Museums Contextual Approach

In the book Museums, Objects, and Collections (1992, p. 110), Susan Pearce wrote about a “contextual approach to understanding” as a way of displaying objects in museums. She explains the way museums would tell a story by using contextual arrangements. For example, I visited a museum in Banff, Alberta that offers a display of the First Nations garments on mannequins and wax figures in poses such as talking to each other and gathering wood. The backdrop had painted landscapes and other tools the people many have used. The museum uses other objects to display the garments in a context they want the viewer to see.

Yes, all items are taken out of their original context but placed into a viewer’s context. Museums must be careful with the contextual approach because viewers may see a connection in a display when there is not one. For example, the paintings I saw in the Banff museum many have been painted by local artist but the viewer many think the paintings were painted by the people of the First Nations. These may be small misunderstanding but may skew the viewers’ thoughts and they leave the museum with the wrong information.

This approach can be helpful to complete a story in a history museum as well as create a story for a simple idea. For example, how would you display a moon rock? One way would be to place it in a glass case with a label. This approach would be descriptive. Second, place it in a case with a space outfit and a photo of a spaceship cutting across the moon. This approach would be contextual. Third, place it in a case with other rocks such as earth rocks. This approach would be classificatory. All of these approaches could be used and each provides insight, but the contextual approach offers added value.

The contextual approach is probably used more with history museum rather than science and art and is successful in completing a story as many history museums do.