ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the crucial importance of widely accessible interpretation, learning and display strategies if museums and galleries are to be for everyone, and not just a select few. If some of the ways of displaying objects noted already seem reminiscent of the museum or gallery space, there is a good reason: the ways in which objects are displayed in museums and galleries has directly influenced the display of objects elsewhere. Displays in museums and galleries often correspond to one of a number of classic 'genres', such as chronological, thematic, monographic or national. The recognition that visitors actively – and at times unpredictably – engage with displays has prompted another major change in the way that the author think about museums and galleries, known as the shift from 'education' to 'learning'. The published description of this painting is: "The Virgin and Angel of the Annunciation within a vaulted building, beyond which is seen a landscape with hills.
