Any museum professional worth their salt can tell you that feedback from visitors is absolutely essential to the development of a worthwhile, enjoyable gallery. At the De Morgan Centre we keep a comment book at reception and visitors are always encouraged to write a note to let us know what we’re doing right and what they particularly enjoyed. It also gives them an opportunity to let us know if anything didn’t meet their expectations, so that we can aim to improve.
Looking through these comments from visitors from all over the world is always uplifting. Working in the gallery every day, you can become somewhat accustomed to being surrounded by wonderful ceramics and artworks. The comments from our visitors serve as a reminder of how truly striking the collection is, especially upon first viewing. There are certain adjectives that crop up again and again, and I realised that they lent themselves perfectly to a word cloud – a graphic representation of text, presented here in distinctive De Morgan turquoise, gold and ruby tones! In among the plentiful complimentary words are terms such as ‘unexpected’, ‘colour’ and ‘jewel’ – precisely the vision the De Morgan Foundation had in mind when the gallery was designed. I think this word cloud captures perfectly the wonder and joy that the De Morgan collection inspires in our visitors.
Emma Coleman, Museum Officer
