Who Cares? exhibition
The Royal College of Nursing
Who Cares? A History of Emotions in Nursing is an exhibition designed for the Royal College of Nursing. Located in the RCN Heritage Library, the exhibition explores six key themes of faith, fortitude, love, anger, fear and sadness. It features an exciting range of interactive elements, diverse areas to explore and provides space for visitor reflection.
The logo for the Who Cares? exhibition blends iconography with typography, combining a heart and a question. This encompasses the idea of care and emotion. It also reflects the wider aim of the exhibition, to ask visitors questions to elicit a response and give them the opportunity to reflect on their own emotions.
The logo is displayed with its strapline in the Welcome Area and displayed throughout the exhibition featuring diverse icons such as a heart, skull or bird for different topics (see interpretation panels below). The various topics are also defined by colours from the Royal College of Nursing brand palette. And floor prompts place visitors in the right frame of mind before entering each section.
The emotional themes thread through the six topics explored by the exhibition which range from Maternal Instincts to Radical Nurses. We worked creatively with existing features in the library to design fitting spaces for each topic. For example, we built the Maternal Instincts section around the lift, so visitors have to enter a separate enclosed space to follow the exhibition. And a blue hospital curtain has to be drawn to enter the section on Death and Dying. This creates the impression of being in a patient cubicle.
The Faith in Nursing section features a pod (created by Nook) which creates a cosy private space to reflect on emotional themes. We customised the Nook to add in reproduction stained glass windows that demonstrate the historical values of the Royal College of Nursing. These panels nicely reflect the new stained glass windows created by artist Rachel Mulligan, which hang nearby. These depict the different stages of life in a nursing context and were created in collaboration with RCN members.
Interactive elements are used throughout the exhibition. The Nook includes a conductive ink table where audio recordings of nurses throughout the ages can be played back by touching graphics on the table surface. Other interactive elements include a buzzer game in the Emotions Under Fire section, which challenges visitors to stay calm under pressure.
The protest section of the exhibition features interpretation boards and whiteboards in the shape of placards where visitors can write comments. What makes you angry? What do you want to change in the nursing profession? Meanwhile slats on a ranking board give visitors the opportunity to put the seven key causes of anger amongst nurses in order of importance.
The My First Death section shows a corpse outline made from Stadur board, printed with quotes on the subject of dying. Adjustable printed blinds can be pulled down to cover the corpse giving visitors more opportunity to interact with the exhibition.
The entrance area also features a 1960s medicine cabinet filled with cups printed with words that reflect the professional skills a nurse needs and factors that impact a nurse’s wellbeing. Visitors can add their word ideas for cup decorations to postcards. And the Welcome Area offers a space where people can write thank you cards to nurses. These are then displayed on a magnetic board near the entrance.
Illustrations, words and quotes have been attached to windows and doors in different areas of the exhibition, adding more detail to each topic. A quote from the book A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down decorates the glass medicine cabinet doors. Window graphics from vintage books have been used on the lift doors and glass exhibition cabinets.
We joined Chief Executive of the RCN, Dame Professor Donna Kinnair, Exhibition and Events Manager, Sarah Chaney and Frances Reed, Events and Exhibitions Coordinator, for the grand opening of the exhibition in January 2020. Who Cares? is our second exhibition for the Royal College of Nursing and will be open for at least two years.
