1. Who’s visiting?
You’ve got to think about your audience: who’s going to visit this exhibition and what are they expecting? For example, if it’s for under 5s, they’re still learning to read, and generally they’re quite short!David Perkins, experience developer at Museums Victoria
Museums are for people, and the process of making an exhibit often starts with thinking about who its visitors might be, and what the exhibit will help them learn or feel.
Reflection
Look at the photos and descriptions of these three exhibits. Each one has been built in 3D, and uses different mediums to help visitors learn or feel something.
- What do you think each exhibit might make a visitor feel or think about?
- What does it make you feel or think about?
Who it’s for: Kids aged 9–12 and their families
What happens here: Visitors compare wax model apples in the case to a time-lapse of a real rotting apple on a screen. Nearby, a projection shows how the models were made.
Who it’s for: Secondary school students and adults
What happens here: Visitors step into a tram and watch a life-sized video. The video shows an incident of prejudice on a tram from different perspectives as each character considers what to do.
Who it’s for: Primary and Secondary school students
What happens here: Visitors enter a room filled with soft benches, sound and light. Visitors change the atmosphere of the room by controlling the sound, and record how it makes them feel.
Your visitor
Who will visit the exhibit you make? They could be someone you already know, or someone from your imagination.
Draw a portrait of your visitor, and write or discuss the following questions. If your visitor is a real person, you could interview them.
- My visitor’s name is...
- They will visit my exhibit because...
- When they see my collection, they might ask...
- I would like them to feel...
- I would like them to learn...