The Making of a Mesoamerican Blockbuster: Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed

Summary

This paper draws on a case study of the making of Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed, a “blockbuster” traveling exhibit, to examine issues related to the business, development, and curation of museum exhibits featuring Mesoamerican culture and history. On the business side, museums face challenges in funding exhibits, managing risk, and ensuring return on investment. Development efforts struggle to deliver exhibits in tune with the public’s changing tastes without sacrificing institutional goals to present high quality educational experiences that effectively communicate science to the public. Finally, the shift from curator-led to team-oriented curation has led to a host of positive outcomes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exhibiting Mesoamerican Archaeology in the Early 21st Century

Keywords

Spatial Coverage