Dense exhibition texts can push visitors away, ERR commentator says

Complex, elitist language can put people off exhibitions, ERR cultural commentator Riste Sofie Käär writes. Exhibition texts should help people understand art even if they lack prior cultural knowledge, she says, and should better take children and people with special needs into account.

Käär says she has recently visited several contemporary art exhibitions with young people who had little interest in the subject. She found that some exhibitions used accompanying texts to spark their interest and help them understand the art, while others used texts that had the opposite effect.

She understands why educated people may be tempted to use complex words and layered references. That can feel natural when someone is immersed in a subject and mainly talks with people who share the same interests. But texts that could help visitors unfamiliar with art engage with works and discover new ways of looking and thinking too often make exhibitions seem more difficult and intimidating, she writes.

Education and cultural awareness are privileges, Käär argues. While people can use the internet, libraries and galleries to learn about culture for free, that opportunity is only partly available to everyone. Social and regional divisions mean that much of Estonia’s cultural life remains out of reach for many. Some people did not grow up with regular theatre visits or museum trips, but may want to explore culture as young adults. Elitist language and a pile-up of big words can drive them away.

Käär also says cultural institutions should consider accessible language for people with special needs, just as they have begun to consider wheelchair ramps and sign-language interpretation. Texts should also help children engage with culture from an early age. She recalls being told as a child that she could read books such as The Little Prince, but would only understand them properly when she was older. Understanding may change with experience and knowledge, she writes, but that does not make a child’s interpretation wrong or bad.

At the exhibition “Karin Luts: Pictures from Travels” at Kumu, visitors could read texts written for children as well as those for adults. Rather than discussing the political climate or Italian architecture, the children’s texts asked questions they could relate to, such as how they thought the people in a painting felt or which place they would most like to visit. These may not have been the artist’s central questions when creating the works, Käär writes, but they offered worthwhile starting points for reflection.

Specialist terminology and Latin quotations have their audience, she says. But efforts to educate the public, encourage interest in culture and improve access should give equal consideration to people who are just beginning their journey.