What is a “Label in Exhibition”?  🏷 (3 minutes)

When we are in an exhibition, what are we viewing?

• Artworks
• Theme of Exhibition
• Artist’s Life
• ……

The label is what could carry these contents.

So,

what are the basic elements of an exhibition label?

After reading a label introducing a label, let’s come to the next part——

How to Read Labels in an Art Exhibition? 📖

It’s straightforward, you just need to follow these three steps:

find, search and envision.

Step1:  Find the label of the artwork (2 minutes)

A label may be on the wall next to the artwork,

or underneath the artwork,

or in a display case,

(Exhibition: Beyond the Little Black Dress, National Museums Scotland)

or just a paragraph printed directly on the wall.

(Exhibition: Grayson Perry | Smash Hits, National Galleries Scotland)

Step2:  Search for the information on the exhibition labels from three perspectives (8 minutes)

You could read this example label according to the following three perspectives.

🚩Here are some tips:

• A text note could be made anywhere you want, such as phone, pad or laptop……
• A quick note is more suggested.
  • Goodnotes, Miro, iOS Notes……
  • an online witeboard：https://witeboard.com
  • an online text: https://jamboard.google.com/?pli=1

NB: You just need to answer only about 1-2 questions from each perspective, you can also design your questions if you like. Just take it easy!

Perspectives1: Artist🎨 (2 minutes)

• Who is/are the artist/artists?
• Which country is the artist from?
• In which year was the artist born?
• Is the artist alive?
• How old was the artist when he/she created this work? Was he/she a young adult or middle-aged?
• ……

Perspectives2: Artwork🖼 (2 minutes)

• What is the medium of this artwork?
• What special materials are used in this artwork?
• From your perspective, is the artwork large or small in size?
• What period is this artwork from?
• Is it historical or contemporary?
• How many years after its creation was this artwork collected?
• ……

Perspectives3: Background🗺 (2 minutes)

• What theme does this artwork/exhibition relate to?
• What concept does this artwork introduce?
• Is the artist male or female?
• Does this artist have religious beliefs?
• ….

Step3: Connect and Envision (5 minutes)

Connect the dots between what you know so far.

Envision the specific context in which this artwork was created.

🧠Just think, you do not have to give a correct or a large answer. (2 minutes)

If you think it’s too hard for you, it doesn’t matter.❤️

Here are some examples, or you can use these two minutes to continue organising your notes in Step2.

• From information such as time of birth and nationality, estimate the era in which the artist was born.
• Considering the time when the work was created and the age of the artist at that time, with other information you like, guess why did the artist create it?
• Taking into consideration your own experience and knowledge, guess whether this work was popular when it was created?
• ……

One last thing……

Build Your Own Label Library. 🗂

We must admit that sometimes the label in an exhibition is not qualified,

even if it is organised in a famous art museum or gallery showing famous works of art……

After this BarCamp,

you may meet some interesting labels in the exhibition, so why not record them and build your library 😆!!

🚩Here I provide a template, you can download it and make modifications.

Template-Label Library

*A part of the template references the exhibition label reading standard designed by adult reading expert Margareta Ekarv for the Swedish Postal Museum.

At the same time, you can look for some interesting artworks in the following links and design your own exhibition label.

TATE

British Museum

MOMA

Louvre

National Galleries Scotland

National Museum Scotland

Share Your Own Label Library if You Like🎊

If you want, you are welcome to drop your Label Library via the following email address, we will record and share all learners’ Label Library.

Our Email Address: s2506963@ed.ac.uk

Looking forward to your Label Library!🧩