The processes of museum text creation at The Spurlock Museum

While often one goes to a museum in order to see visual artifacts, be they paintings, a shovel from the fifth century, or the inside of a space engine, it is important to remember that "meaning is constructed and interpreted in relation to text-based resources: meanings do not arise from thin-air; they are textual products" (Ravelli, 150). In museums, these "resources" include, but are not limited to, the exhibit labels that "explain" the artifacts in terms of the museum's communicative objectives. In this study, I will focus on how these texts are created at The Spurlock Museum, with a particular focus on the current exhibition "Where Animals Dance" that is being held in the Campbell gallery. "Where Animals Dance" is an exploration of the mask customs of contemporary Western Africa. Tandy Lacy, the director of education at Spurlock, sat down with me to discuss the textual production processes of the Spurlock staff. She told me that even before exhibitions, as such, were created, the Spurlock staff had to decide on a few institution-wide standards. In effect, the Spurlock had to create their own particular genre of museum texts. They did this in consultation with "professional exhibit designers [who] brought in a member of their ... team who talked about how to have an upfront introduction and how to build a hierarchy of texts that is a combination of size, visual impact, design elements and levels of texts." Lacy and the Spurlock staff took this professional guidance and created the system in which exhibits begin with an "eye-catching initial text" followed by "large-wall texts." Next, on the reading rails in front of the exhibits are "selected topical discussion" that lead to, finally, on the right corner of the reading rail, "flip-books for more detailed information and the identification of the artifact."