15/07/2022 | A new exhibition module will expand the permanent exhibition on the "Tropical Coral Reef" at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt. The museum team and the visitors will develop the module together in the upcoming month. In this way, current topics concerning coral reefs as well as the interests of the visitors will be incorporated into the exhibition. The extension was created as part of the BMBF project "Temporary Permanence" (TemPe) – a cooperative venture between the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the German Institute for Adult Education - Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE).
How can we protect coral reefs? What benefits do coral reefs have for humans? Which factors put coral reefs at risk? With questions like these, the visitors can decide at the new feedback station what they would like to see in the future course of the exhibition. There, they can also directly exchange ideas, visions or wishes with the curators. The continuous feedback will then be viewed from three different perspectives - from society, art and science - and shaped into a constantly changing extension. The museum team will develop the first extension together with the Senckenberg Natural History Museum’s Youth Council. It will be on display starting from November 2022.
At the new feedback station, visitors decide on the further course of the exhibition expansion (Sven Tränkner and Lisa Voigt, Senckenberg Natural History Frankfurt)
Continuous reflection also enables the museum team to examine their own working methods and to realize short-term adaptations to current issues in permanent exhibitions. This approach of "research-based curating" turns the exhibition itself into an experiment. The upcoming extensions to the permanent exhibition are part of the Senckenberg Natural History Museum’s research work within the BMBF project "Temporary Permanence" (TemPe). Together with the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) in Bonn and the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen, work is being done on the central question of what a research museum can look like in the future. The project runs until August 2024.
More:
- Senckenberg announcement on exhibition extension: Meet the Reef! A new exhibition module in the Coral Reef
- ZMT as science partner: Permanent exhibition „Coral Reef“ opens at Senckenberg Natural History Museum
- TemPe project introduction: Temporary Permanence (TemPe) - Innovative and flexible knowledge transfer of current socially relevant topics in permanent exhibitions
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