A museum label gives a stranger permission to begin understanding what they are seeing.

A room full of objects can be silent in an unhelpful way. Without a few words of context, a visitor is left to work out whether they are allowed to have a reaction, and most people conclude that understanding is for other people. A label does something modest and important: it says here is a way in, you are expected here, start from this.

Wherever you know more than the people around you, supply the label. A sentence of background before the detail, a note on why this matters. It costs you almost nothing and decides whether someone stays in the room.