2007 Awards

Kelvingrove is a much loved Glasgow museum that has been totally restored and its collections redisplayed and interpreted as part of a major refurbishment project. The result is a lively, engaging and eclectic series of displays that are proving very popular with visitors and local people alike. The museum team has aimed to be transparent with its carefully planned approach to interpretation – supported by an admirable amount of consultation and evaluation, particularly with local people of various ages and abilities – and explains why certain decisions have been made and approaches taken, all of which add to the whole experience.

With one or two exceptions, the displays are well designed and enable the collection items to be the stars of the show. The upper floor in particular is extremely well laid out, with some exciting design ideas and effective integration with the collection. Although the interpretation is largely reliant on the written word, particularly on the ground floor, the writing style is clear, concise and engaging – emphasising the value of good training and an active evaluation process. The displays use a lightness of touch and a sense of humour, which help take any stuffiness out of a museum visit, particularly in galleries like Every Picture Tells a Story. Layers of interpretation are provided in a number of ways, such as simple flip books beside paintings and themed boards to carry around the galleries, and audio, multi-media and tactile elements make the experience inclusive.

Unfortunately, some of the interactives are not sufficiently robust for the numbers of visitors, but again we commend the team for their awareness of this and their plans to address these and other weaknesses, such as a lack of signage for the comprehensive Study Centre. We would also encourage the team to review some of the downstairs displays, in particular the fossil and Egyptian galleries, where design development has been less effective; we noted a number of occasions where objects, labels and related graphic information are not effectively linked and lighting of the objects is poor.

Overall, however, the new displays and visitor provision at Kelvingrove are exciting and engaging and seem to be working well for its visitors – evidenced by the number and variety of users during our visit. It has also clearly provoked thought amongst the heritage sector, which has to be a good thing! We applaud the team’s success to date, their ambition to keep a rolling programme of displays over the coming years and their determination to share the valuable lessons they have learnt throughout the refurbishment with other museums in Glasgow.