Shakespeare Exhibition Hall

• Finalist 2025 

The Folger Shakespeare Library houses the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare materials, including over 80 First Folios. Designed in partnership, the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall offers an accessible, engaging, and inviting space for 21st-century audiences to connect with one of history’s most influential playwrights.

Agency

Blet, Studio Joseph

Practice Area

• Exhibition 

Client

Folger Shakespeare Library

Industry

• Museums 

Shake up Your Shakespeare is an immersive, theatrical installation inspired by a former Director of Education’s dynamic card-based exercises with students. Players act out Shakespearean lines, with color-coded text to guide performance. Featuring both single and two-player modes, the experience is enhanced by custom hardware, projection mapping, and shifting lights that spotlight the active player. This installation transforms space into a magical, multi-dimensional theatre, bringing Shakespeare to life in unexpected ways.

The Folger Shakespeare Library holds the world’s largest collection of First Folios, with over 80 copies—about a third of the estimated surviving editions—making it the most significant repository of this rare and valuable book. The Light Case acts as a sculptural data visualization, illuminating groupings of the folios, with each grouping explained by a key legend. The Touch Screen allows visitors to explore the folios through three distinct lenses—Detective, Storyteller/Historian, and Collector—offering unique insights into these rare artifacts.

Adjacent to the Light Case, The Wings feature LED plaques with capacitive touch, introducing the folios and their significance to modern audiences. This installation was a deeply collaborative effort involving curators, fabricators, and lighting designers, ensuring the folios’ preservation while emphasizing their cultural importance.

Printing with Light is a physio digital installation that reimagines the traditional printing press. Featuring two interactive printing stations with monitors, visitors assemble letter blocks on a surface, which are then scanned by computer vision technology. The selected text is projected digitally with a rich texture, mimicking the look of stamped ink. This experience blends physical interaction with digital artistry, allowing visitors to explore the art of printing, and some of Shakespeare’s most evocative language, in a modern, engaging way.