A visitor can display a mug or t-shirt with a sense of pride while at the same time the object stimulates memories of the museum experience. First, more weighted on consumerism, a memorable sensory experience can prolong a visitor’s retention of the museum visit. The museum gift shop plays another role in the visitor experience. The visitor must then consider questions of power, identity, and race. Upon entering the second gallery, hung on a standalone wall at the end of the space we confront the viewer with an oversized image of William Casby-the last living American slave. Working with the curator, all these are for the exhibition designer to consider. There are other ways images tell stories: portraits on one wall facing another two images in a corner, and the gaze they may or may not share between each other. Image pairings-two images placed aside each other-are linked through proximity, gaze, history, gender, class, race, and many other attributes. The exact placement of art within the room favours creating connections and prompting dialogue between works of art-a narrative. The organization at a high level provides context to the works of art-the American political landscape.

In the Atrium photo previously shown, the visitor surely reads meaning into director John Ford looking over his shoulder at actors turned politicians, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan-a ploy we use elsewhere with Ford.Īs a retrospective of a career, by design, the collection of Avedon photos is loosely organized by time, pending physical constraints: scale of art on loan and size and orientation of the gallery’s walls.

Richard avedon portraits of power