~ Volume One

The first of a multi-part illumination from:

The Gallery Goddess

Vicki L. Bower, 2011

The first volume of a multi-part illumination by

The Gallery Goddess,A character created to help impart Arts

Management knowledge by Vicki L. Bower

All Rights Reserved. For educational use only. This Ebook & The Gallery Goddess copyright, Vicki L. Bower 2011.

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What is a didactic label? “The term Didactic is used as an adjective to

describe something (generally, a text), that exists to instruct or convey information.”

- Darryl Bank, March 26th, 2008, Curatorsincontext.ca.

~ a museum on the Isle of Wight~

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Didactic labels give instruction. They are found in many forms. They can be as small as an arrow or as large as a whole wall of text.

In this case, we are focusing on the labels that are placed

near individual museum or gallery objects, intended to inform the viewer of origin and give a deeper understanding.

Museum of Modern Art, New York City

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Key Elements

In a gallery or museum most items have a didactic (instructive) label, which identifies the work. Although institutions' preferences and protocols might differ in form or order, they almost always contain:

Artist’s name: The Maker of the item

Title of work: What the creator of the work named it

Who owns work (often a museum)

Information if on loan from some person or institution

Information if a gift from a person or other institution

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The Visual ExperienceMerriam-Webster defines didactic as: a : designed or intended to teach

b : intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment <didactic poetry>

-That right there is pretty interesting... To convey, or give an impression.

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What we are describing is a visual experience, not one written in a book or on a page, but what's been manifest right before our eyes; an experience of emotion and neurons, of human reaction, not a story narrated to us through words.

Text placed before an item sometimes gives a verbal prelude to work. In some cases, this is highly undesirable, as this could interfere with a viewer's unadulterated first impression.

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Each piece of art has a Maker Individuals that we are, each experience will also be our

own, unique interpretation. There will be variables specific to each and every viewer that ensure each and every interpretation will be slightly different and customized to that particular pair of eyes as paired with that particular brain.

As a Maker, each artist may have more than one meaning or motivation enveloped and embedded into the work and to tell someone what to think or see before they experience it could be detrimental to their overall viewing experience, and unfair to the original creator of the art.

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Didactic at Dictionary.com:1. intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.

2. inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker.

3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.

** Please note the second definition from Dictionary.com. The LAST thing a label should contain is *solely*

boring, didactic information. **

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Ten Guidelines, as outlined by the V&A Style Guide

Gallery Text at the V&A: A Ten Point Guide , from Victoria and Albert Museum, "The world’s greatest museum of art and design," in London:

One: Write for your audience Two: Stick to the text hierarchy and word count Three: Organise your information Four: Engage with the object Five: Admit uncertainty Six: Bring in the human element Seven: Sketch in the background Eight: Write as you would speak Nine: Construct your text with care Ten: Remember Orwell's Six Rules

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George Orwell

In his essay Politics and the English Language(1946), Orwell wrote about the importance of precise and clear language, arguing that vague writing can be used as a powerful tool of political manipulation because it shapes the way we think.

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Orwell's Six Rules?

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech you are used to seeing in print

2. Never use a long word where a short word will do

3. If it is possible to cut a word, always cut it out

4. Never use the passive when you can use the active

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday equivalent

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous*

George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1946

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Number 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous*???

* Yeah, that. In regards to this last rule of Orwell's, due to recent trending toward a more organic approach, if it seems to suit the situation, by all means be barbaric in

nature, for not all art is quiet and reserved!

Frida Kahlo. Without Hope. 1945. Oil on canvas mounted on Masonite. 28 x 36 cm. Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico.

How would YOU describe “Without Hope” by Frida Kahlo?

Don't you think it's best to let the viewer to first see for themselves?

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Lately, arts professionals are taking a more organic approach. They encourage the audience into participating with the art and ultimately, the artist based on their own unique perception. An attempt may be made to evoke the artists' message first, before doling out technical information of form, formation, and foundation.

Sol Lewitt drawings at

DIA Art Foundation. Beacon, NY

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For example, wall text describing a piece might be put after the piece according to the natural flow of exhibition traffic.

This would allow the viewer to absorb and translate the work autonomously before being influenced by outside interpretation, thus perhaps receiving the initial message the artist intended to evoke before being told what to feel.

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At Storm King, the great outdoor sculpture collection, the pieces in the landscape are identified by plaques set in the ground near each piece. These labels have an appropriately muted visual vocabulary (words on flatland in the ground) in relation to the pieces (sculpture in 3-space above the ground). Plaques mounted on sticks up in the air would not work!

-- Edward Tufte, December 7, 2003

Ultimately, the didactic label depends on the art and the artists' intentions. Sometimes it is up to us to figure that out. It is our responsibility, as arts professionals to maintain the integrity of the work and preserve its original message.

I look forward to expanding upon this further in Volume 2.

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No mere words could express the vast magnitude and the feel of standing in a Richard Serra sculpture (this

photo taken at the Gagosian, NYC, October 2011).

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About The Gallery Goddess

She has worked in The Teaching Gallery, HVCC, Troy, NY, interned at the Esther Massry Gallery at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, actively volunteered at Albany Center Galleries, and created and assisted with many public art space events throughout New York's Capital District area.

The Gallery Goddess, “Gallery and Arts Management divine guidance and illuminations, with a New York focus” came about through her Social Media and the Arts class and has gathered quite a following, becoming a trusted source for Art News and Arts Management guidance and information.

Vicki Bower has Associate's degrees in Gallery Management (2011) and Computer Information Systems (1997) from Hudson

Valley Community College in Troy, NY and is currently a junior in Arts Management at Purchase College in New York.

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The Gallery Goddess

On Twitter: @GalleryGoddess

On the web: www.thegallerygoddess.com

Email: thegallerygoddess@gmail.com

Copyright 2011, The Gallery Goddess by Vicki L. Bower. For educational purposes only. All rights reserved.