Week 3 Readings/Exhibit Labels

​In Beverly Serrell’s book, Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach, she provides those working in museum’s or other fields that require an understanding of writing exhibit labels a comprehensive and detailed outline of how to do so. In this text, Serrell focuses on the importance, not only of conveying the materials concisely, but on how visitors will interact with it, and how best to cater exhibit labels to visitors. She opens the book with her “10 Commandments,” which provide brief summaries of what she explains in detail throughout the rest of the text. These 10 Commandments are:

1. “Labels should begin with concrete, visual references to the objects they interpret to bring them to life.
2. Labels should relate to the big idea of the exhibit, not ramble without focus or objectives or contain sub-sub-subtopics.
3. Labels should emphasize interpretation (offering provocation) over instruction (presenting information)
4. Labels should know their audience and address visitors’ prior knowledge, interests, and/or misconceptions.
5. Labels that ask questions should be visitors’ questions.
6. Label design should reflect the label’s content or context and have a recognizable system of organization of label types.
7. Labels should be written with a vocabulary that is within the reach of the majority of visitors.
8. Labels should be short and concise, more like a tweet than a tome.
9. Labels for interactives should have instructions or interpretations integrated in logical, intuitive ways.
10. The typography (typefaces, sizes, design, colors, lighting, materials, and placement) should make them legible and easy on the eyes not busy or distracting.”[1]

These “10 Commandments” serve as basic guidelines to keep in mind when one is creating labels for an exhibition. The most important thing that Serrell suggests keeping in mind when creating labels for an exhibition is the “Big Idea,” which is a, “sentence – a statement – of what the exhibition is about. It is one complete, noncompound, active sentence that identifies a subject, an action (the verb), and a consequence (“so what?”). … A big idea is big because it has fundamental meaningfulness that is important to human nature. It is not trivial.”[2] She argues that the big idea is the first thing that a team of exhibit creators should discern before deciding on exhibits and how to label them. I found this to be profoundly helpful, looking forward to the work we, as a Managing History class, will be completing this semester. Before anything else, we need to establish what the big idea is for our exhibition. Ultimately, the “10 Commandments,” big idea concept, and Serrell’s final “16 Conclusions,” provided me with basic guidelines that will prove incredibly helpful to me in the future, should I find myself creating exhibits and their labels. Where the “10 Commandments” provide a brief list of things to keep in mind while drafting labels for exhibits, the “16 Conclusions,” provide guidelines in not only label writing, but also placement, design, and location.[3]
In short, Beverly Serrell’s Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach is a completely eye-opening text that has left me feeling better prepared as I approach writing my own exhibit labels for an upcoming exhibit label assignment with Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum.
 


[1] Beverly Serrell, Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach, (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015): p. 2.

[2] Ibid, p. 7.

[3] Ibid, pgs. 327-329.