Volume 3, No. 10. May 23, 2003
Jelling at the right
time
An exhibit celebrating
jelly fish as works of art is itself being celebrated as a work of art. This
week the American Association of Museums is bestowing on the Monterey Bay Aquarium
in Monterey, California, it’s “Excellence in Exhibition Award”
for the aquarium’s “Jellies: Living Art,” which opened in April
2002 (THE LOOP, April 26,
2002). Seven members of the aquarium staff who developed the exhibit, led
by Don Hughes, vice president of visitor programs, are picking up the award
at the AAM’s annual conference in Portland, Oregon.
The $2.85 million exhibit not only features several varieties of jellies but
also showcases works of art inspired by jelly fish, including blown glass and
sculptures. The exhibit compares the aesthetics of jelly fish to man-made art,
from the Sistine Chapel to Jimi Hendrix. “It’s so different from anything
we’ve done before,” said Ken Peterson, the aquarium’s public
relations manager. “Here we’ve just said, ‘Come in and enjoy
the beauty of these living creatures.’ We talk about conservation, we talk
about adaptation. But the impression is, look at the beauty and grace of these
animals, look at the artwork we have around here.”
Doing something so totally different is what sold the AAM judges, comprising
the association’s curators committee, its committee on audience research
and evaluation and the National Association for Museum Exhibition. The award’s
criteria requires an exhibit “physically, intellectually and emotionally
engage those who experience it” and asks the following questions: do people
like the exhibit? Is it consistent with the institution’s goals? Did the
institution respect the exhibit’s content? Is the information clear and
coherent? Are the media employed appropriate? and, Is the information accessible
for the audience? The ultimate criteria: does the exhibit “stretch the
boundaries of accepted practice?”
“It’s vindicating for the risk that the designers and developers and
the whole exhibit team took,” Peterson said. “When you read the criteria
(AAM) judges on, we are touching people’s hearts and opening their eyes
and having them think of something in a different way. To be able to do it differently
and do it so well is, to me, high testimony for the people working on that exhibit.”
However, he is not entirely correct to say the “Jellies: Living Art”
exhibit is unlike anything the Monterey Bay Aquarium has done before. In 1989
it opened a Mexico’s Secret Seas exhibit that recounted a trip made by
authors John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts to the Sea of Cortez and the aquarium’s
collectors traveling the same ground. That approach was so different it, too,
won an AAM Excellence in Exhibition Award.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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