ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the heady early stages of exhibition-making, and at the nature of the context in which those involved worked. Because the Food exhibition was conceptualised in many respects as a ‘departure’ from previous ways of doing things, it is a good case through which to provide an account of an instance of, and response to, the ongoing ‘cultural revolution’. The great majority of analyses of museums and exhibitions read back from the finished product, the text, to assumed relations of production (generally ‘dominant cultural interests’, especially those of class, gender and race). The use of an outside design service was not unprecedented in Museum but it was unusual at the time for a major ‘permanent’ gallery such as Food. The chapter introduces to the members of the Food Team. It discusses some of the ‘departures’ that Food was generally regarded as making from the usual ways of doing things.
