Panel 6: War, crisis and exhibition design

Laia Anguix (Northumbria University, UK)
‘A rather “fresh” smell of paint’: wartime exhibitions at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

In the summer of 1939, the Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle) hid away at the Northumberland hills the whole of its permanent collection. During the following six years, its empty galleries hosted a total of 85 temporary exhibitions, which received a record number of 900,000 visitors. more…

Claire Wintle (University of Brighton, UK)
Exhibition making in crisis: professional identity and radical design after the Second World War

Crisis reigned in the post-war period for British museum curators, especially for those who cared for objects from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Even at that time, their collections were seen as problematic – potent reminders of imperial guilt, and a perceived drain on institutions seeking to cement their provincial, ‘British’ identities. more…

Diana Jeha (Independent, Lebanon)
Nicolas Sursock Museum design

Nicolas Sursock Museum in Beirut is a modern and contemporary art museum which opened in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1961. The Museum is housed in the private residence of an aristocratic Lebanese family which was built in 1912. more…

Áine McKenny (University of Brighton, UK)
Feeling through the Troubles: the emotions of displaying conflict

The word ‘difficult’ is frequently used to describe histories and subject matters that are challenging for museum practitioners to interpret, represent or display in the context of exhibitions. Histories are also described as ‘difficult’ where they may present challenges for museum visitors, more…

Kasia Tomasiewicz (University of Brighton/Imperial War Museum, UK)
‘All the fun of the fear’: using exhibition histories to understand the challenges of contemporary curation

Since the late 1980s, war museums have actively moved away from representing military histories towards more emotive social histories. Since their popular proliferation following the First World War, war museums have struggled to navigate the changing boundaries of the ‘politics of respect’ that underpins representations of conflict. more…

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