This document discusses the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and how it served as a laboratory for museum interpretation from 2006-2015 under the direction of James Bradburne. Some key points: 1) Palazzo Strozzi aimed to bring international cultural events to Florence while also opening itself up to the local community. Its exhibitions were created to generate new knowledge, restore artwork, and transform visitors. 2) The label or text in a museum is highly contested and can become a "battleground" over who determines meaning. Palazzo Strozzi explored ways for labels to support new meaning-making through varied voices, interactivity, and user-focused language. 3) Evalu

1. The label - the museum’s
battleground
The Palazzo Strozzi as a
laboratory for museum
interpretation 2006-2015
Dr. James M. Bradburne
ex-Direttore Generale, Fondazione Palazzo
Strozzi
Editor-in-chief, Museum Management and
Curatorship
Praatjes bij plaatjes? Over teksten in musea en tentoonstellingen
11 May 2015, Brussels
www.bradburne.org

2. James M. Bradburne b. 1955
Male, Anglo-Canadian
This mid-20th century specimen, a former museum Director,
is one of a group of informal educators marked by early
exposure to philosophical idealism, cybernetics and
constructivist psychology (note the faint scars), noted for their
support for bottom-up, user-driven pedagogy. The natural
habitat of these creatures includes museums, science centres,
world’s fairs, zoos and botanical gardens. They are not
considered dangerous, although can become Socratic when
provoked.
Accession Nr. 0300955
James Bradburne, the label

3. The role of the museum
“the museum has to function as an institution for the
prevention of blindness in order to make works work... Works
work when, by stimulating inquisitive looking, sharpening
perception, raising visual intelligence, they participate in… the
making and re-making of our worlds”
Nelson Goodman (1980)

4. The argument
‣ the label is “the sum of all the intentional acts on the part of the
museum to create meaning”
‣ who has the right to create meaning on behalf of the museum is
highly contested - and the label is the site of all battles to decide
whose meaning prevails
‣ as museums should create new knowledge, curators are fundamental
to the exhibition’s meaning, however new technologies and new social
practices put pressure on the curators’ monopoly on meaning-making
‣ the answer to creating multiple meanings in the museum is not merely
to pass from one expert to another, nor to declare all voices equal - a
museum cannot become a blog
‣ due to its autonomous governance and public-private support,
from 2006 - 2015, while James M. Bradburne was Director general,
the Palazzo Strozzi’s exhibitions have served as a laboratory for
how museums can explore ways to support new meaning-making
with their collections

5. The real crisis is the quality of engagement -
not the quantity of visitors

6. What is Palazzo Strozzi?
• a masterpiece of Renaissance
architecture at the heart of Florence
• Florence’s largest temporary
exhibition space, plus a centre for
contemporary art
• an urban ‘piazza’ with cafe, shop,
concerts
• the city’s laboratory - using every
exhibition to explore how to create
new value for museums with
collections

7. Palazzo Strozzi was also...
• an experiment in innovative
governance - a laboratory for
best practice
• a cultural experiment with two
goals 1) to bring international
quality cultural events to
Florence and 2) to give the
Palazzo back to the city as a
vital cultural destination
• the governance project is
about autonomy
• the cultural project is about
‘visible listening’

8. The Palazzo Strozzi Mission 2006-15
1] to bring international cultural events to Florence (think
global)
2] to open the entire Palazzo to Florence and those who
love it (act local)
Why stay longer? Why come back? Why live here?

9. Palazzo Strozzi was a laboratory for learning
how to create new value with culture -
Making every exhibition was like making a new
museum

10. Why we made exhibitions
The Palazzo Strozzi created all its own exhibitions. The three
criteria the Palazzo Strozzi used to decide what exhibitions it put
in its programme:
1) to create new knowledge
2) to restore works of art
3) to transform visitors
The goal was not to create ‘blockbusters’, but to cover 25-35% of
the exhibition’s costs with earned revenue (ticket sales, catalogue
royalties, events etc.)
If the exhibition did not fulfil these three basic criteria, it is not
considered for the programme
Other factors included alternating between Florence’s heritage
and material not in the city’s collections; cultural diplomacy;
collaboration

11. This meant …
1) using world-class curators to create new knowledge
2) restoring art works to justify temporary exhibitions
3) transforming visitors by having a coherent educational
strategy - which we call visible listening

12. The goal of a museum installation
1) to encourage visitors to look longer
2) to create the context in which to see more
The goal of all museum installations is to enhance visitor
engagement with the objects in the museum’s care

13. The label: the heart of the museum mission -
and its battlefield
“An efficient educational museum may be described as a
collection of labels, each illustrated by a well-selected
specimen.”
George Brown-Goode, 1888

14. A label is the sum of all the intentional acts on the
part of the museum to create meaning

15. Labelling considerations illustrated
1) size, length and placement
2) other voices
3) interactivity
4) user-language

16. 1. Size, length and placement
legible + readable
Women in Power
(fall 2008)

17. De Chirico, Max Ernst, Magritte, Balthus
(spring/summer 2010)
[Palazzo Strozzi guideline: 80 words/500 characters spaces included]

18. Bronzino
(fall 2010)
[Palazzo Strozzi guideline: all texts must be readable at 3 metres]

19. Americans in Florence
(spring/summer 2012)

20. Pontormo & Rosso Fiorentino
(spring/summer 2014)

21. From: Elizabeth DeRosa <derosa.ej@gmail.com>
Subject: Complimenti
Date: 13 March 2014 12:27:47 CET
To: j.bradburne@palazzostrozzi.org
Cc: Elizabeth DeRosa <derosa.ej@gmail.com>
Dear Dr. Bradburne,
I am an American art historian and live part of every year in Rome. Yesterday my husband
and I made our annual excursion to Florence specifically to see the exhibition at the
Palazzo Strozzi. I am writing to congratulate you and your staff on your ambitious and
stimulating exhibition topics and presentation of the material over the past several years.
Yesterday at the Pontormo/ Rosso exhibition I especially enjoyed the clear outline of your
adventurous exhibition goals and the large and legible labels placed at good viewing
height. I have seldom experienced such a well thought-out and beautifully presented show.
Thank you to you and to your staff. I think that you are setting new standards for what an
exhibition can and should be.
Best regards,
Elizabeth DeRosa, Ph.D.

22. 2. Other voices
Labels written with, but not by curators
Women in Power
(fall 2008)

23. There were three paintings of Bathers in the Fabbri
collection painted between the end of the 1870s and
1885. It was one of Cézanne’s favourite subjects,
treated in more than 140 watercolours, drawings and oil
paintings. He showed an early interest in nude studies
but his figures were far removed from anatomical
precision: they were distorted and depicted with thick
brushstrokes and strongly contrasting colours. At the
same time Cézanne worked on setting his nudes in
landscapes.
Why other voices?
Well, Cézanne sure does like green! He has used
beautiful shades of green so that even if we spend
hours looking at this work we shall never get tired
of that luscious colour he has chosen. These five
bathers seem to be bathing in a wood that shows
they all get along except one of them (on the right)
who seems to be crying. This could be a reference
to Cézanne’s first steps into entering the
impressionist world and being an outsider at first
then entering their circle.
This must be a cool, breezy day in spring, I think
this because the sky is grey and the people are
trying to dry off quickly. I think this is a depressing
painting because most of the people are frowning.

24. Cézanne in Florence
(spring/summer 2007)
Labels written by children

25. ControModa
(fall 2007)

26. At the Court of the Emperors
(spring 2008)
Objects seen through other eyes

27. At the Court of the Emperors
(spring 2008)

28. Bronzino
(fall 2010)
Labels written by poets

29. Money & Beauty
(fall 2011)
Labels written by writers

30. Voices from the Thirties
(fall 2012)

31. The Thirties
(fall 2012)
Visible listening in the Radio Studio

32. 32
DE CHIRICO, MAX ERNST, MAGRITTE, BALTHUS INTERACTIVE FAMILY
EXHIBITS
De Chirico, Max Ernst, Magritte, Balthus
(spring/summer 2010)
3. Interactivity
“Contaminating” the exhibition
spaces

33. 33De Chirico, Max Ernst, Magritte, Balthus
(spring/summer 2010)

34. 34De Chirico, Max Ernst, Magritte, Balthus
(spring/summer 2010)

35. Art & Illusions
(fall 2009)

36. Art & Illusions
(fall 2009)

37. Springtime of the Renaissance
(spring 2013)

38. Art & Illusions
(fall 2009)

40. Many stories not one story
“The question is whether we can really still keep telling the same
stories the same way and assume that we can provide lives of decent
quality for those who follow us in our places. I think the answer is no.
Part of the solution is to find new stories that have new meanings and
new value systems implicit in them. I don’t know what those stories
are. And I don’t think it is the job of the historian or the museum to
create the story. Our job is to create the context in which people can
create those stories and reach some level of consensus around
them.”
Bob Archibald, former Director, Missouri Historical Museum, 2006
40

41. 4. New ‘user-languages’
Inviting the visitor to engage with art
• ‘the aim of teaching is not to produce
learning but to produce the conditions
for learning’
• Loris Malaguzzi

42. What is a ‘user language’ ?
The meaning behind the words …
What is a user-language? Simply an invitation to the reader to take
on a rôle - listener, observer, detective. The difference between this:
“Glass - born of fire and sand [...]”
and this:
“One of these glasses is a fake”
• Textual authority
• Observation
• Variables
• Problems
• Games
User-languages help create the conditions for exploration -
changing user-language can result in large changes of behaviour.
User-language is far more important than word length,
vocabulary, style

43. User-language of problems
Women in Power
(fall 2008)

44. User-language of observation
Painting Light
(summer 2008)

45. User-language of observation
Painting Light
(summer 2008)

46. PAINTING LIGHT (2008) FAMILY ‘PICNIC BASKET’ + IMPRESSIONIST MURDER MYSTERY
User-language of problems
Painting Light
(summer 2008)

47. User-language of games
Money & Beauty
(fall 2011)

48. The museum dilemma - falling attendance to
permanent collections
Are new forms of labelling an answer?

49. Art is Therapy, curated by John Armstrong and
Alain de Botton
The Rijksmuseum’s experiment with philosophical
grafitti

50. Which text do you want to read?
Both? Neither? Is one expert equal to another?

51. Readability, legibility and user-languages
Can the visitors read the text? Do they understand it?
What does the text ask of the visitor?
Labels written in second person, addressing visitor directly. User-language of authority

52. Enhancement or distraction?
Do visitors look longer? Do they see more?

59. The Mystery of the Missing Stature
Another way to increase repeat visits to the permanent
collection

70. The Reading Room

72. What questions can we ask ourselves before?
What should we look for after?
What does ‘success’ look like?
The goal of the museum is to increase engagement with the
works of art - in terms of time spent with the works in the
exhibition, discussions about them and further activities afterward
outside the exhibition. Our questions can include:
1. what other voices can be included?
2. can we use a new user language to increase engagement?
3. is our intervention accessible? To whom?
4. do visitors look longer? Do they have new conversations?
5. have we reached new audiences?
Research is a fundamental part of the museum’s mission,
and all the questions above are subject to quantitative and
qualitative evaluation

73. Labels are subjects for
research and experimentation
[…] to succeed you need an ecology of fearless players […] unafraid to risk
all by helping with often flaky and unpredictable projects.
Paul Saffo, 2014

74. // Questions?

75. // Grazie!