The AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo is around the corner and we’re looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting new ones, too!
Check out six of our storytelling strategies, and how some of our recent tours prove their worth.
Want to actually hear them? Stop by Acoustiguide booth 2624 at MuseumExpo! We’re happy to play you clips and talk about these strategies and so many more. Hope to see you in Phoenix!
1. Unique perspectives –
- Listeners heard how cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain) and contemporary photographer James Welling find inspiration in Wyeth’s work on the Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect tour, produced with the Seattle Art Museum and Brandywine River Museum of Art.
- Professor Sander Gilman, a leading expert in antisemitism, gave a unique perspective on prejudice in turn-of-the-century Paris on our Modigliani Unmasked tour for The Jewish Museum.
- Former Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello read one of Michelangelo’s witty sonnets about painting the Sistine Chapel on the Met’s Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer tour.
2. Long form storytelling –
- Longer stops encouraged listeners to take time examining thematically grouped photographs on the Met’s Irving Penn: Centennial tour.
- We crafted the“walking“ stops on the Statue of Liberty Tour to guide listeners along the perimeter of Liberty Island, while encouraging them to visualize the past of New York harbor, the downtown skyline, and the Statue herself.
3. Humble objects bring a place to life –
- From archival interviews that describe the first taste of a ham sandwich to the rows of beds in the hospital ward, our Ellis Island Museum Tours give listeners a palpable sense of the daily experience of 19th– and 20th-century immigrants.
- Art historian Roger Cook discusses the humor behind Bespoke Coat Hanger for Decorated Items on The Jewish Museum’s Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Your Place or Mine tour.
4. Conversational energy –
- We re-vamped the New York Botanical Garden’s tram tour to include some new content, and to give the tour a more conversational tone that energizes tram riders to explore the Garden.
5. Interacting with exhibits –
- Exhibition floorplans were key for the Star Wars: The Power of Costume tour, which has been traveling across the country. We designed the tour to complement the exhibition’s immersive, multi-media design.
- The Met’s Musical Instruments gallery might not let you play the instruments, but our tour gives visitors a chance to listen to how the instruments sound.
6. Audio Delights –
- A rich soundscape of railroad and car sound effects, harmonica music, and mining songs conveyed the feeling of traveling in the High Museum’s Cross Country: The Power of Place in American Art, 1915-1950 kids audio tour.
- Amusing interview clips, perfectly-timed music, and a melodramatic quote from the artist’s memoir added a je ne sais quoi quality to the Kimbell Art Museum’s Casanova: The Seduction of Europe tour.
