The Art of Museum Exhibitions

by Leslie Bedford

Leslie Bedford, former director of the highly regarded Bank Street College museum leadership program, expands the museum professional’s vision of exhibitions beyond the simple goal of transmitting knowledge to the visitor. Her view of exhibitions as interactive, emotional, embodied, imaginative experiences opens a new vista for those designing them. Using examples both from her own work at the Boston Children’s Museum and from other institutions around the globe, Bedford offers the museum professional a bold new vision built around narrative, imagination, and aesthetics, merging the work of the educator with that of the artist. It is important reading for all museum professionals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Museums, Art

168 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - This is more of a food for thought kind of book. Bedford provided a lot of great ideas and new ways of thinking about exhibition as art, but the examples were limited and there was little discussion on how to effectively execute these ideas.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets pretty philosophical about museum exhibitions and sometimes goes right over my head. But the main message is clear: when developing exhibitions, always keep in mind that you want to tell a story that allows the visitor's imagination some room to play. Keep that in mind, along with the always important question, "So what?" That puts you well on the way to a memorable and successful exhibition.

[Courtney Homer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a museum studies class. The book tied up nicely, and the concept was compelling, but the writing was overly complex and distracting. Majority of the book was summaries of other museum theory.