Proposals due June 3, 2025 for the Spring 2026 Issue

Proposals are due June 3, 2025. Our editorial advisors will vet proposals in a blind review process, and you will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance in late June. Articles of 2,000 to 3,000 words maximum, along with high-resolution images, will be due in late August.

Theme: Present Tense

As exhibition professionals, we often prefer to tell complete stories, ones where the outcome or takeaway is crystal clear to us and to our audiences. It is important for us to remember, however, that no one can know everything and that sitting with uncertainty, doubt, and not knowing can be infinitely more enlightening than finding an easy but ultimately wrong answer. This is especially true as we confront all manner of social movements, scientific and technological developments, and political shifts in the present moment. The endings to these stories have yet to be written, so there are no answers—at least not right now.

To remain relevant to our communities, we have an obligation to engage with contemporary topics and events, and to do so in ways that have the potential to broaden conversations and lead to understanding and engagement. So, how can we get comfortable with stories that have no ending? How do we sit with uncertainty and not knowing, while striving for nuance, accuracy, and possibility?

For this issue, we seek examples of innovative approaches to exhibiting in the present tense. Proposals for this issue might address any of the following topics:

• How to present multiple perspectives on evolving current events
• Updating exhibitions on historical topics as new discoveries and scholarship change our understandings of them
• The role of design in opening pathways to multiple storylines or perspectives and/or creating display systems that can be easily updated to allow exhibitions to stay in the present tense
• Rapid-response exhibitions on contemporary social movements that are grappling with present realities
• The intentional and thoughtful integration of visitor reactions into exhibition spaces
• How to ensure accurate, fact-based, and nuanced interpretive strategies that also acknowledge that there is no clear consensus
• How to build trust with communities by acknowledging our own uncertainty and/or wrong answers that we may have embraced in the past
• Toolkits for exhibition developers looking to engage with current events in new ways
• The use of interactive and multisensory elements to engage visitors in exploring multiple possibilities
• Strategies for getting exhibition teams and/or audiences comfortable with not knowing
• How memorials and other exhibitions on historical topics might move beyond commemoration to ask questions about the present
• The impact of censorship by federal, state, or local agencies, private funding sources, and/or institutional self-censorship on exhibition projects (e.g., eliminating “DEI” language from grant proposals, writing of exhibition text, marketing materials, etc.)
• The ways in which global events impact the creation of exhibitions (e.g., supply-chain disruptions, visa/travel issues for exhibition collaborators or artists, and the loss of federal funding and staffing cuts in the U.S.)
• Or other ideas

Proposals can focus on a specific exhibition, provide an overview of exhibitions and practices, or offer an insightful review of current literature and other resources to help elucidate core practices. The exhibitions and/or elements discussed can be created by or for museums of all disciplines, historical sites, galleries, institutions that collect and display living collections, or others. Proposals might come from designers, exhibit developers, interpretive planners, curators, writers, educators, or others who create and contribute to exhibitions. In all cases, accepted authors will be expected to write articles that illuminate larger issues. Exhibition descriptions should be critical and analytical, and theoretical research and evaluation findings (even if informal) must be used to support arguments for the strengths and weaknesses of a project.

How to write and submit a proposal

There are two parts to a call for papers proposal (which must be submitted as a Word document):

Part 1: Description (400 words max)

The description must:

• Include a proposed title for the article (proposed titles should be brief, interesting, and illuminating).
• Clearly and succinctly convey what the article’s thesis will be.
• Indicate the approaches, strategies, or knowledge that readers will take away from the article.
• Convey how the article would raise questions or illuminate larger issues that are widely applicable (especially if the proposal focuses on a single project).

Please note that accepted articles will be expected to provide critical, candid discussions about issues and challenges, successes and failures, and to provide some level of evaluation and/or theoretical grounding.

Part 2: Brief Bio

Please provide a brief bio (no more than one paragraph) for each author that describes their background and qualifications for writing the article (please do not include resumes or CVs).

Send all proposals as Word documents via email to Jeanne Normand Goswami, Editor, Exhibition at: jeanne.goswami@gmail.com. Submissions from colleagues and students around the world are welcomed and encouraged.

Deadlines: Proposals are due June 3, 2025. Our editorial advisors will vet proposals in a blind review process, and you will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance in late June. Articles of 2,000 to 3,000 words maximum, along with high-resolution images, will be due in late August.

Other ways to contribute

Would you like to contribute to Exhibition but don’t have a project that fits the call? We are looking for volunteers to contribute to the journal as book reviewers and exhibition critique writers.

What we’ll need:

If you are interested in being considered for these opportunities, please let us know:

• Your name, title/role, institution (if applicable), geographic location (so we can match you with exhibitions in your area), and any areas of particular interest or focus (e.g., are you a public history professional, art historian, scientist, or designer? Do you have experience with content development or museum education?).
• Whether you are interested in writing book reviews, exhibition critiques, or both (NOTE: Book reviewers will receive a complimentary copy of the chosen book).
• If you have a specific idea in mind for either a book review or exhibition critique, please provide a brief (150-word max) description that includes why you think it would make a good addition to this issue (NOTE: you do not need to have a specific idea to be considered).

Please send requested information via email to:

Jeanne Normand Goswami, Editor, Exhibition at: jeanne.goswami@gmail.com. Submissions from colleagues and students around the world are welcomed and encouraged.

Deadlines: All information is due June 3, 2025. Book review and exhibition critique submissions will be considered by our editorial team alongside article proposals in June 2025. If you are selected to contribute to the issue, you will be notified in early July and a draft of your assigned submission (approximately 1,500 words) will be due in late August 2025.

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