Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on the re-presentation of a historic University museum, focusing on the creation of a new introductory exhibit. It explores the processes through which the display has been developed, and the kinds of narratives and opportunities for participation that it presents to the visiting public.

Paper long abstract:

The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) at the University of Cambridge reopens in 2012, after extensive renovation of its archaeology displays and reorientation of its public spaces. Central to this project is an effort to reintroduce the Museum, its collections and its ethos to a variety of local and international publics.

This paper reflects on this re-presentation of a historic institution, focusing on the development of and responses to a new introductory display - the first thing visitors see on entering the Museum. Introducing the Museum has involved attention to ways in which galleries and collections are experienced by visitors and to how we, as anthropologists, archaeologists and museum people, communicate our research to our publics.

With the overall goals of widening and enriching access to, and participation in, the work of the Museum, collections research, consultation with stakeholders and interpretative research with visitors have aimed to enhance the kinds of narratives and opportunities for participation that we present to the visiting public. What objects should be selected to best communicate the idea of the Museum and its collections? What do we want to communicate in the first place, given the constraints of the exhibition as a medium? How can we address the expectations of stakeholders within the Museum and beyond? Following exhibition and research projects that have sought to reconceptualise ethnographic exhibitions, the development of the new displays at MAA present a case study of continuing engagements between practice-based knowledge and the limits and potentials of the museum method.