Hi! Sharing some guidelines about art label text. This document is available online. The examples listed in the guidelines are artworks from the V&A museum, to explain more about what it means. Of course, not all information are relevant to our teaching context.
After a module of sharpening our sensibility in the art museum, I would like to think that I have learnt to look at things with a more critical eye, which also means I can spend many hours in the museum. One unusual aspect (for me) when browsing some museum sites online is the presence of a note under the display caption of the artwork image: Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you. It's unusual for me because I would like to think that before an establishment published any document, it should be error-free and I suppose research has to be done first. However, the sheer volume of artworks in the museum is beyond my imagination. I spend three hours walking to different galleries in the museum and in the midst of it, I did not even take a break. Imagine my surprise when I chanced upon a phrase (inspired by the death of...) on the museum webpage which made me felt uneasy and I thought maybe changes could be made. I wrote in to Tate and voila! it was changed within a week. The problematic phrase in the original description wasn't all incorrect because it was actually quoted in a journal article, but the audience wouldn't know because most visitors will not read every painting in-depth, unless for a purpose (Moore, 2008, p. 211). Hence, what is displayed online or even on-site, has to be as direct as possible and also taking into considerations how the visitors interpret the displayed information.
 |
| After |
 |
| Before |
Moore, Jane. (March 2008) 'What Sir Luke Fildes' 1887 Painting The Doctor can teach us about the practice of medicine today', British Journal of General Practice, pp. 210-213.
