Interpreting Portraiture Collections

• Toolkit Homepage
• Interpretation - for whom?
• Interpretation - how?
• Interpretation - of what?
• Further reading and resources
• Beningborough Hall Case Study
• Acknowledgements
• Return to main Toolkits page

General Public

• Remember that standing reading text is far more tiring than reading while sitting so keep an eye on total text length as well as individual pieces of continuous text
• Write for a basic reading level to be as inclusive as possible (around the twelve year old level is used by many places)
• Provide choices of type of interpretation, for example using images or activities, wherever possible to cater for different preferred learning styles
• Some adults learn a lot by watching other people doing things, so interactive interpretation does not have to be used by everyone to be successful
• General visitors may need very explicit encouragement to behave in non-traditional ways in a gallery, such as using interactives
• Allow people a chance to provide their own opinions, comments etc

This interactive, sited near the start of the Heroes and Villains exhibition in Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust, invited visitors to place portraits and caricatures of controversial people on a scale from hero to villain, with gradations such as 'fairly horrible' in between. Heroes &Villains: The National Portrait Gallery Collection Through the Eyes of Gerald Scarfe. Millennium Galleries 14 May - 21 August 2005
Courtesy of Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust

Return to the list of audience types.

Copyright Understanding British Portraits (C) 2008. All Rights Reserved