ABSTRACT
The process of exhibit development in many museums has been fundamentally changing over the past 20 years or so. Where exhibits were once conceived, developed, and presented according to the ideas and in the (written) voice of curators, they are increasingly now collaborative projects involving museum educators and interpretive planners, as well as audiences themselves. The changes have been a source of concern among curators who have often resented the loss of autonomy and control that design-by-committee seems to imply. It has also generated tension for educators and interpretive planners who face perceptions that their work to shape exhibits for best engagement and learning by a general public results in “dumbed down” exhibits. While these frictions continue to be an obstacle to effective collaboration in the team-based models across museum disciplines, curators of archaeological exhibits—perhaps even especially those working on the ancient Middle East—have consistently (if not exclusively) remained slow to adapt these changes. When a collaboration supports cooperative thinking and problem-solving, however, a project can surpass any individual team member’s expectations.
