Each year, Swem Library displays W&M faculty scholarship from a selected department in its Bright Gallery. Previous exhibits have included scholarship from Psychology, Art and Art History, Geology, and Religious Studies, among others. "Scholarship on Display: Economics Department," pictured right, is currently on display in the Bright Gallery, 2nd Floor Rotunda of Swem Library until September 30, 2015.
The exhibits are collaborations between a library liaison in the Research Department, and the library's exhibit coordinator (me!) in Special Collections. This semester, I am working with Alan Zoellner, the Research & Government Information Librarian, who serves as liaison with the English Department. Alan has been hard at work with the English Department garnering participation from the department's faculty members and gathering their biographical and publication information.
As the exhibit coordinator, I work on the design and installation of the exhibit. For each of the faculty scholarship exhibits, I try to create design elements that relate to the department's area of research. The Psychology Department's labels included outlines of heads filled with different images.
For the Art and Art History faculty, I designed solid-colored labels accented with small circles of paint strokes. Given the colorful and highly visual nature of the faculty's artwork and research, I thought that minimizing the design element on each label would look best.
I am currently working on the design for the English Department's exhibit, scheduled to open mid-October. Given the large size of the English Department relative to the size of the cases, we have had to make some adjustments. Previous exhibits included 2-4 items (articles, books, etc.), a head shot, and brief biographical label for each professor. With more than 40 professors in the department, we have decided to limit each professor to 1 item with a head shot included on the biographical label. I am including a few of my drafts below, but I have not yet decided on which direction I am going. Is there one that you prefer?
