Due: Friday, February 16th by class

Grade value: 15% of your final grade

Museum object labels are usually quite brief, and we will aim for these to be approximately 150-200 words in length. We will be practicing our object-writing skills through an in-class exercise.

• Friday, February 2nd: Introduction to label-writing and Haiku exercise (10%)
• Friday, February 16th: Object Label (90%)

What object can I write about?

• Select an object from the Media Archaeology Lab or the Archives and Special Collections at Macalester to write an object label about. You may change your selection, but please do not select the same object as one of your classmates. Indicate your selections on this Google Spreadsheet.

The Prompt

You will create an interpretive object label (~150-200 words) that helps viewers understand your object (or image of an object). The goal of an exhibit label is to be concise, informative, and engaging.  Your label should provide the following:

• Part I: Identifying information about the object (whatever metadata you can find, such as title, author/creator, date, etc)
  Format:
  • Title of Object in italics
    Date of object’s creation, if provided
    Author/Creator’s name, if provided
    Medium, if provided
    Developer, if provided
    Publisher, if provided
    
• Part II: Descriptive text that answers the following questions:
  • What are we looking at? What do you want the reader/viewer to notice about the object? Where do you want the reader/viewer to look?
  • What is the significance of this object? What does/did it do?
  • What story does this object tell? What main idea or thought are you hoping to communicate?
  • What questions does it ask?

How do I submit this?

• As a WordPress post (you can post anonymously or with attribution or submit to me over email if you’d prefer not to post this publicly).

Further resources:

• Examples of labels
• Smithsonian, Guidelines for Label-Writers
• Nina Simon. “ISO Understanding: Rethinking Art Museum Labels.” Museum 2.0, March 2007. 
• Beverly Serrell, “Chapter 2: What Are Interpretive Labels?” Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach,  (Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press, 1996), 8-18, https://archive.org/details/exhibitlabelsint0000serr/page/8/mode/2up. (This chapter is available through the Internet Archive- you’ll have to click “Login and Borrow” to read this. The service is totally free.)
• The J. Paul Getty Museum, “Complete Guide to Adult Audience Interpretive Materials: Gallery Texts and Graphics,” (J. Paul Getty Trust, 2011) pp. 3-5 and 16-21.
• MuseumEd, If you can’t see it don’t say it, 2013.

Inserted image:  “Interior view of the Pember Library and Museum, Granville, New York, USA.” Wikimedia Commons. Accessed January 12, 2021.