How does form shape content?

Photo: George Serras, National Museum of Australia

How do film, lighting, graphics and multimedia affect the ways we read an exhibit? Who gets to decide the stories a museum tells?

In Museums and History students discuss how curators use objects, multimedia, lighting and design to interpret and present Australian history. This program provides students with the opportunity to use a digital camera to take photographs that help them to deconstruct and analyse exhibits. All photographs will be available on our website for follow-up classroom activities.

Details

Year levels	9–12
Group size	80 students
Duration	2 hours
Cost	$6 per student
Availability	Tuesday–Friday at 10am, 12pm, 3pm
Curriculum links	Australian History curriculum links to our programs (178kb PDF)

Aims

Help students develop critical and reflective thinking skills essential for understanding how exhibitions construct accounts of history.
Enable students to consider how display affects meaning and how museum displays present particular historical perspectives.
Encourage students to consider the role of the curator and understand how this role relates to historiographical ideas and processes.

Structure

Introductory activity – as they examine a range of objects, students discuss the interrelationships between components of an exhibit and consider the methods used to exhibit objects and how their display impacts the interpretation of history.
Gallery activity – working in groups, students explore the Museum's galleries and photograph an exhibit of their choice, identifying the components and display methods used by the curator to convey the interpretation of history.
Reflection – students gather to discuss the exhibit they have documented and consider how the curators have presented their interpretation of history.

Exploring the Museum

You may like to allow extra time to visit other exhibitions and to explore other places in the Museum, such as Circa and Kspace. For everything you need to know about visiting, see Plan and book a visit.

Related resources

These activity ideas might be useful in your classroom.

You may also be interested in these teacher resources:

The 1967 Referendum – a unit of work investigating the significance and impact of the 1967 Referendum
A Walk through 'White Australia' at the National Museum – a unit of work exploring the representation of 'White Australia' in the Museum
How do Museums Represent History? – a unit of work investigating how the Museum represents Australian history
First Australians: Telling our Indigenous Stories – a unit of work exploring how the Museum presents Indigenous cultures and histories in exhibitions.

You can also see the full list of resources related to historical skills.