Exhibition Curation

Inspired by Stourhead: From Home to Living Work of Art

8th March 2025 - 2nd November 2025

I led the curation of an exhibition at Stourhead House, celebrating the property as a source of inspiration during its long history. The exhibition examined how key members of the donor family were inspired to build and modify Stourhead, and highlighted artists, filmmakers, and visitors who, in turn, were inspired by the house and gardens. The theme created an opportunity to display objects which had been hidden away in storage for many years and showcase specially commissioned footage of Stourhead's impact on film.

The Brief

Multiple anniversaries relevant to Stourhead in 2025 meant the brief for the house exhibits was complex. 

My role

Lead curator from concept and research right through to delivery. Set the tone, vision and direction; undertook all research; wrote all exhibition text; organised loans; secured copyright and permissions; managed the budget; and selected objects, amongst other responsibilities. Led a team of staff and volunteers to deliver the final displays.

Aims and Objectives

1. Raise awareness amongst visitors of the role Stourhead has played as a source of inspiration

2. Increase visitors to the house to pre-COVID levels

3. Grow Stourhead's reputation for high-quality exhibitions

Main themes and concepts

Over the last 300 years, Stourhead has been home to some truly magnificent people. Each one left their own stamp on the property, turning it into a source of inspiration. To this day, visitors are awed by Stourhead. The house displays will engage visitors in the transition from 'home' to 'source of inspiration' and ask them: What inspires you about Stourhead? This is split into the following sub-themes:

1. Stourhead as a home for over 300 years

2. Movement from home to a place of inspiration

3. How Stourhead continues to be a place of inspiration

Layout

The arrangement was constrained by the layout of the house showrooms, all located on the ground floor. This meant working with the spaces to create an appropriate journey. Visitors first navigated stories about what had inspired and enabled the donor family to create Stourhead, including the sources of funding and the reality of links between Stourhead and the transatlantic slave trade. . The final room combined the proceeding themes by exploring the recent return of a painting by Angelica Kauffman, thereby telling the story of an object created by a female artist commissioned for Stourhead, finally returning home.

Key Objects

Most objects were from the Stourhead collection, supplemented by a small selection of items loaned from other museums and private collections. Four costumes were specially commissioned based on historical portraits and photographs of the four key women.

Interpretation Techniques

Previous research showed that visitors most enjoyed reading and touching to interpret the house and its objects. Therefore, the central technique was utilising carefully written text panels and creating a clear text hierarchy. 

Four replica costumes were commissioned to bring the women's presence into the spaces more centrally. These ranged from a Georgian wrapping gown to an Edwardian two-piece set, complete with an S-bend silhouette. Fabric swatches were also provided, and visitors were invited to touch them.

A further important aspect was bringing the women's voices into the space. Due to budget and practical constraints, audio was not able to be utilised. Therefore, quotes from diaries and letters were presented in innovative ways, such as on napkins, in open books laid out on desks, and on aged paper made to look like letters.

Finally, the rooms were carefully set dressed so as to feel as though the women were still living there. This included setting up one room as though it were nighttime with a false fire in the grate. Another had its table laid out for afternoon tea, complete with replica food.

Interpretation Text

The text hierarchy of each room included one introductory panel, two to three sub-panels and up to five object labels highlighting key collection items. The text was written with accessibility in mind, ensuring high contrast between text and background, no more than three lines of centralised text, and eliminating any orphan words. Intro and sub-panels were highlighted with clip lights to aid reading within the low-lit environment of the showrooms. 

The tone of voice was pitched as 'friendly expert', which aligned with National Trust guidelines. All text was written to appeal to a general audience with limited knowledge of the subject matter.

Reception

Senior stakeholders were very impressed with the project's process, delivery and end result. Volunteers were also very pleased with the final layout, design, and interpretation of the rooms. One volunteer contacted me directly to say: 

"New display is amazing. Visitors are really interested in the archive material. Good research. Presentation is excellent: clear and concise and eye catching. New material is stimulating for Room Guides as well as visitors!"

Feedback from visitors about the exhibition has so far been overwhelmingly positive, with the costumes, focus on women, and personal touches highlighted as the most popular interventions:

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