Everywhere, a Sign

One of the best things about working at the DIA is that during my lunch break, or heck, even on my way to the parking lot, I get to walk through the museum galleries and visit some of the most amazing art in the universe.  I've been making it a point to see a different gallery every day.  Today, after lunch, I took a little stroll through the Egyptian gallery-- a long time favorite of mine.

As I was gawking at mummies and canopic jars, I saw this sign next to one of the cases:

Yes!  What do BCE and CE mean??  I mean, I know what they mean, but I have an anthropology degree so I know all kinds of bizarre things.  I gloss over these terms without a thought, while much of the general public may get hung up on them, as they are not terribly common in our everyday language.  I think this is a great method-- explaining not only the art, but the terms used to interpret the art.  Brilliant.

Since its reinstallation, the DIA has made use of some awesome interpretive methods-- many of which seem brilliant in their simplicity and effortless in their execution. 

My favorite of these methods may be the DIA's use of text panels.  I know, text panels.  I personally, find text panels to be generally uninspired and downright dull.  I rarely read them.  That's why the DIA is brilliant in their creation of wall texts that you don't have to read!  It's true! 

There are one or more text panels mounted in every gallery, and they all look something like this one from the Egyptian gallery:

It's a little difficult to see because I wasn't using a flash on my camera.  To the right is your typical text, talking about what kinds of objects are typically found in Egyptian tombs.  But if you look to the left, you see an image with the word "EGYPTIAN" over it.  Every text panel throughout the Egyptian galleries looks exactly like this one.  They all have the same image on the left, and they all say "EGYPTIAN" down the side.

Here's why I think it's brilliant:

1.) It requires almost no reading.  I don't have to read all of that text to know where I am and what I'm looking at.

2.) It unifies the galleries.  As another part of the DIA's reinstallation, all of the gallery space was divided into smaller galleries because visitors reported being overwhelmed by the large, traditional halls.  Thus, the many smaller rooms make it difficult to keep track of what gallery you're in.  These panels, present in every gallery room, keep these smaller sections unified under one larger theme.

3.) I read a few, and they're actually very interesting and accessible.  I may need to state that I do not have an background in Art or Art History, thus I read these text panels like a visitor would, and I found them all to have genuinely interesting information that was easy to understand without seeming overly simplified. 

4.) They are sufficient.  There is little else on the walls, except art.  One of these panels in each gallery goes a long way.

Here are some other examples of the great text panels that are now in every DIA gallery:

Inspired by Italy                              Ancient Greek & Roman

Renaissance                                               Modern

American                                               African

Medieval

Of course, there are others genres that I did not have a chance to capture this afternoon.  It must also be pointed out that all of the art falling under these headings is displayed together.  In other words, there is no heading for "American Painting" or "American Sculpture".  Everything that is American is in the same place.  American furniture, silverware, paintings, marble busts... all in the American gallery, identifiable by the text panel in every room.

What struck me the most was how simple this seems.  Why didn't they do this sooner?  Why isn't every museum in the world organized like this? 

It is deceptively simple.  It seems like all they did was put up new text panels and the collections were immediately more accessible to the visitor.  But the DIA was not always organized this way.  In fact, the museum was shut down for a number of years while everything was reorganized-- all of the European art needed to be grouped together, as did the other, less obvious categories like "Inspired by Italy", etc.

But I think this reorganization was well worth the trouble.  While I was meandering around the galleries this afternoon, I stopped to visit one of my favorite paintings in the entire museum.

I love this painting.  I love the bird, I love the baby, I love the laughing lady, I love the other lady's hat-- I love it all.  So I was pleased when I turned the corner and stumbled upon it.  Then I realized that I wasn't sure what gallery I was in.  I stopped, looked around and actually muttered to myself, "...are we still calling this 'modern'...?"  No sooner did I realize I was talking to myself in a public place, when I turned and saw this on the wall to my left:

I couldn't even read the text from where I was standing, but I had seen this panel in previous galleries.  I knew that Vincent represented modern art, and was thus instantly oriented to the type of art I was seeing.

Brilliant.