Panel 9: Exhibition makers:
shifting definitions of design and designer

Stephen Greenberg (Metaphor/University of Reading, UK)
Sir John Soane: the first exhibition designer

We think of Sir John Soane as an architect; a re-inventor of the classical language; an antiquarian; collector; freemason; and even a disappointed father. But he was also a superb interior designer and colourist, his masterwork – his house that has remained unchanged since his death – a stunning example of museum design at its best. more…

Sandy Jones (National Art Library, V&A/University of Brighton, UK)
The curator-librarian at the museum: exhibiting graphic modernism at the V&A’s library, 1936-39

Between 1936-1939, Philip James, Keeper of the V&A’s Library, founded a collection of commercial art. To assemble his collection, he wrote to the artists and designers of the international avant-garde, progressive printers, experimental art schools and commercial patrons. more…

Kate Guy (University of Brighton/British Museum)
“Miss Hall and her busy, energetic design group”: the emergence of professional in-house design at the British Museum

In 1964, the Director of the British Museum, Sir Frank Francis, appointed the Museum’s first professional designer, Margaret Hall. The job description was vague, and the successful candidate later recalled that her only brief was to “see what I could do”. more…

This paper was available for the period of the conference only
(1-11 September 2020)

Sarah Longair (University of Lincoln, UK)
Designing the colonial museum display: pragmatism and collaboration

This paper discusses what we mean by ‘design’ in small colonial museums in the first half of the twentieth century. In this period we see, in international exhibitions, displays responding to modernist design aesthetics. In the colonial museums there is less evidence of design informed by particular styles or trends. However, by reading archives closely we can begin to understand how displays took the form they did. more…

Roberta Marcaccio (Architectural Association, UK)
A load-bearing history: Ernesto Nathan Rogers and the urban agency of the interior in post-war Milan

In the years following WWII, the Italian architect, editor, critic, and educator Ernesto N Rogers (1909-1969) started the first serious critique of the modernist dismissal of history, accusing it of having favoured an elitist formal vocabulary that remained obscure to most, and irrespective of any issue pertaining to context. more…

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Q&A, Panel 9

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The importance of Miss Hall

First post and replies | Last post by Kate Guy, 1 year ago

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A load-bearing history and a misplaced obsession with Scarpa in the UK?

First post and replies | Last post by Roberta Marcaccio, 1 year ago

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The curator-librarian at the museum: exhibiting graphic modernism at the V&A’s library, 1936-39

Panel 9: Exhibition makers

Panel 9: Exhibition makers: shifting definitions of design and designer

Q&A, Panel 9

Panel 9: Exhibition makers:
shifting definitions of design and designer