk
wakker te schudden, om de sluimerende krachten te wekken, opdat
Nederland opnieuw een eervolle plaats mocht innemen in de rij der natiën.
De nieuwjaarswensch voor 1842 is één van deze vele pogingen. En
Nederland had behoefte aan een opwekking: het jaar 1841 was in vele
opzichten niet bemoedigend geweest. Jan zegt het ons zelf, in zijn antwoord
aan Jannetje: „Als ik mijne koetjes niet vroeger op het drooge had gebragt,
het zou me zwaar zijn gevallen ze in Een en Veertig uit het water te halen.”
Juist òmdat de stemming niet opgewekt was, meent Potgieter zijn
landgenooten een hart onder den riem te moeten steken: de toestand is niet
zoo erg, verbetering is heel best mogelijk, als allen den geest van sufheid en
lauwheid afschudden, als ieder maar met energie aan den arbeid gaat. De
oudejaarsavond is de meest geschikte tijd om hierover te spreken, dan slaat
ieder onwillekeurig een blik achter zich, men denkt na over ’t afgeloopen
jaar, men spreekt in intiemen kring over al ’t gebeurde en vooral: men keert
even in tot zich zelf—de oudejaarsavond is het oogenblik van zelfcritiek.
Dat is het wat de schrijver wenscht: nadenken over ’t vervlogene, den lezer
doen beseffen, dat niet iedereen heeft gegeven wat hij kòn, en dan ten slotte
het besluit van allen om den Jan-Salie-geest af te schudden en samen te
werken tot heil van ’t land.
Voor deze opwekking heeft Potgieter den allegorie-vorm gekozen; hij stelt
ons Nederland voor als een echt ouderwetsch gezin: Jan, Jannetje en hunne
kinderen. Het eigenaardige is, dat men het allegorische dadelijk voelt, dus
weet dat hier een algemeen onderwerp behandeld wordt, en toch verplaatst
men zich onwillekeurig, door den schrijver geleid, telkens in een bepaald
gezin, waar men de besproken handelingen ziet gebeuren.
N a d e r e b e s p r e k i n g v a n d e l e d e n v a n d i t g e z i n .

Jan. J a n is de echte Hollander, doch niet alleen zooals Potgieter die thans
zou wenschen, maar ook zooals hij in den loop der tijden geworden is: de
historische Hollander dus. Dat de schrijver het zóó wenscht opgevat te zien,
blijkt duidelijk uit het stuk zelf.
Tot zelfs in kleinigheden is Jan de typische Hollander, hij rookt een
Gouwenaar en stopt zijn pijp met een pruik!
Jan is zoo langzamerhand zichzelf wel bewust geworden wat hij waard is,
hij drinkt dan ook een boordevolletje op eigen welzijn.
Het portret van den heer des huizes kan echter voorloopig nog niet geheel
voltooid worden: zijn zonen namelijk vertegenwoordigen verschillende van
zijne eigenschappen en die jongens worden eerst later aan ons voorgesteld.
De teekening van Jan is dus onvolledig.
Jannetje. J a n n e t j e is de typisch-Hollandsche huisvrouw: P o t g i e t e r
zegt, dat om haar portret te kunnen leveren, de gaven van Rembrandt aan
die van Rubens gepaard moeten zijn: „Immers, met het gloeiend koloriet,
louter door de tot overdaad weelderige vormen van den Vlaamschen
meester, treft men Jannetje niet. Als ze gelijkend zal worden voorgesteld,
mag de nadenkende ernst van den hollandschen schilder bij uitnemendheid,
mag de rustige zielskracht, waardoor zijne beelden de duisternis om hem
heen verlichten, er niet aan ontbreken.”
Nu hare eigenschappen: ze is degelijk, spaarzaam, zindelijk, vroom, vol
medelijden voor de armen en tegen de wuftheid die uit den vreemde in ons
land is overgebracht. Eén eigenschap waardeeren we bizonder in Jannetje:
ze is de steun voor haar man geweest: „zij heeft hem het huis helpen
bouwen.”
Haar zwakheden heeft ze als iedereen: we wijzen op een enkele, een
overdrijving van een goede eigenschap: de moederliefde. Ze houdt nl. zelfs
van haar onwaardigen zoon, die de geheele atmosfeer in huis bederft, van
Jan Salie.

Janmaat. J a n m a a t is de oudste zoon: de zeeman. De oudste! de zee
immers heeft Nederland groot gemaakt: wat zou de plaats van ons land in
de 17e
eeuw geweest zijn, als Janmaat niet had geholpen. P o t g i e t e r zelf
idealiseert die zucht naar de zee, men denke aan de bekende bladzij in dit
stuk, waar hij den jongen teekent wiens hart trekt naar den Oceaan. Soms is
Janmaat meer speciaal de vertegenwoordiger van de Nederlandsche marine.
Jan Contant en Jan Crediet. J a n C o n t a n t en J a n C r e d i e t zijn de
vertegenwoordigers van den Nederlandschen handel. De eerste „richtte het
huis van negotie op, dat Jan Crediet uitbreidde.” Hoe hoog de schrijver den
koopman stelde, blijkt uit de schitterende toespraak die hij Jan laat houden
over de eigenschappen van een waren koopman. Potgieter zelf was ook
„maar een koopman!”
Jan Compagnie. J a n C o m p a g n i e is de vroolijkste van alle zonen: de
Nederlander die zijn fortuin zoekt in de koloniën. Ook hij is een van
P o t g i e t e r s lievelingen: men leze in de Liedekens van Bontekoe hoe de
dichter hem voorstelt. In de uitgave met platen staat zijn portret: een forsch
gebouwd man met zwarten haardos en gebruind gelaat.
In „Jan en Jannetje” vinden we deze zelfde teekening terug.
Jan Cordaat. J a n C o r d a a t is de krijgsman, die gestreden heeft onder de
beroemde Oranjevorsten en die nog in 1830 heeft getoond wat hij kon. Toch
wordt de Nederlandsche soldaat niet hoog gesteld door ’t volk, wat
Potgieter toeschrijft aan het feit dat tijdens de Republiek ons leger bestond
uit huurlingen, vaak het uitschot van alle volken. Er was geen volksleger.
Jan de Poëet. J a n d e P o ë e t is de dichter. Hij heeft Jan Cordaat zoo
dikwijls bezongen en verdedigt hem nu ook tegen de anderen; hij is dat
verplicht aan zijn groote voorgangers, die de heldendaden der
Nederlandsche oorlogsmannen zoo vaak bezongen hebben. (Over de
aanhalingen straks meer!)
Jan Klaassen. Nog enkele andere kinderen treden op: J a n K l a a s s e n , de
vertegenwoordiger van het goedronde Hollandsche blijspel, waarvoor velen

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