If you were to ask me, “Ariane, what’s the one insight you’d want to share about storytelling in museums?”—I wouldn’t hesitate for a second. I’d say: You can only tell stories at eye level.
Of course, you can try a different approach—puff yourself up, sound clever, look smart. But chances are, your audience will tune out or quietly slip away. They’ll sit there like inflatable pool toys slowly losing air.
As curators, we vanish from the stage once the exhibition is complete, as Werner Hanak once put it. That means we don’t get to see the glassy-eyed stares of visitors trying to wade through texts that feel like lectures. But here’s the thing: Stories don’t lecture.
Stories are campfires. Stories are “Hey, I have to tell you something!” Stories are contagious. They get passed around like hot, greasy pancakes: “You have to try this!” Stories are delicious. They say, “I see you.”
Hanak-Lettner, W. (2011) Die Ausstellung als Drama. Wie das Museum aus dem Theater entstand. Bielefeld: transcript.