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How did you feel leading a tour? What did you learn about this experience? What feedback did you get and how are you going to go about improving your tour?
A few guidelines for label writing
Labels should be short (75 words or less), use clear, direct language, and be linked to the act of looking. I always advise label writers to begin by looking at the work of art, or a picture of it, before writing anything down. Then walk away for a few minutes, come back with fresh eyes, and look again. I also advise writers to stand up when they are writing and reading their label texts: that's how visitors read labels, after all!
When you look at a work of art, think about the kinds of questions you bring to it. Think about what your friends or family members might wonder while looking. Think about how you can address those questions while also surprising your reader, telling them something that will connect to their own experience, or asking them a question that will give them something new to ponder. In the end, the goals are for folks to look and look again; to see the work of art on its own terms and on their terms; and to have the experience of looking stick with them for a long time.
What is interpretation?
The term “interpretation” describes the place where art, content, and experience meet in our galleries. In practical terms, interpretation is what we do to create platforms for people to engage with works of art and their stories and connect their own ideas and experience to the art they’re viewing.
Types of interpretive approaches include:
Texts Videos Audio/multimedia guides Interactive screens Sound Tactile/touch experiences Visitor response mechanisms (comment cards, books, etc.)
The creation of interpretation comes from a process called interpretive planning. Most often, exhibition designers, interpretation planners, and curators collaborate on the ideas, narrative, arrangement of works, and overall experience of exhibitions and galleries. The interpretive approaches (labels, videos, etc.) are chosen to support the overall experience that team hopes to create.
Who makes interpretation happen?
Traditionally, curators and educators collaborated to create interpretation. That still happens a lot, and it reflects an historic valuing of certain types of expertise. Increasingly, museums like the MFA are seeking to embrace other perspectives and forms of expertise in interpretation diversifying who "speaks" for the art, and seeking to move the dial a bit from speaking "to" our visitors to speaking "with" them. We also seek to change the ways in which interpretation gets made from the outset, including outside perspectives in the process of interpretive planning as well as the creation of interpretive approaches.
