To shape its new show about life in the Roman Army, the British Museum put questions to members of the public. Other institutions are also using the same technique.
Last January, 14 members of the British public entered a wood-paneled room in the back of the British Museum for a secret presentation. They were there to learn about an exhibition still in development, which the museum wanted kept under wraps.
Onscreen in a prerecorded video, the museum’s curator of Roman and Iron Age coins, Richard Addy, outlined his plans for a show about life in the Roman Empire’s army. The exhibition would take visitors from a soldier’s recruitment to his retirement, he said, and would feature hundreds of objects, including the armor that warriors wore on the battlefield and letters they wrote home to their families.
When the presentation was finished, a staff member from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, a company that runs focus groups, asked the museum goers for their thoughts on aspects of Addy’s plan, including which types of artifacts the museum should show, how they should be arranged and even how much entry should cost.
Most of the participants seemed excited, according to an anonymized report for the British Museum. Several attendees said they especially liked that the exhibition would focus on the stories of individual soldiers, including everyday subjects like their food and pay.
Other participants were more critical. “It comes across a little dry,” one said. “It would be quite boring for a kid,” said another.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
