28、A traveling exhibition “Whale and Coral Stories with Us”

 

Maki SHIMIZU

NPO Museum Lab

 

The NPO, Museum Lab, has been involved in museum education over the last six years. In this poster session, we introduce one of our main activities: the traveling exhibition; “Whale and Coral Stories with Us.” Our exhibition has been displayed in different types of museums and even outside of museums. The main purpose of the traveling exhibition is to enhance the public’s understanding of the ecology of whales and the human relationship with whales and culture. The exhibition presents various themes related to whales and the human and whale relationship including: behavior of whales, our historical relationships and ethnographic issues with whales (especially issues related to Japan); and environmental issues. In 2009, the Museum Lab came up with an innovative idea, we began to use Japanese objects such as tea chests, mosquito nets and children’s books in our travelling exhibition. These objects gave us an original, attractive and convenient way to display the travelling exhibition.
- Traveling exhibitions can be very costly. Using Japanese tea chests instead of storage containers significantly reduced the cost of transportation. The tea chests are small enough to be categorized in a less expensive delivery cost size bracket and once opened are instantly ready for display.
- Holding traveling exhibitions outside of museums gives us a broader audience and allows us to introduce the museum experience to an unsuspecting general public.