Glenbow’s team is hard at work behind the scenes, creating new exhibitions and displays (over 30 of them!), new programs, and planning what visitors will experience when they walk through the doors of Glenbow’s new home, the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture.
That work is informed by Glenbow’s new curatorial vision. It defines Glenbow’s future program, outlining a vision for exhibitions, programming, and collections development into the future. We sat down with Melanie Kjorlien, Glenbow’s COO and VP Engagement and author of Glenbow’s curatorial vision, to talk about why this new framework matters, and how visitors will see it in action when the museum reopens.
Can you tell us about what’s in this new curatorial vision for Glenbow?
The curatorial vision is really a renewed framework for who we are as a museum – so thinking of those exhibitions, programs, and visitor experiences offered by Glenbow. At the same time that we were reimagining the building and its architecture and functionality, we also needed to reimagine what we offered to the community. So, it was important to develop that overarching vision before we began development of the future program.
The new curatorial vision is aspirational – one that considers our strengths and where we can best contribute to arts and culture in our community. The vision also needed to be informed by our past. We’re a 59-year-old museum – there’s a lot of history here! So, understanding what we want to maintain and what needs to change based on our values today and the needs of the community.
There are seven pillars that form the new curatorial vision. They range from creating more dynamic exhibition spaces within the museum that impact how and where visitors engage with content, to ensuring that exhibitions and programs focused on art and culture from this place are part of the new program. But Glenbow’s collections are also diverse – our founder, Eric Harvie, collected artwork and objects from around the world and from various points in history. We wanted to bring these collections forward in the new program, but also wanted to tell these stories from the perspective of community members whose history is represented.
It was important to make the community and their engagement with the program part of that vision. Because you have to be doing this work for someone. We don’t curate exhibitions and develop programs for ourselves. It’s done for the community.
One of the pillars in the vision also considers the visitor and how they can best experience the reimagined Glenbow. People want to engage with museums in their own way and at their own pace, so the new program also needs to incorporate those diverse needs. We want visitors to have a range of reactions to the new exhibition program as they move through the building – they may experience wonder, joy, sadness, or quiet moments of reflection.
At the heart of the curatorial vision is an emphasis on making sure people feel they are welcome and belong here. So, we’re working to truly understand what that means and how it informs the experience when people visit us at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture.
How will people experience this when the museum reopens?
Well, when we think about this idea of celebrating the diversity of the museum’s collections, one way visitors will experience that is by seeing more of the museum’s collections on exhibition more often. And, when we think of dynamic exhibition spaces, visitors will see and experience exhibitions of different shapes and sizes that have allowed the museum to tell different stories in different ways.
There are still connections to those parts of Glenbow’s collections that visitors may remember from the past. But we’ve also put new spins, exploration, and research on subjects where people might think they know everything there is to know about that subject. It was equally important to make sure we’re telling new stories and telling the stories of our place in new and different ways.
People will notice there is more diversity in terms of the number of exhibitions and the types of experiences you can have. The exhibition floors have really changed. Instead of having an entire floor that only has two subjects to explore, we’ve divided those floors up into different-sized spaces, and that allow us to tell different kinds of stories in unique ways.
For people visiting, they’ll find the rhythm of visiting the museum is a bit different. You can experience what you might call bite-sized content in the lobbies and explore one single interesting story. But then you can move into an exhibition space and explore something in greater detail. Or you can explore a theme or a subject matter in fun and playful ways.
There are a lot of opportunities for families and people of diverse ages and backgrounds to connect with the exhibition experience. And let’s not forget about the back-of-house spaces. People will have an opportunity to see the inner workings of a museum, which will have some fun and interesting interpretation around it to appreciate this specialized work.
It will also come through in the diversity of voices. It isn’t one curatorial voice speaking to you from the museum. We’re working with community members on many different projects so that voices of communities are represented in the exhibitions and stories being told.
What do you think will be the biggest differences from how people experienced Glenbow in the past?
The diversity of content will be a big change. Before our renovation, some floors of the museum had exhibitions on two or three subjects; now some floors will have five or more different exhibition experiences and, through time, the exhibitions will change more frequently. As well, we previously only had exhibitions on three floors of the museum. When Glenbow reopens, all eight floors of the JR Shaw Centre for Arts and Culture will be accessible to the public, and each of those eight floors will have unique exhibition experiences.
One of the other things we’ve prioritized is to make more of the back-of-house spaces in the museum accessible to the public. So, visitors will have great views into collection storage areas, conservation labs, and production studios.
I mentioned earlier that one criticism in the past was that people didn’t see more of Glenbow’s collections. We’re excited to be exhibiting more of the collection as part of the new program. There are many objects that have never been exhibited before that are part of the new program. You might miss some things that were there, but you’ll be seeing so much more of what Glenbow has in its collections and finding new things to appreciate.
You mentioned looking at areas of the collections that hadn’t been exhibited much in the past. Do you have any favourite finds?
One object is a strand of 36 small discs made of a fine, almost parchment-like paper, joined together by a light ribbon. On each disc is a tiny yet detailed watercolour of a battle scene where Frederick the Great and his army were victorious. It dates from the early 19th century and will be in a new exhibition on miniatures.
Another is a tiny pair of slippers made from recycled denim during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The family couldn’t afford to buy new shoes, so a mom made these beautiful little slippers for her baby out of old denim.
I’ve also been working on an exhibition on the subject of play, and have fallen in love with some of the toys.
We can’t wait to share more of these future experiences as Glenbow gets closer to reopening in our renovated building, the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture!
