Planning for Success: Project Management for Museum Exhibitions

Abstract

Preparing exhibitions is a complex and demanding task that involves many subjects, disciplines, and terminologies. Although there are as many approaches to this as there are museums, exhibition planning is often serendipitous, disorganized, and reactive. If approached without clear focus, the outcomes are invariably less successful and often unsatisfying for both the staff and the audience. Recognizing the need for an effective model of exhibition development, this chapter offers a style of project management for museum exhibitions that provides structure and clarity through stated objectives, teamwork, and planning. Drawing on many years of developing successful displays in a university museum in the USA, especially in science and natural history, the author illustrates the efficacy of this model of exhibition production as a planned, phased process: moving through concept, development, production, functional, and assessment stages. He concludes that a strong methodology and supportable strategies for conceiving, planning, producing, and presenting exhibitions are required to advance desirable institutional outcomes.

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