Phase 1: Proposal

Exhibitions begin as ideas that come from many places:

• as relevant and interesting topics that have done well in visitor testing

• in response to a written proposal from another museum 

• with a request from research and collections staff

• as an idea from members

• from a museum administrator or trustee who has seen a traveling exhibition in another city.

Once the Head of Exhibitions decides to pursue a project, Exhibitions staff will create a proposal for review by the Executive Committee of the Museum and, in some instances, by the Board of Trustees. If approved, fundraising will begin. Projects with small budgets may move forward at once, but any exhibition project with a significant budget impact needs to have funding in place before work can start.

In some ways, this situation is paradoxical:

• To get approval for starting a project (a moment we informally refer to as “getting a green light”) we need to create a proposal detailed enough to convey what the final exhibition will be like

• creating that proposal takes time and effort

• but we can’t, in theory, commit the time and spend the resources needed to do that work

• because we haven’t yet received approval to begin work on the project.

Proposals for major projects have another built-in paradox: the final exhibition, once created, will be the result of a complex collaboration between many people, divisions, departments, and institutions. We can’t know, in the beginning, exactly what shape the final exhibition will take. However, donors are unlikely to contribute money to something that is nothing more than a vague idea. Successful project proposals therefore need to provide projected costs and revenue, photographs of sample artifacts or specimens, floor plans, content divisions, descriptions of media and interactives, and illustrations of general look and feel—long before the work needed to arrive at those details has even begun.

That said, those who are involved in creating and reviewing exhibition proposals know that the process is a chicken-and-egg problem, and that no one can say exactly what an exhibition being proposed today will look like the day that it opens four months—or four years—from now.

This is the heaviest work period for the Planning and Traveling Division. They begin by assessing each proposed concept:

• Is it appropriate to the Museum’s mission?

• Do we have research expertise and collections to support it?

• Do we have the appropriate gallery space available at the right time?

• Will the exhibition be separately ticketed?

• Has the exhibition topic been presented recently, or nearby?

• Would it represent a good balance with what else will be on view?

• Is it likely to generate revenue?

• Does it allow us to build our relationships with our constituent communities?

• Is it travelable?

[CONSOLIDATE WITH ABOVE]

Deciding what to stage is part of the problem. Exhibition Planning also has to figure out where exhibitions will be staged. The Field Museum has two large (approximately 7,500 sq. ft.) halls for temporary ticketed exhibitions, and four smaller galleries (ranging from 300 to 3,000 sq. ft) for non-ticketed special exhibitions. Each of these spaces has different levels of climate control, security, ease of accessibility, and visibility (exhibit halls located at the far edges of a large museum building are less likely to be stumbled upon by the average visitor).

Then the Planning Division has to figure out when to stage exhibitions. Timing is determined by a variety of factors:

• availability of appropriately-size gallery space: each of our temporary exhibition spaces has its own schedule, with installations that can be on display for anywhere from 6 months to 2 years

• staff labor capacity

• the assortment of available incoming traveling exhibitions (and the organizer’s degree of flexibility regarding booking dates)

• seasonal patterns of visitation

• how long ago—or how recently—we have hosted an exhibition on a similar topic.

One important factor driving exhibition timing is this: we have to minimize the number of days that an exhibition hall is “dark.” When we have only one temporary ticketed exhibition open, our All-Access-Pass sales drop dramatically.

Operations is minimally involved in this phase, only drafting a schedule of potential milestones or working with the Planning Director on drafts of the contract, or the Director of Exhibitions on budget.

Development may be involved in preliminary meetings with Content Advisors and/or outside partners. The Development Division writes the narrative sections of exhibition proposals, descriptive text to be used for topic testing, and some of the marketing materials that Traveling Exhibitions will create for potential host venues (if the exhibition under consideration is intended to travel). 

Design + Media is researching inspirations for the exhibition. Depending on the exhibition, they may produce preliminary drawings and renderings for the proposal. These might include particular exhibit elements or objects, as well as overall impressions of the look and feel of an exhibition.

Production and Media Integration are usually not yet involved. However, for permanent exhibitions Production staff may be involved in producing cost estimates for renovations that a hall will need in order to meet object display standards. We call this “shell work,” and it encompasses everything that needs to be done to enable a space to function as an exhibition hall.