The National Association for Interpretation National Conference is this week, and we are celebrating the hard work of interpreters everywhere with a series of blog posts focused specifically on Interpretation and Interpretive Planning. Enjoy!

This post is the second in the series.  For the post from last week, click here.

We are often asked what the “museum or nature center of the future” will look like.  Despite our design and fabrication expertise, we have yet to build a time-traveling device that actually works, so the best that we can do is offer predictions based upon our own experience.  Over 25 years in business, we have not only seen almost every type of exhibit that you can imagine, but we have also witnessed the larger trends impacting the field of natural and cultural interpretation.  We have a unique pulse on what types of exhibits have gone out of style, and which are emerging as the most popular in our 21st century world.  We interact with people all over the country, learning what excites, captivates, and inspires them when they visit their favorite zoo, museum, or nature center.

One trend that we have witnessed is the emergence of co-curatorial exhibits, and we have incorporated these into many of our latest projects.  What exactly is a co-curatorial exhibit?  Simply put, it is an exhibit or experience (within a museum, nature center, visitor center, zoo, science center, etc.) that is created jointly by both the site and the visitor.  For example, in its simplest form, it could be a large blank wall or panel featuring a question chosen by the museum, on which visitors write their own responses on post-it notes.  These post-it notes, written by the visitors, become part of the exhibit itself, for all future visitors to see.

Co-curatorial exhibits are the latest trend in participatory exhibits, which have flourished over the past two decades thanks to luminaries like Nina Simon.  For most of the twentieth century, interpretive exhibits (whether in museums or elsewhere) were sterile, didactic, one-way conversations between the “site” and the “visitor.”  The “site” (the museum, nature center, zoo, etc.) was seen as the “authority,” and its job was simply to teach the passive visitor through non-interactive text panels and display cases.  Visitors did not participate in exhibits – they merely looked, read, and learned passively.  They were given no chance to act, and no chance to lend their voices or opinions.

With the emergence of participatory exhibits towards the end of the twentieth century, however, the visitor experience became much more dynamic.  Participatory exhibits, by definition, got visitors actively moving, thinking, and interacting with exhibit pieces.  Visitors were no longer only passive readers and observers, but active learners in a hands-on environment.  Science Centers provide perhaps the best example of participatory exhibitry.  Visitors learn about various scientific phenomena by playing games, handling interactives, and actively thinking and moving within the space.  Taylor Studios has been honored to make dynamic and creative participatory exhibits for many science centers around the country.

The latest trend – co-curatorial exhibits – simply takes participatory exhibits one step further.  Not only are visitors given a chance to actively participate within an exhibit space, but they are also given the chance to help create this exhibit space.  No longer is the site (the museum, nature center, etc.) the sole “authority” creating the learning experience within the exhibits.  Visitors too are now given authority to create parts of the exhibit space, lending their words, thoughts, and (in some cases) their artwork to the permanent exhibit.  The benefits are numerous.  With shared authority, visitors feel like their voice matters, and this connects them ever deeper to the site.  Similarly, the exhibits have an immediate relevance to the visitors’ lives, because the visitors become directly involved in creating them.  Visitors also enjoy seeing the work of their fellow visitors, and a social atmosphere is present in these spaces that is lacking in many other exhibits.

Taylor Studios has had the honor of creating many leading-edge co-curatorial exhibits within our clients’ spaces.  Although this trend is only recently emerging (within the last five years or so), we truly feel that momentum is building in such a way that co-curatorial exhibits will only increase as the years go on.  These will most likely remain only one part of the wider experience at most sites, and we doubt that many sites will create entirely co-curatorial experiences where every exhibit involves visitor input.  However, we would be very surprised if more and more sites did not begin enabling visitors to co-create exhibit experiences.

Of course, co-curation is not for everyone.  Despite its many benefits, it simply might not fit certain organizations’ missions, goals, and objectives.  Perhaps your target audience would not feel comfortable, or perhaps your mission requires curation to be left to the experts.  At Taylor Studios, we work intimately with our clients to see what methods fit them best.  We encourage co-curatorial exhibits when we feel that it would benefit an institution’s main goals and central theme, and we discourage them for the organizations where it simply wouldn’t work.  Like every type of exhibit we’ve seen over the past 25 years, co-curatorial experiences work for some organizations and not for others.

So, what do you think?  Think about your organization’s main goals and objectives, and also about your target audience.  Do you think that your visitors would enjoy a co-curatorial experience?