ABSTRACT
One of the major insights gleaned from studies of museums within the last decade is the notion that museums and museum exhibitions are not neutral-that, in fact, exhibitions are ideologically based and rhetorically complex arguments (Bal, 1996; Bennett, 1995; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992). This recognition is beginning to impact studies of museums, and some preliminary work on museums has explored the ways in which museum mission (Duncan, 1995; Gurian, 1991), architecture (Yanow, 1998), and even label copy (Coxall, 1991) might affect the reception of resulting exhibitions. These studies suggest that “presentation is more than window dressing” (Roberts, 1997), yet at this point researchers know relatively little about the decision making that happens behind the scenes and how beliefs about the nature and goals of museum experiences, exhibitions, and audiences impact, directly and indirectly, resulting exhibitions.
