If you have visited the Museum and remember the art work and not the setting, then I have done my job. Here is a short list of things to be considered when designing an exhibition.
vitrines? What wall color will enhance the viewer’s experience? How is layout to be determined? Should it be organized by subject matter, by artist, or chronologically? Can the window shades remain open? Works on paper fade and deteriorate in ultra violet light like that which comes from sunlight. How many didactics will there be? What objects is the education department concentrating on? What size school groups must be accommodated?
For example, in Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from the British Museum, the scale of the Egyptian objects could handle a large and involved setting. Many of the objects were temple sculpture, so inferring a temple was in order. With 24″ diameter cardboard tubes and 42″ wide tapered foam flowerpots painted with a textured brick color paint the visitor got a subtle experience of objects in a temple. Does the art work call for a simpler setting? The approach is equally complicated. The Miradas exhibition is a good example.