Museum Educational Tools
Museum Plaques: Decoded 
While every museum is a little bit different, there are some overarching organizational principles that they all share. When visiting almost any museum a visitor can expect to find small captions or plaques near art objects. These plaques will include information, such as:
- the artwork’s title
- the artist’s name and nationality
- the materials used in the artwork’s creation
- the date that artwork was completed
- the artwork’s physical dimensions
- the art work’s legal status at the museum
- the artwork’s catalogue number
A museum may also provide additional information, such as the historical background of an artwork or movement, biographical information on an artist, comparisons to other art objects or possible interpretations of an artwork’s meaning.
The next few pages of this guide include several real life examples of museum plaques, along with more specific explanations of the different items included on them.
Download this page plus the examples as a PDF
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