A Museum in Public by Susan L.T. Ashley

Author:Susan L.T. Ashley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351262460
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Once installed, the exhibit experienced logistical snags and design problems such as constricted areas where people had to wait, a preponderance of text-on-the-wall, some unclear information, a lack of audio guides, and an inadequate design for tour groups. Outside the exhibit, long lines through security, confusion over timed tickets, poor handling of large groups, conflicts between user-groups, a lack of seating, and overworked volunteer tour guides could all be observed as problem areas, and visitors voiced their displeasure about this part of the experience.

As the primary tool by which the new ROM was envisioned to engage the world – and the largest project in terms of time, square footage, resources, manpower, promotion, and so on – the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition offers a prime opportunity to inspect the ways the museum interprets its public mandate: its job and operation as a public museum. How museum management and staff interpreted ‘engage the world’ differed depending on how they viewed the public purpose of the exhibition – as market-oriented, scientific, social, interactive, or one other purpose not encompassed within the ROM’s objectives: political. The last derives from the particular ‘public interest’ that sees exhibitioning as involving publics in new openness or transparency, or as addressing public issues of concern that might have a more controversial nature. Each of these perspectives on how the DSS exhibition engaged the world are analysed below in turn.

First, when engaging the public is interpreted as ‘selling’, success is measured by numbers of tickets sold (McLean and O’Neill 2007). While attendance was a primary reason the Dead Sea Scrolls was selected as a topic in the first place, marketing considerations also strongly shaped the form of the programming offered and all ancillary materials. As noted above, many influential senior managers had brought to the ROM corporate, business-like attitudes, market orientations, and the language of the business world. Thus, the public for them was perceived as a market, and serving publics was framed as client or customer services.

After the DSS exhibition was over, Thorsell proudly announced that group sales (package admissions and tours), had taken a lead role in ‘establishing relationships with many community groups and corporations in Ontario, taking the initiative to bring visitors to the museum who would otherwise not probably attend’ (Thorsell, 26 April 2010). Group sales for that fiscal year, of which Dead Sea Scrolls was the primary offering, took in double previous revenues at $1.1 million and had a 76 per cent increase in visitors (63,871 in 2009–2010). But seen from the perspective of volunteers and educators who worked on the floor, group sales created a scheduling nightmare and seriously affected the public’s experiences within the exhibition. Halfway through the exhibition, one of the docents described the difficulties:

just the other day we got an email, and they want docents for a three o’clock, a large three o’clock group, and then they said we’ve booked now another large group for 3:30. And the person who’s coordinating this wrote back saying ‘well can’t you make it four o’clock? Give us a chance to handle the first group.

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