Museum Review: Objects Tell Stories

Objects Tell Stories. First Person Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Protoytpe exhibit of an itinerant museum organized and curated by First Person Arts, a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization.  

According to its mission statement, "The First Person Museum is a collaborative effort, encompassing the creativity and dedication of artists, writers, photographers, historians and community organizations throughout the city of Philadelphia."  The museum is designed to have both a live, itinerant component and a coordinating yet unique online presence.  The prototype live exhibit, Objects Tell Stories, was viewed on November 16, 2010 at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and will be open from November 5 through December 18, 2010.  This review will discuss the live exhibit only.

The First Person Museum aims to be a "museum of the people."  Objects Tell Stories displays beloved objects, and most importantly to the organizers of the project, highlights the story and the person behind the object.  Collaboration is more than a goal in a mission statement; its the method used to understand the interaction between people and objects.  It begins with a group approach to exhibit design, implementation, and curation.  Thirteen museum team members are identified, supported by additional staff from First Person Arts.   Drawn from the greater Philadelphia area, these consultants are museum professionals, storytellers, media experts, and historians, each with his or her own training and approach to object/person interaction.  The First Person Museum appears, above all, to be an ideological attempt to marry these methods of representation into an experience that simultaneously defines and builds community, a goal that is only occasionally fully achieved within this first exhibit attempt.

The exhibit is housed within the Painted Bride Art Center, an ideologically practical location as the Bride's mission statement also highlights collaboration.   Three separate spaces are used within the center: a long gallery beyond the entry way and welcome desk, a half loft above that space, and along the edges of an adjacent, multi-purpose room.  Signage explaining the concept of the museum and detailing its community nature is placed at the entrance to each of the first floor spaces.  In the front of the main gallery and in the loft are desks set as interactive stations.  Guest books allow for comments.  Preprinted cards invite individuals to write their own object stories and create a conceptual link between the live exhibit and its virtual sister.  These cards are then pinned to a bulletin board above the desk.  Interestingly, a choice was made to keep the link only representational.  There is no mechanism for directly accessing the online exhibit and placing a description of one's own object there while standing in the company of its tangible neighbors.  

The first visual impression of the displays observes stereo-typical 1950s middle-America upholstered, dark-wood furniture set in groupings throughout the gallery space.   Closer examination indicates a pattern for each grouping: object, item of furniture on or in which it is placed, lighting, a seat of some sort, and two text panels.  Some groupings have an additional audio-visual component.  

Objects are housed in plexiglass, most in box cases sized to match the object.  The three pieces of clothing are displayed in the top, open, plexiglass-covered drawer of a dresser.  Seats are visually part of the grouping - a sofa in front of the coffee table holding the object or a chair in front of a desk serving the same purpose.  Lighting is also part of the scene. A reading lamp hugs the end of the sofa; the supports a column lamp.  The larger text panel is always mounted on the wall and contains a quote from the owner of the object and his or  her picture.  The quote may be an extract from the audiovisual component of the display or may be all one is given of the story behind the object.  The smaller signs are uniform in shape, layout and content.  Each has a circular logo "a bit of history" stamped on it, a title, a fifty word object history, and the name of the Public History at Temple graduate student who wrote the text.  

This marriage of items is another collaboration, an attempt to integrate personal story with object histories using multiple media.  All settings include the elements of first person story and third person background (both written), pictures of people, and physical objects.  Another element is added to some displays - more story, presented in the individual's own voice, either through a recording (listened to through headphones) or a video (displayed on a television screen.)  This attempt is admirable.  The result in this proto-type experiment is mixed.  

When a thread of commonality can be drawn between the object and story, the display triggers emotion and additional thought.  Good examples of this synergy are Kathy's Pendant and Shanise's Stuffed Rhino.  The theme of jewelry as currency grounds the viewer in Kathy's story, while bringing into question or memory the larger social contexts of the early 20th Century.  The brief history of drug promotions explains why Shanise's doctor has a stuffed rhino to hand while laying the ground work for the reader to question the ethics of such a gift.

In general, adding video or sound gives depth to the stories.  One can actually see or hear the person sharing their object.  This connectivity draws the viewer in.  However, when a disconnect happens, it is even more jarring.  Kate's Shawl is the least cohesive display and unfortunately the first in the main traffic pattern.  Its visual message is unclear and listening to the audio extends the confusion.  The sign quote introduces the emotion of items being passed down through generations of family members.  The history describes the function of a Mexican shawl.  The audio recording mentions the former but moves the setting from Mexico to the elite world of Philips Exeter prep school and introduces concepts of American class disparities that are not addressed anywhere else, leaving one confused and disoriented.   

Zhaoxi Zhou's Map is an example of how such a collaboration can work phenomenally, almost.  The object, story, and history complement each other and encourages further thinking.  The video component makes Mr. Zhaoxi tangible. Unfortunately, the decision by the film maker to repeatedly pan the family apartment introduces many new elements, specifically additional objects, drawing attention away from the map and thoughts away from questions of immigration and mobility and community.

One area of disappointment is the physical setting of the pieces.  The furniture used was distracting and jarring in its presence.  The purpose of the chairs is unclear - are they for display or use? If for display, why? If for use, how?  Even in instances where the other elements connected well, the settings are detracting.  Shanise's Rhino represents a five year old in a hospital bed.  Why is it placed in a toddler's wooden rocker?  Kathy's Pendant seems lost and overwhelmed in a box too large for it, a location well below eye level, and placement beside a looming wing chair.  In the exhibit at large, the furniture's uniformity and style contradicts the exhibit's goal of reflecting the many different cultures and lifestyles of Philadelphia.  

Overall, the exhibit is successful in relaying how specific members of the Philadelphia community relate to objects in their possession.  A useful addition to the exhibit is the media space in the loft, where visitors can sit and listen to all of the audio segments or watch all of the video clips.  In a gallery where spacing can trigger a need to move on to the next display, this opportunity to sit and listen to a story in its entirety is supportive of different learning styles and personality types.  While the exhibit is designed for older viewers, with no specific attempt to gear the exhibit to a younger audience, it is attractive and accessible to adults.   The accompanying materials do a good job in explaining the project and tying it to the online exhibit.    The organizers of the museum have identified elements that work together to give members of the community a glimpse at how neighbors think and feel about the objects they collect.  Fine tuning of message, and one suspects practice at a large group or collaborators working together to unify that message, is likely to produce increasingly powerful and educational exhibits in the future.