Curatorial Practice: Interdisciplinary Exhibitions in the Science Museum

Introduction

After starting off with scientific ethics and communication, Professor Lau introduced participants to the American Alliance of Museums (AAM)’s framework for assessing exhibitions and the key indicators of a good exhibition. He used two exhibitions—“This Face, That Face” and “Together Forever: Journey into Contemporary Marriage”—that he curated at the National Museum of Natural Science as examples of cross-disciplinary exhibitions. For the former, he explained how he added scientific content to an originally artistic exhibition, while for the latter, he illustrated how he created an interdisciplinary exhibition on marriage customs by combining biology, history, literature, sociology, ethnology, visual anthropology, law, and politics. Further, he emphasized that all curators should possess the skill of storytelling, know where to look for exhibition items, cultivate various hobbies, and read extensively.