Reading Museum Exhibits: Visitors’ Reading of Exhibits in Cultural Heritage Institutions and Museums

Abstract

The article draws upon theoretical concepts from museology and cultural, Indigenous, and feminist theory to explore intersections between diversity and reading in Cultural Heritage Institutions and Museums (CHIM). These sites are important identity-generating institutions that both preserve and perpetuate ideology and culture. Visitors read and “read into” exhibits—which are often primarily visual; it is therefore crucial for CHIMs to practice self-awareness in how they do, or do not, make information legible. Modern museums were reformist, generalized, authoritative, monologic, and definitive arbiters of culture; in these spaces, visitors necessarily read information in a cognitively passive manner. Postmodern museums, at their best, are pedagogical, decentralized, constructive, dialogic, and representative of diverse voices, experiences, and perspectives. Postmodern museums invite visitors to engage with, and sometimes even collaborate with, or contribute to, exhibits. In both instances, visitors are asked to “read” the exhibits, but in the former, reading is a unidirectional, and therefore final, transmission; in the latter, reading is a discursive, transformative process, with potential to empower. The article proposes a non-proscriptive, Indigenous, and intersectional feminist paradigm as a more equitable information-framing model for CHIM.