“In designing this exhibit, we were interested in exploring alternate ways to display art in a large open space. The selection of work from the permanent collection did not have a set of prescribed narrative themes, and this allowed us the freedom to explore new methods for viewing art. Our response would need to resolve how to exhibit 150 art works in a way that captures the viewer’s interest and contributes to the experience of looking at art. In our search of relevant examples, we came across two unlikely resources: the arrangement of music stands in orchestras and the configuration of easels in painting courses. In each example, we found the process of walking through fields of information interesting. One’s sequence of movements and encounters along the way shape the viewer’s experience; singular observations are often understood in relation to a whole, influenced by physical as well as visual adjacencies. We placed the work in a chronological manner, allowing recent work to become spatially distant from older work, replicating the mental distancing of receding events. As viewers reach the end of the exhibition, the experience will read like our own impression of history, with the most recent work fresh in the mind and the oldest work partially obscured by layers of historical sedimentation. It was our goal to use the space as a whole and place the works individually on stands, to impart a sense of intimacy while retaining a visual context that reflects history and contemporary influences. By placing dates and titles on the reverse, we intend each work to be experienced on its own visual merit. Works from a given date are spread out horizontally, suggesting that the Henry’s collection is a bracketed selection of all the work created in a given year. To see the entire history of art in this way would require an extension of the museum measured in miles leading off to the horizon. Here, at the Henry Art Gallery, a small section of art history is presented in visual form. Turning toward the past presents a visual history of the art preceding the viewer’s position in space; turning toward the future reveals only a glimpse of the names and dates that lie ahead.”