One thing that never occurred to me as a museum guest was the amount and variety of work it takes to put together an exhibition. As an intern at the museum, I got to see every little component that went into preparing for the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition that opened this past week.
Everything from the vinyl on the walls (seen above) to the actual walls inside the exhibition has to be carefully designed and implemented by the staff at Philbrook. The information you read, from the pamphlet you pick up at the door to the timeline on the wall, is all carefully written and revised.
However, it's not just the exhibition itself that requires work. We've also set up interactive programs that relate to the art, such as this week's 3rd Thursday, where people created their own prints inspired by the work of Rauschenberg.
One of the coolest tie-ins I think Philbrook came up with was commissioning three local artists to design their own screen prints which reflect the spirit of Rauschenberg's work. They're currently on sale in the musuem shop, and they're only $15 a piece. I honestly couldn't decide which print I liked better, so I ended up with all three (oops). If you want one don't put it off though, because this is a limited run, with only 30 of each print available.
