The Real and the Virtual: Exhibitions Online

The Real and the VirtualExhibitions Online Martin R. Kalfatovic

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Exhibits Real and Virtual | Goucher College | CSP 640 | 25 April 02011

Online With the Show!

Additionally, as museums have learned, their real treasures are their objects. A picture on a computer monitor does not have the same level of reality, the same gravitas that the same object has when the visitor is standing in front of it. As museums need to deal with this issue when creating online exhibitions, so do libraries and archives.

Online With the Show!

The goodwill and publicity that libraries and archives can generate in gallery exhibitions through the social interaction of their collections and visitors should not be underestimated, but neither should the outreach potential of online exhibitions. At the same time, libraries and archives must be careful to resist the temptation to jump on the Internet bandwagon by simply putting up a number of “pretty pictures” and calling it an exhibition.

Online exhibitions are a regular offering from our cultural

institutions and are an almost necessary adjunct to

traditional physical exhibitions, offering a

continuing life to the ideas presented in the

“brick and mortar” galleries long after the exhibitions

have closed. “Virtual only” exhibitions are also on the

increase with libraries, archives, and museums taking the

traditional notions of the exhibition and creating interesting, instructive and fun exhibitions that will never be graced

by the feet of carbon-based visitors walking through them.

Generally far less expensive than gallery exhibitions

Showcase objects that could never be on view in a gallery space

Display multiple page openings or leaves of manuscripts

Online exhibitions reinforce the fact that exhibitions need

not be limited to museums and large libraries and archives. Libraries and archives have a long history

of using the exhibition of materials to promote their collections. Now, with Internet and the ability to create

online exhibitions, the constraints of space and time (and to some extent money) no longer hinder

libraries and archives in the creation of exhibitions that will help to promote the

institutions and their collections.

Exhibitions = Ideas and Stories

• Anniversaries

• Notable Events

• Themes

• Treasures

• The Odd and the Unusual

Exhibition IdeasAnniversaries

Notable Events

Exhibition Ideas

Themes

Exhibition Ideas

Treasures

Exhibition Ideas

The Odd and the Unusual

Exhibition Ideas

Caveat! Remember, a collection of objects does not make an exhibition!

Only when objects are carefully chosen to

illustrate a theme and are tied together by a narrative

do they become an exhibition.

Developing the Idea

• Title and theme or principles of the exhibition

• Purpose

• Audience

• Design

• Maintenance

Title and theme or principles of the exhibition

Developing the Idea

Purpose

Developing the Idea

Audience

Developing the Idea

Design

Developing the Idea

Maintenance

Developing the Idea

Objects are silentJohn Cotton Dana

Should Museums Be Useful (1927)

What is it?

When was it made?

What is it made of?

Where was it made?

What is its function?

What is its significance?

What is its physical description?

How was it made?

Staff

Curator

Designer

Technical Staff

Image Specialists

The Real World

The Virtual World

The Online EnvironmentA good virtual exhibition will include the

following elements: • the opportunity to visit the exhibition more than once

• surprise and wonder

• an overall impression of the site on the home page

• use of source material provided by the medium to enhance meaning

• display of images that are best presented on the Internet

• access to normally inaccessible documents and objects

Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Online Exhibitions

Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Online Exhibitions

Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Online Exhibitions

Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Online Exhibitions

Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Online Exhibitions

Thank You!Martin R. Kalfatovic

Smithsonian Libraries

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