As a museum professional, it can be hard to turn off our critical eye when visiting museums. In a sense, we are never off the job, because we see every museum visit as a learning opportunity. On a recent trip to Paris France, I decided to use this trait to compare French exhibition design to American exhibition design.
I would like to preface this article by mentioning that I happened to be traveling in Paris during the peak season. Due to this there were many lines and crowds which made some of my museum experiences less pleasant than I anticipated and did not allow me the chance to linger in some areas as much as I would have liked.
Labels
One of the first things that I noticed in Parisian museums was their method of exhibition labeling. Unlike most U.S. exhibitions that I have visited, Paris art museums opted for short, tombstone, labels with the only most essential information on them. Only at the beginning of exhibitions, or on very famous pieces of artworks did I see any interpretive labels. Especially at the Louvre, there were only interpretive labels in their temporary exhibitions.
A new trend in American museums has been the need to offer labels in a secondary language. This was not something that I saw in Paris as often as I see in American Exhibitions. Despite the majority of the visitors being non-French speakers, the only labels I saw translated consistently in museums were the introductory texts. Though many argue in American museums that translations of labels creates an inclusive atmosphere, the all French labels never made me feel unwelcome. It was actually much the opposite. The lack of labels allowed me to focus more on what I saw in each piece without having to worry about what the museum has decided I need to know. Though this is not the experience that everyone is looking for, it was a refreshing change for me.
Introductory panel in three languages at the Musée D’Orsay, June 2018
Touchy Subjects
One of the non-art museums that we decided to visit was the Musée de L’Armée located in the Hôtel national des Invalides. We initially went to this museum to see the tomb of Napoleon, but after looking at what other exhibitions were offered, we decided to stay and check out some more of the museum. The exhibition that I was most interested in was the Les Deux Guerres Mondiales de 1871 à 1945. This exhibition focused on military and political involvement in the forty years leading up to the first World War and through to the end of World War II. I was hesitant about this exhibition, only because I have seen many WWI and WWII exhibitions that left me feeling unfulfilled, but this exhibition exceeded all of my expectations.
Most World War exhibitions that I have seen have only touched, at the surface level, about the motivations behind the opposing sides of the World Wars. The exhibition at the Musée de L’Armée did an exceptional job of summarizing the context of the wars through easy to understand labels. These labels were at the beginning of each new section of the exhibition and included important dates, locations and maps. This way, if you didn’t want to look for the English text, you still get the important dates and locations. These contextual panels were multilingual but the different languages were displayed in different text sizes, with French being the largest and three other languages in a smaller.
Section panel in three languages at the Musée de L’Armée, June 2018
The most impressive thing about this exhibition design was that they did not hide any controversial subjects in the corner. The bulk of the collection of the Musée de L’Armée are uniforms. With that in mind, I was not expecting to see Nazi uniforms in prominent displays within the exhibition. In my experience, American exhibitions will often display sensitive material in less prominent areas so that you really have to be searching for it. The way the Musée de L’Armée displayed their collection of Nazi material is not glorifying the Nazi legacy in any way, but tackles the issue head on.
Nazi objects from the Musée de L’Armée including a uniform and Goerings insignia at the Musée D’Orsay, June 2018
In addition to the Nazi uniforms, there was also a display of Nazi material that the French acquired after the end of the war. This included the personal emblem of Hermann Goering, Goering’s sword and some of Hitler’s notebooks. These were not displayed in a corner, they were right in the middle of a gallery. This forces the visitors to see objects from some of the most notorious people in history, which to me makes them more real.
Crowding, signage and general observations
Unfortunately, due to the time of year that I was traveling, everything in Paris was very crowded. With museums being so crowded, I relied very heavily on museum maps and applications so that I would not get lost. Maps and apps are very important parts of experience design and they can make or break a museum experience.
In doing research for my trip to Paris, I was really excited to use the Louvre’s free app. When connected to internet, the app can use location services to tell you where you are in the enormous museum. Unfortunately if your phone does not have internet readily available, as mine did not while abroad, this app is basically useless. It only worked when near wifi and those locations were few and far between in the galleries. Due to this app failure, I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of the map. The museum map separates the museum into the five main floors (2, 1, 0, -1, -2) but fails to mention that some of the numbered galleries are actually on half floors. This could have been made clearer with some sort of hatch mark to differentiate main floor spaces from half floors.
Musée de Louvre app, June 2018 (Credit: Emma Campbell)
Contrary to this the Château de Versailles app was absolutely amazing. Without internet, the app can track your location throughout the Palace and the Gardens. With so much acreage, this app was extremely helpful for way finding. There is even an option to filter what you want to see on the map, including bathrooms, entrances, food and gift shops. It even showed where the train stations are in relation to the palace!
Screenshots of Château de Versailles app, June 2018 (Credit: Emma Campbell)
The Louvre map also had incorrect information on it. While I do not expect a museum to reprint a map every time an artwork moves, if one of their most famous pieces is moved to a temporary exhibition they should add some sort of signage to explain this. One of my favorite paintings of all time is the Delacroix Liberty Leading the People. I knew that this piece had been moved for an exhibition on Delacroix, but the exhibition was not labeled anywhere on the map so I followed the old directions to the piece. Eventually I had to ask a guard where it was and he informed me that the exhibition was underneath the famous pyramid. With just one extra sheet, or even a sign where you pick up the maps, this confusion could have been solved.
Another disappointment in the Louvre was the numbering of galleries. When galleries are labeled on a map, visitors assume that a corresponding number will be physically found in the galleries as well. In most American galleries I have found these at eye level which makes orienteering fairly easy. In the Louvre, these numbers were located near the ceilings if they were in the gallery at all. Since I peaked into under construction galleries, it was clear that this was something new that they were working on. It was frustrating to not be able to easily find these numbers since the footprint of the building is so large.
My final experience design note for most of the Parisian museums I went to was that there was not much about my experience that encouraged lingering. Most people simply took a picture and walked away from artworks. Sadly, even I fell into this snap and go mentality. Though I wanted to stay and linger, there was so much to see, and so many people shoving their way through galleries that you did not want to stay in one place for long. In addition, benches, bathrooms and food were difficult to find and there was not a single water fountain in any museums we visited. This lead to much discomfort, especially when the galleries were extremely warm and crowded.