TemPe
Temporary Permanence – innovative and flexible communication of current socially relevant topics in permanent exhibitions
How can we exhibit current research, social issues and different perspectives in museums – and how do these different forms of presentations effect the visitors?
Updating permanent exhibitions with the latest research findings or in response to current social debates is a major challenge for museums. One aim of the project was therefore to develop a prototype of flexible, innovative display element to bring such content into permanent exhibitions and to explore various methods of cultural and knowledge transfer.
The thematic focus was on an ecosystem threatened by climate change: the tropical coral reef. The exhibition project “Meet the reef!” was developed as an intervention for the permanent exhibition and addressed current threats, the value of coral reefs and possible protective measures for this endangered ecosystem. These topics were shown from three different perspectives: “Society”, “Arts” and “Research”. They were each on display at the museum for 6 months, with the last perspective, “Research”, ending on July 12, 2024.
The content of the individual perspectives was largely determined by external stakeholders, who contributed their knowledge as well as working methods and developed them further in dialog with the Curational and Educational team of the museum. This allowed the integration of new thematic focuses into the exhibition as well as the test of novel educational formats.
The effect of the three perspectives on visitors and their experience of the exhibition will be examined via a survey and qualitative interviews. The results of this project – from the modular exhibition display to the visitor survey – can also be used by other museum teams in the future and form the basis for an exchange on the different methods. A publication with the most important findings is currently being compiled for this purpose.
More about “Meet the reef!”, the exhibition display and the different perspectives
Funding
The project “Temporary Permanence (TemPe) – innovative and flexible communication of current socially relevant topics in permanent exhibitions” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Cooperation partners are the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) in Bonn and the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen.
Contact
Dr. Eva Roßmanith
Head of Education Department
eva.rossmanith@senckenberg.de
