Last edited: September 16, 2013

Introduction to the Website

This web­si­te is inten­ded as an onli­ne tool and pro­po­ses a use­ful method for orga­ni­s­ing exhi­bi­ti­ons in a vari­e­ty of dif­fe­rent situ­a­ti­ons; from the set­ting up of a tra­de show stand to the devel­op­ment of an exhi­bi­ti­on for a cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge institution.

The pro­po­sed method pro­vi­des insight and guid­an­ce into the devel­op­ment of an exhi­bi­ti­on, demon­stra­tes how the devel­op­ment and design pro­cess can be struc­tu­red and at which point each dis­ci­pli­ne should be invol­ved. The web­si­te is use­ful for both clients, pro­fes­si­o­nals, desig­ners and students.

It is not inten­ded that the method and under­ly­ing model are rigid­ly applied to the orga­ni­sa­ti­on of an exhi­bi­ti­on. As with eve­ry model, this is meant to be used as a gui­de and to be adap­ted to the methods usu­al­ly applied in a par­ti­cu­lar insti­tu­ti­on or to the spe­ci­fic demands that a cer­tain pro­ject poses.

This web­si­te is based on Pro­ject Model Exhi­bi­ti­ons writ­ten by Han Mee­ter, the author of this web­si­te, with Jan Ver­haar at the end of the 1980s. The­re was broad inte­rest in Pro­ject Model Exhi­bi­ti­ons — not only was it used by the Rein­wardt Aca­de­my (facul­ty of heri­ta­ge stu­dies at the Amster­dam School of the Arts), but also by seve­r­al other pro­grams and cour­ses in the Nether­lands and Bel­gi­um. The­re was also inte­rest from abroad. Pro­ject Model Exhi­bi­ti­ons was then also trans­la­ted into English, Ara­bic, Chi­ne­se, Indo­ne­si­an and Viet­na­me­se. The finan­ci­al aspects were re-fas­hi­o­ned into a con­tri­bu­ti­on to the ICOM/ICEE publi­ca­ti­on Exhi­bi­ti­on Bud­ge­ting 1.

The model has not been devel­o­ped sole­ly from the­o­re­ti­cal con­cepts, but is based on prac­ti­ce. This was acqui­red through dai­ly use in the author’s muse­o­lo­gi­cal design and con­sul­ting firm, Pro­ject­bu­ro Mee­ter. Fur­ther­mo­re, the ‘exhi­bi­ti­on prac­ti­cum’, given to the Rein­wardt Aca­de­my sin­ce 1980, have also play­ed a part. The gui­ding of stu­dents through exhi­bi­ti­on pro­jects, for the pur­po­se of trai­ning and on behalf of exter­nal clients has increa­sed under­stan­ding of how to sys­te­ma­ti­cally set up a manu­al so that it can be used as an eve­ry­day tool and refe­ren­ce book.

The model in this web­si­te has the same for­mat and struc­tu­re as Pro­ject Model Exhi­bi­ti­ons but inter­prets the medi­um of exhi­bi­ti­ons in a much broa­der sen­se and exa­mi­nes aspects of the design pro­cess in gre­a­ter depth, making use of know­led­ge in are­as such as per­cep­ti­on, semi­o­tics and the lan­gu­a­ge of exhibitions.

Based on the idea that cre­a­ting a com­mer­ci­al exhi­bi­ti­on requi­res the same skills as a cul­tu­ral exhi­bi­ti­on — in short, they have a com­mon under­ly­ing know­led­ge – argu­ments are put forth here to bring the­se worlds clo­ser together in order to learn from each other. For the cul­tu­ral world, the pro­ject-based, busi­ness-like, effi­cient and public-orien­ta­ted natu­re of the com­mer­ci­al world is par­ti­cu­lar­ly inte­res­ting. The com­mer­ci­al world can learn a lot from the sub­stan­ce/­con­tent-orien­ted natu­re of cul­tu­ral exhi­bi­ti­ons, both in terms of con­veying a sto­ry, a mes­sa­ge, and regar­ding their trans­la­ti­on into the design of the exhi­bi­ti­on (apply­ing exhi­bi­ti­on lan­gu­a­ge). This web­si­te pro­vi­des an ini­ti­a­ti­ve in this direc­ti­on. This new exhi­bi­ti­on dis­ci­pli­ne is incre­a­sin­gly taking sha­pe and is per­so­ni­fied by the Exhi­bi­ti­on Direc­tor. 2

For the sake of rea­da­bi­li­ty, this web­si­te is writ­ten in the mas­cu­li­ne form.
  1. Fran­çois Trem­blay, Alle­gra Wright, Han Mee­ter Exhi­bi­ti­on Bud­ge­ting (n.p., n.d.) issued in the series ICEE tools of the Inter­na­ti­o­nal Com­mit­tee for Exhi­bi­ti­on and Exchan­ge of the Inter­na­ti­o­nal Coun­cil of Muse­ums (ICOM)
  2. The word direc­tor is used here in the sen­se of regis­seur who, like a film pro­du­cer essen­ti­al­ly making an enti­re movie hap­pen, imple­ments an exhi­bi­ti­on. In fact, this is a public-orien­ted con­cep­tu­al thin­king pro­fes­si­o­nal who con­trols inter-dis­ci­pli­na­ry exhi­bi­ti­ons, able to run an exhi­bi­ti­on pro­ject, can inter­pret con­tent, com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, tech­ni­cal form and media and can mana­ge pro­duc­ti­on tech­no­lo­gy, and in addi­ti­on has basic know­led­ge of modern insights in the field of exhi­bi­ti­on tech­ni­ques, mul­ti­me­dia and ICT appli­ca­ti­ons.