How do music exhibitions sound?

There’s nothing to hear here! For a long time, visitors of music exhibitions were invited to look at musical instruments, sound storage media, record covers, or portraits of musicians, whereas the conveying of sound played a subordinate role. While sight is still central to the presentation of musical themes, more recent exhibitions, in particular, are using listening stations, live performance programmes, and participatory opportunities to offer audiences acoustic impressions and hands-on experiences. Besides music museums, this mainly concerns music exhibitions of cultural history museums as well as pop music special exhibitions or musical instrument departments in ethnological museums. Music exhibitions are as diverse as their audiences. In this workshop, we will discuss the audible exhibition of musical topics. Based on contributions from museum practice and an exhibition on the phenomenon of brass music in the vorarlberg museum, we will ask: How can music exhibitions be made to resound, and what technical, financial, and other obstacles are involved? What approaches to presentation and education are particularly well suited to including all the senses? How can music exhibitions be designed in such a way that they are inclusive and accessible to everyone? What socio-political and historical topics can be imparted through listening? And how can exhibition organisers respond to the different (listening) needs and interests of their audiences?