Where did this all come from? How did it get here? Why do you have it? These are becoming frequent questions from visitors to museums, and it was a question posed to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by visitors during their pop-up opening in 2022.
The BMAG team decided to tackle this head on, with a dedicated space to address the changing attitudes to collecting since the museum was established. The display tackles subjects that visitors might find unsettling and the team wanted to create a space that is safe and welcoming for visitors to explore the carefully selected items from the collection and the ethical quandaries they posed.
The graphics for this space needed to be inviting but not feel like a standard museum display. We advised the team on a colour scheme, picking up the pink that was commonly used on maps to show the British empire, with highlights of gold to create the richness often associated with collecting. Items were displayed using crates and packing boxes to highlight the journey that items would’ve made to become part of the collection.
The elephant theme was to start the conversation and we worked with an illustrator to create a motif based on a tiny elephant figurine, carved from ivory. We chose a style that nods to where some of the items originally came from and designed each introductory panel as a speech bubble to highlight the ongoing narrative. We used a mixture of shaped panels on hidden stand-off studs and cut vinyl to add depth to the graphics and created areas for visitors to provide thoughts and feedback.
Click here to find out more about this display
