The Final Touches: Installing the Exhibition
After the items had been moved, I was lucky enough to be invited to help out with the installation of the exhibition. I was terrified that I would drop something, but still, mostly excited to see some of our collection on display. The Highland Folk Museum doesn’t have a display space so this exhibition provided a chance for the public to see objects that are usually safely tucked away in the store.
Helen Pickles, a curator from the Highland Folk Museum, and I helped with the installation and we were tasked with displaying the cabinet that had been borrowed. This was to be used mainly as set dressing and was to be decorated as if it were a pharmacy. Bottles of medicine, camera equipment and lemonade bottles were used to create the look of an operational pharmacy from the mid twentieth century. A lot of the items had come from our collection but we also had the opportunity to delve into the collection stores at the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery to find some cameras to display!
The level of light is an important issue to consider when setting up an exhibition. Some objects, such as textiles and paper, cannot be displayed in a room that is too bright as over time, it will damage the object. Therefore, for the safety of the objects, we spent a few hours taking measurements with a light monitor and adjusting the light in the exhibition space accordingly. Pictured below are just some of the textiles that were on display. The blue nurse uniform came from the Highland Folk Museum!
There was also lots of general cleaning tasks to be getting on with such as cleaning the display cabinets and dusting off objects that were to be displayed. Over the course of the two days, the exhibition began to take shape and it was incredibly rewarding all the hard work beginning to show. It was great to be involved for a few days and I’m grateful to the curators at IMAG for inviting me!
