BALTIMORE, MD – When The Baltimore Museum of Art’s (BMA) new Imagining Home exhibition opens on October 25, visitors will discover a hybrid space that blends the interpretation within the installation of more than 30 artworks for an experience very different from the white cube environments found in many art museums and galleries. This innovative design—the result of a three-year collaboration between BMA educators, curators, and designers—has resulted in a seamless blend of technology and architecture with a focus on enhancing the visitor experience without interrupting the art. The exhibition is on view through August 1, 2018.
The objects in Imagining Home are drawn from nearly every area of the collection to demonstrate how artworks about home and the objects from domestic spaces reveal the cultural values of their makers and users. Paintings by Pierre Bonnard, Carolyn Brady, and Marguerite Gérard show traditional home interiors. Photographs by Jim Goldberg, Laurie Simmons, and Alfred Stieglitz represent a variety of physical and psychological environments. Examples of modern design include the Tulip Armchair (designed 1956, this example 1963) by Eero Saarinen, Toastmaster Toaster (c. 1932), and a ‘Moderne’ Iron (late 1930s) produced by General Electric. Ancient and contemporary objects from North Africa, China, Greece, and Uzbekistan provide an international perspective.
A design challenge was presented by a long circulation space that bisects the gallery, leading visitors into other areas of the museum. The BMA’s talented exhibition design team solved this problem by creating angled walls and sightlines that draw visitors into the space, while maintaining physical and visual access to the galleries beyond. Subtle design details related to the exhibition’s themes are incorporated throughout the installation. A pediment-like structure is suspended at the entrance of the first area where objects related to facades and thresholds are shown. A pedestal that references a Formica table emerges from a wall to display a Toastmaster Toaster and a corner area that emulates a shower stall hangs a shower curtain with text by writer Dave Eggers in the domestic interiors section. The last group of objects related to arrivals and departures concludes with a seating nook where visitors can read and reflect on their experience.
Technology cleverly augments the artworks in Imagining Home without being intrusive. Six objects have highly focused directional speaker panels overhead that immerse the viewer in authentic sounds recorded in the place where the object was made. The speakers are unobtrusive so that the overall effect is one of being immersed in a gentle shower of ambient sound. Four objects are accompanied by a small video screen that shows interviews with people who lived with a reproduction of one of the artworks for a month. In the nook, visitors are invited to complete the phrase “Home is…” on an iPad. Their response becomes part of a subtle motion graphic that is projected onto the floor of the exhibition entry and exit.
More information: artbma.org