Digital talk by Dinah Casson on her new monograph "Closed on Mondays: Behind the Scenes at the Museum"

External News

27 November 2020

Lund Humphries is delighted to invite you to a digital talk to celebrate the launch of: Closed on Mondays: Behind the Scenes at the Museum By Dinah Casson, on Tuesday 1 December, 4-5pm

Dinah Casson, co-founder of Casson Mann, museum and exhibition designers for over 30 years, will be joined by writer, curator and art historian Charles Saumarez Smith and art historian, biographer and critic Frances Spalding,
to discuss the problems which confront museum curators, and their designers. Lund Humphries Chairman Nigel Farrow will introduce the panel.

Please register to attend this free event here. The launch will be broadcast via Zoom exclusively for those who have registered. Registrants will be sent a link and a password to attend the talk in advance of the launch.

Questions from the audience will be welcome. Please note, the launch will be recorded and available to watch online after the event.

About the book, Closed on Mondays: Behind the Scenes at the Museum

The transformation of museums from the ‘dreary, dusty places’ they used to be to places that people want to be in, alongside objects they want to be near and ideas they want to understand and then share has been extraordinary. During the last twenty-five years, millions of pounds have been poured into our national museums in the UK: as a result, they are certainly brighter and fuller. It is against this background that Dinah Casson has opened the service entrance of the museum a little.


This book is not an explanation of what an exhibition designer does or how to do it. Instead, by means of a series of essays punctuated with comments from collaborators and visitors, it explores exhibition design and alerts the visitor’s eye to this invisible craft. It explores questions such as: why are most paintings in carved, gilded frames, regardless of artist, period or subject matter? Why do so few contemporary art galleries have windows? If a label text irritates us, what should it say instead? Why do facsimiles make some people so uncomfortable? Why do we keep all this stuff? What is it that visitors want from our museums? In doing so, it offers enjoyable insights, which will add depth to our future visits through the front door (which is usually closed on Mondays) and will make us question what is shown, why it’s shown where (and how) it is, what’s written about it and how the interaction between museums and their designers has encouraged each to change.


About the author

Since co-founding Casson Mann in 1984, Dinah Casson has been involved in some of the most interesting and complex of recent museum installations both in the UK and overseas. The award-winning practice is recognized as one of the leading companies in the field.