Exploring Practices of Interpretation and Communication in Art Museums
This study examined the role of interpretation with various practices in art museums to seek a new meaning and a concept of art museum today. The exploration of interpretation would be a starting point to discuss about on art museums with professionals in each art-related field. While museums recognize the concept of interpretation and the scope of the functions in different levels, the study focused on the practices of collecting and exhibiting that will entrust the museum new realms of activities toward the audience. In particular, its emphases are set force on the information on the collections via the museum’s web sites, interpretation policies, and theories and methodologies in exhibition development. Art museum websites well reflect how museums utilize the new medium to enhance the understanding of art works by providing in-depth art historical information, comprehensive contexts, and subject/concept based search methods. In recent decades, these have enacted changes to expand dimensions of interpretive functions in most museums, particularly in the United States and others. In an administrative perspective, Tate Gallery Interpretation Policy became an good example how an art museum put its interpretation philosophy as the basis of interpreting collection and public programs. Tate established functions of intrepretation and education not only within a task-based team but also as an intrer-divisional coorperation to provide an interpretation scheme of information provisions such as guide brochure, audio tour, multimedia content, and library. New environment and trends of museum exhibition, and its development processes stem from communication theories, object interpretation philosophy, display strategies, and various evaluation techniques through audiences. With the communication theories of Shannon and Weaver, Berlo’s SMCR(Source-Message-Channel-Receiver) models were perceived as to understand the mechanism to communicate museum exhibits to visitors. Suzan vogel’s insight into object display strategy helped to conceive the mechanism of object recontextualization. She emphasized that the museum’s practice to construe opinions and impressions through object display should be discreet and critical. therefore, the professionals to plan the exhibition should reveal the intention and their practices. For a prevailing new methodology from the field, the interpretive exhibition development processes are articulated as the front-end, formative, and summative evaluation, futhermore the team process in industrial product management models was adapted. These have turned out to be more interactive with visitors and effective to communicate the exhibition concepts and messages, hence resulting in enriched museum experiences. Finally the study concluded that understanding the aspects of interpretation should help art museums to set a framework for current practices to expand its public dimension. It can provide curators with a critical view to website planning and its content. And obviously, the interpretive exhibition development methodology will lead museum exhibition developers to be skilled in its current approaches to thematic exhibition concerning diverse subjects and topics.