preserving objects of perceived value. As collections moved out of collectors homes, and into museums, museums began to cater to the public. Private collections were put on view and the museum began to take on an educational role to the public. It seems, however, that though the museum attendance has grown, the museum wallet has not. Museums are now destinations for many individuals. Museum serve as places to go to see and be seen, and to learn alongside others. Museums are relying on this visitation to stay afloat, even when a museum has a hefty endowment. Museums receive pressure from their city governments to increase attendance and utili!ation in order to receive funding. "his has resulted in a new wave of research# not on museum collections, but on museum visitors. Museums such as the $mithsonian, the %ational &oo, and locally, the 'uffalo Museum of $cience, have hired visitor researchers such as (ohn )alk and *ynne +earking to study their visitors every move. ,isitors are now the collection on e-hibit. )alk and +ierking had received such demand for there e-pertise in the area of visitor evaluation and research, that in ./01 this husband and wife team established "he Institute for *earning Innovation. "he 2 Institute for *earning Innovation has become a landmark as a 2not#for#profit learning research and development organi!ation3dedicated to changing the world of education and learning by understanding, facilitating, advocating and communicating about free#choice learning across the life span.4 "he Institute for *earning Innovation, or I*I, works alongside a number of organi!ations that are considered to be free choice learning locations such as Museums, &oos, A5uariums, $couts, public television, and the 6M7A. "hough millions of visitors attend museums and other learning institutions every year, 2*ittle has been done on the 5uestion of evaluation in museum education.4 .
)urthermore, museums who do allot funding for visitor research are accused of trying to replicate 2+isneyland,4 ignoring collections and turning the museum into a playground. "his is far from the truth. ,isitors should be appreciated as they appreciate the collections, and those in the museum field should be trained to understand visitor behavior so as to prevent unnecessary assumptions and incorrect conclusions. 1 8.M 7andler, 2Museums in 9ducation4 "he 7hanging :ole of 9ducation $ervices in 'ritish Museums4 "he ;istory "eacher. /, no. < =./>1?@ ./A. 3 From The Museums Perspective: A Brief History of Museums and Their Visitors It is no secret that museums change as much as e-hibits inside them. Museums have gone from object centered display 2depositories4 and are moving towards people#centered learning institutions. "he new face of museums include museum admission and marketing programs. Museums today use their collections as the product to be marketed. It seems like the collectors object has taken a back seat, while in reality, the focus has been directed on redefining the museums purpose. "he museum has moved its focus, not to ignore collections, but to include the education of the public who chooses to visit. Bne can e-amine the past one hundred years of museum education by studying e-cerpts of archived articles, some samples of which are to follow. Museums have gone from barely considering visitors in their mission, to surrounding their mission around the essentials of educating visitors with the importance of museum collections. It is almost as the old adage goes@ if a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound if no one is around to hear itC Museum collections have changed to be approached in the same way of what use are museum collections if people do not see and learn from themC 4 Bver one hundred years ago, 8. =8eorge? 'rown 8oode, a museum administrator and curator at the $mithsonian in the late .0DDs, defined a museum as 2A depository.4 "his depository housed of objects of significance, such as art, industrial objects, natural history, and so on. %ot once, however, in his eight#page classification did he represent the museum as an educational entity. :ather, he presented the museum as a location that looks after 2aesthetic products of mans creative genius4 and 2a depository of national treasures.4 < If one takes into account the statistics during the time of 8.'. 8oode, it makes sense that museum visitors and museum education would not have been included in the Museums mission statement. 'efore the ./EDs, less than one in ten people visited a museum with any regularity. F
As museum visitation grew, so did museums missions, or visa versa. Museums began to see themselves as educational institutions and by ./.>, the definition of 2museum4 e-panded to include education as an essential function. "his can be seen in the e-ample of the 7ollege Art Association of America =7AAA?. Ghen given the task to define the duties of a museum the 7AAA considered museum work under 2three heads# the administrative, upon which rest all the activities of 2 8. 'rown 8oode, 2Bn the 7lassification of Museums.4 $cience, %ew $eries. E>, no. F =.0/1?@ .EA#.1.. 3(ohn )alk and *ynne +ierking, *earning )rom Museums =Galnut 7reek@ Alta Mira Press, <DDD?@ <. 5 the museum the function of the curator, which is concerned with the ac5uisition, care, and presentation of the collections and the educational, which trough its various departments endeavors to increase the practical usefulness of the institution to the community.4 A
"his Hnew head was strongly emphasi!ed within the ne-t twenty years in the I$A and beyond. Museum administration began to ask 5uestions about the visitors who attended their institutions, such as Marcus 8oldstein, a museum employee in ./AD. 8oldstein documented his 5uestions concerning the museum visitor asking@ 2assuming that a fair proportion of the adult community has been to the museum once, one wonders how many of this group revisit the e-hibitis and a wat intervalsC $econd what do the visitors actually see when visiting the museum, and how much of what is seen is rememberedC And third, of what significance does it all seem to the general run of visitorsC4 E 'y the early half ./DDs it is clear that visitors were an intigral part of museum operations, and visitor research had begun to take form. $hortly after 8oldstien pondered some of the first visitor research 5uestions other museums across the Inited 4 "he 7ollege Art Association of America. 2+iscussion of the :eport of a 7ommittee of American Association of Museums on training of Museum Gorkers.4 "he 'ulletin of the 7ollege Art Association of America. ., no. F =./.>?@ <.#<0 5 8oldstein, 2"he Museum as a Potential )orce for $ocial 9nlightenment,4 ./>. 6 $tates started to re#evaluate their stance on museum education. Murel 7hristison, a museum e-ective, defined museum education with the purpose of aiding 2people in understanding and enjoying collections in the museum. "he specific responsibility of each educational department is to increase the usefulness of the museum collections to individuals and groups within the community.4 In essence one of the essential functions of museums was to 2widen human knowledge and comprehension.4 1 Museum education partnered with the museum collection for the good of the visitor, and thus society as a whole. Many museums were looking at increasing their effectiveness in the following areas@ 29ducation service, museums and their role in museum education museums and the untapped public and museums in resource#based learning.4 >
In 'ritain, the first association to address these concerns was the 89$M the 8roup of 9ducational $ervices in Museums =est. ./EF?. It started addressing the above topics in depth during the year of ./>F. ;ere in the Inited $tates we have the American Association of Museums =started in the ./>Ds? which was developed to discuss similar concerns. 6 Murel 7hristison, 2Museum 9ducation@ $ome Practical 7onsiderations.4 7ollege Art (ournal >. $pring =./A0?@ F.A. 7 7andler, 2Museums in 9ducation,4 .0E. 7 As associations were formed, and collaborations between museums were made, museums established themselves as integral learning institutions in society. %o 5uote describes so thoroughly the partnership of museum education, the collection, and the community, as )rancis ;enry "aylor, director of the Metropolitan Museum at the time of its +iamond (ubilee. 2;e promised on that occasion that at last the museum would be able to weave its incredible resources into the fabric of general education and take its rightful place as a free informal university for the common man.4 0 'y the time that "aylor mad the promise above, ./>0, museums were open to refining e-hibit amenities for education of Hthe common man. Githin the ne-t seven years, by ./0E, museum visitation grew to over EDD million, and continued to grow through the .//Ds. / "oday it is a rare museum who doesnt include some aspect of education into its mission or vision statement. +uring the ./>Ds and ./0Ds museums, such as )ield Museum in 7hicago, began to put together teams to design e-hibits including members of the museum education department. 2)ield Museum began to be known for its Hteam approach to doing e-hibitions@ a common sense way of 8 Adele $ilver, 2"he Art Museum and Its 8eneral Public.4 Art (ournal, F>, no. F =./>0?@ <D0. 9 (ohn )alk and *ynne +ierking, "he Museum 9-perience =Gashington +7@ Ghalesback 'ooks, .//<?, <D. 8 putting museum educator, a science curator, and e-hibits designer together in the same room at the same time and actually getting results.4 "his team approach was so successful that in the early ./0Ds )ield Museum was awarded a grant so as to teach its techni5ues to other museums. .D Museums have grown in the past, and now commonly use techni5ues such as the team approach in an attempt to breathe new life into the e-hibitions and relate more intimately with the general public. 2Ge learn how to behave in museums, what to e-pect from them, what to buy, and how to remember the occasion. Bur museum e-periences instruct us in social codes of behavior, condition a sense of cultural literacy, and instill a value of art, the past, and science3 visits to museums# weather of history, art, ethnography, or technology, # are ordinary every day events in modern Gestern societies they place museums in the living memory of many people, the majority of whom do not consider themselves professionally responsible for the contents or e-istence of the museum, much less for historical memory.4 .. ,isitors today include school groups, families, individuals, and friends. Museums are places to go and see 10 (ohn "errell, 2+isneyland and the )uture of Museum Anthropology.4 American Anthropologist /F, no . =.//.?@ .A/. 11 $usan 7rane. 2Memory, +istortion, and the ;istory Museum.4 ;istory and "heory. F1, no. A =.//>?@ A1. 9 while on vacation, and they are places that are interactive and e-citing. Museums are places to visit, not to drive by, and they are becoming more and more useable by the general public. 2Bne hundred years ago museum professionals replaced coinsures as the shapers of collections, and established an ethic of professionalism which led museum visitors to e-pect a pedantic approach to e-hibitions@ museums were providers of instruction first and foremost.4 .< "oday, however, museums are memory makers educators and communicators. 2"he whole concept of education in the museum is changing. )ormer traditional methods of talks, lectures, and displays no longer suffice. Its role has become more comple- and includes problems of administration as well as modern techni5ues of communication.4 .F
From the Museums Perspective: Visitor Demographics People from all walks of life are utili!ing museums as we enter the new millennium. Museums are making conscious efforts to increase attendance, and statistics have proved that these efforts have been successful. (ust thirty#five years ago 2only about one in ten Americans went to museums 12 7rane. 2Memory, +istortion, and the ;istory Museum,4 A>. 13 7andler, 2Museums in 9ducation,4 .0A#.0E. 10 with any regularity.4 "wenty years ago museum visitation increased to almost one in four. "oday, depending upon which statistic you refer to, three out of every five Americans visit a museum at least once a year. Most likely, if museums can hold the interest of the public, the majority of people will visit a museum once, if not more fre5uently, every year. .A "he museum of the new millennium is utili!ed weekly, not just once in a lifetime. %ow that visitors are actually using cultural institutions regularly, museums are starting to invest in visitor research. "he challenge wont be to gain new visitors, but to encourage repeat visitation. Museums want to keep the customers that they currently have, and increase attendance of those who do not typically visit museums are focusing on increasing the 5uality of the visitor e-perience all together with amenities and courtesies that have never been offered before. )alk and +ierking, as well as other museum researchers, have invested a lot of time and money in to defining the demographic information of the common museum visitor, however, the discoveries that this type of demographic research has yielded are not as simple as Hat first glance. According to research that )alk performed in .//E, 14 (ohn )alk and *ynne +ierking, 2*earning )rom Museums, <. 11 2)our major factors can be defined which contribute to museum going being selected as a leisure time e-perience by the public@ socio#economic institutional culturalJethnic and regional.4 .E 2$imply opening the doors may mean that anyone can wonder into a museum, but it does not always guarantee that everyone will3 community arts organi!ations have come up with in their attempts to interest and serve parts of the general public who do not choose to come to museums3'ecause there are no prere5uisites to admission, most museums try to prepare themselves for a fairly mi-ed audience.4 .1 It is true. "here are no prere5uisites to attending a museum. Museums are open most every day of the week, and some even have e-tended hours. Admissions cost is low, and some museums offer free days. Most museums have e-hibits that both children and adults can enjoy together. ,isitors with disabilities are considered with the design of virtually every museum aspect. +espite these efforts, the museum audience is hardly mi-ed, in fact, most museum visitor surveys produce results showing that visitors share many of the same characteristics, and have done so for the past fifty years. Adele $ilver wrote her demographic analysis of the museum 15 )alk, 2)actors Influencing African American *eisure "ime,4 A<. 16 $ilver, 2"he Art Museum and Its 8eneral Public,4 <D0. 12 visitor in ./>0 when 2it was assumed that the majority of art museum visitors were educated upper middle class or higher white individuals who had lots of money aiming at the upper end of the educational scale in themes, labels, lectures, and other written material.4 .> In a study performed by (ohn )alk and *ynn +ierking, forty#five years later, museum visitors were found to be well educated and affluent and tended to hold professional Hwhite collar jobs. "hough similar results were found by )alk and +ierking, the couple probed deeper to find that these well educated FD to ED year olds seldom visited alone, and usually brought their children. "hese new details of the same old demographic assumptions, showed in black and white that the most common type of visitor was the group visitor, age FD to ED utili!ing the museum with children ages 0#.<. .0 Ghen adults visited museums with other adults they were roughly to FE to ED years old, and few were minorities. $ince it seems that the same people have been visiting museums for the past one fifty years, it is most obvious that if a museum wants to increase visitation, then it needs to e-plore appealing to demographics which do not currently utili!e museums. 2Bne of the most important 5uestions has to do with the need for widening the audience. (olted by 17 Ibid., <.D. 18 )alk, *earning )rom Museums, ><. 13 community demands in the ./1Ds, many art museums began to take another look at who their audiences were, and who they might be if museum responded in ways that representatives of minority groups urged. 'ranch museums, e-tension galleries, and outreach programs sprang up in many cities.4 ./ In an effort to increase the use of museums, and e-plore the reasons that visitors do not visit, )alk performed a study including hundreds of African Americans. %ow, if the above demographic holds true, that most museum visitors are professional and affluent, then naturally one can assume that it is income and Htitle that are limiting minorities from visiting museums. "his has been the assumption for over fifty years, an assumption based on very little fact whatsoever. %ew research is discovering that while income and education are linked to visitor attendance, it is not a limiting factor, neither is discrimination. *ess then <K of the African Americans interviewed by )alk stated that their reasons for not attending museums were because of racial discrimination. 2 Marketing research carried out by American ,isions maga!ine showed that well educated, affluent African Americans were less likely than comparably educated, 19 $ilver, 2"he Art Museum and Its 8eneral Public,4 <D/. 14 affluent white Americans to support cultural activities =Pukrein, .//.?. <D
6et after e-tensive research, testing a multiple of variables such as age, gender, income, racism, and so forth, )alk found that the apparent inhibitor to African Americans non#attendance of museums was simply that they had not been brought as children. 'ecause these individuals had not come to museums as children, they were less inclined as adults to take a trip to a museum with their children. 29ither ethnically inherent of culturally derived characteristics of a particular community may contribute significantly to patterns of leisure behavior. )or e-ample, =Lelly .//> 'ettelheim ./0<? strongly identifies the importance of familial sociali!ation on museum going.4 <. ;opefully as more and more schools and after school programs visit museums the African American population, as well as other minorities, will start to remember visits to museums nostalgically, thus bringing their children in the future. Bther inhibitors of museum visitation are location and time constraints. Bbviously those who do not have a museum nearby may not visit museums regularly. In most of %ew 9ngland, $anta )e, *A, and Gashington, museums abound, 20 (ohn )alk, 2)actors Influencing African American *eisure "ime Itili!ation of Museums.4 (ournal of *eisure :esearch, <> no . =.//E?@ A<. 21 Ibid., AF. 15 however in states such as Idaho museums are fewer and cities are farther apart. "his could be why 28udykunst =./0.? found relatively high utili!ation of museum in his research in the %ew 9ngland area, where museums are plentiful, while +uncan =./>0? found relatively low museum use in his research in Idaho where museums are scarce.4 )alk determined that these results probably reflect more resource availability than leisure preference. *astly, museum visitors are busyM 'usier then ever. "his may not seem so to the naked eye, as one watches a mother with her children on a leisurely $aturday morning museum visit, or as a couple is eating at the museum cafN enjoying brunch. "hese common scenarios, however, are e-amples of Htime deepening skills that society as a whole has developed to make the most of its free time. "he good news for society, and museums, is that free time has increased by roughly forty hours per workweek. In ./1E leisure hours ma-ed out at just si- hours a week. Americans are also living longer, and taking earlier retirements. Gith all this free time Americans should feel refreshed and relatively unstressed. "hat is the good news. "he bad news is that though this time has increased, it has done so over the weekday, and by as little as AE minutes per day. %o 16 substantial activity can be s5uee!ed in to these minimal gains on weekdays. <<
"hough there seems to be more time, Americans find themselves feeling as if they are in the midst of a 2"ime )amine.4 In order to gain just AE minutes a day the common working man and woman are practicing time management skills that result in burning the candle at both ends. Bne would assume that having less time would result in doing activity HA rather than activity H', not so. Americans today are choosing to use time deepening skills, or simultaneous consumption, resulting in performing both activity HA and activity H'. 9-amples of such strategies are@ $imultaneous 7onsumption, or "ime +eepening =multi tasking, eating and watching a movie3? )aster 7onsumption 9-tensive consumption =when one finally gets to enjoy free time it is in e-cess? <F
%ew profiling of museum visitors find that they are not the demographic with the most free time, but rather 2these individuals are likely to have slightly less than average amounts of free time. "hey are likely to be well educated and have relatively large incomes they are unlikely to use 22 (ohn )alk ed. )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation =%ew 6ork@ "eachers 7ollege Press, <DD.?, 11. 23 Ibid, 1># 1/. 17 one community based resource but rather use a variety of them.4 <A As a result of the multi#tasking, overactive, time# starved visitor, museums must offer similar amenities to allow visitors to make the most of their time. 2Museums now must be agile, and adaptable to the Hcustomi!ation of time which will allow people to use free time in different ways.4 <E "he prior e-ample of a couple lunching at a museum is an e-ample of a museum addressing modern day time deepening skills. Ghen a mother can spend time with her children while learning in a 5uality environment, that is also time deepening. "here are also growing trends around the country, and locally in 'uffalo, of changing museum hours to match visitor availability. In ./>0 27onsultants to the endowment of the arts study cited evening hours and events H$ubjects worthy of future evaluation.4 <1 Museums like the Albright Lno- have e-tended )riday museum hours from .D@DDam to .D@DDpm while the Portland Museum of art, and the MBMA, are open until 0@DDpm on )ridays, and the Metropolitan is open until /@DD on )ridays. "he 'uffalo Museum of $cience has opened a branch museum on 9lmwood Ave, and museums like the 7arnegie $cience 7enter have developed outreach programs 24 Ibid., 1>. 25 Ibid., 1>. 26 $ilver, 2"he Art Museum and Its 8eneral Public,4 <D/. 18 where the museum comes to the visitor. It is clearly essential that museums adjust their hours and other amenities in accordance with its visitors, for ma-imum utili!ation. From The Visitors Perspective: Free hoice !earning )alk and +ierking summari!e@ All learning begins, and ends, with the individuals uni5ue interests, motivations, prior knowledge, and e-pertise. *earning is both and individual e-perience and a group e-perience. Ghat someone learns, let alone why someone learns, is ine-tricably bound to the social, cultural, and historical conte-t in which that learning takes place.4 *earning is facilitated by appropriate physical conte-ts and by well thought out and built designs# the outdoors or an immersive !oo for learning about animals, an art museum or studio for learning about the 19 visual arts, a historic site or reenactment for learning about history. *earning is influenced by the developmental stage that the person is at. <> $ociety is learning more and more about how they themselves learn, and museums are benefiting from this newfound and evolving knowledge. People like learning, they are motivated to learn. Most people find a sense of accomplishment when finishing a challenging task. "he most important aspect of learning, however, is that people choose to learn. )alk and +ierking Hcoined the term 2free# choice learning as they began to research learning in institutions that were outside of school. 2)ree choice learning is a term that recogni!es the uni5ue characteristics of such learning@ free#choice, non# se5uential, self paced, and voluntary.4 <0 It is driven intrinsically, and most importantly, it is perceived choice by the learner. Arguably, if free#choice learning is so popular, then why does the general public perform so poorly on national math and science testsC )alk and +ierking feel that this number 27 (ohn )alk and *ynne +ierking, *essons Githout *imit =Galnut 7reek@ Alta Mira Press, <DD<?, E1. 28 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, >. 20 is skewed due to the type of 5uestions that were asked in the governments survey. In these particular studies the 8overnments 5uestions were multiple#choice, college#level 5uestions. "he I*I performed a similar study in *A in .//> to try to replicate the 8overnments test with different approach. "heir random sampling represented closely the random sampling of the government, however the results differed highly. Gith the governments results, one would think that the majority of people in the Inited $tates had no interest in science, however, over half the adults surveyed considered =on a scale of one to ten? that their interests in science lay somewhere around an eight or higherM %e-t the I*I asked what area of science a person was most interested in. "he institute then asked 5uestions according to their interests, rather then standardi!ed 5uestions. )alk and +ierking found out, ama!ingly, that almost all self reported knowledge was credible. "his result was the e-act opposite of the 8overnments test. )alk and +ierking learned that though the majority of people across the country may not be science e-perts, the majority of people are actually interested in science, and know 5uite a bit about it. 21 Ghen asked to describe the means of their learning, no one answer prevailed. 2$ources of the publics knowledge of science varied. :oughly a third of the people claimed to have learned their favored science topic primarily in school, just under a 5uarter said they ac5uired their knowledge on the job, and the largest number, nearly half of all those surveyed, claimed to have learned science during their leisure time, though some kind of free#choice learning e-perience.4 </ Ghen isolated, ", viewing and museum visits in themselves 2have few significant effects. 'ut recogni!ing that individuals select from these resources as if they were a smorgasbord and tailor their menus to their own interests and needs provides an important analytic and programmatic insight into free choice science education.4 FD
2Although people rarely engage in free choice learning to become e-perts in a subject, they invariably emerge more knowledgeable and more motivated to learn in the future. People participate in free choice learning to satisfy a personal sense of identity, to create a sense of value within the world, and to fulfill personal intellectual and emotional needs what has come to be referred to as 2meaning making.4 F.
29 (ohn )alk and *ynne +ierking. 2Bptimi!ing out#of#school time@ "he role of free#choice learning.4 %ew +irections )or 6outh +evelopment. />, $pring =<DDF?@ >E#00. 30 Ibid., ..<. 31 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, F. 22 "his study proves that free#choice learning is more than just leisure activity, it actually produces results it actually produces an educated population. "his is a nationally important finding. An educated population is important to the country in which it is in for the following reasons =Adapted from "he :oyal $ociety of *ondon ./0E?@ An educated population improves public understanding. "here is a link between public education and national prosperity. "he competitive edge of companies would be enhanced by increasing public understanding. %early all public issues re5uire a public understanding of things like science, art, and history for their resolution. Ouality of decisions would be increased by public understanding It is important for peoples private lives Profound the way we think of ourselves and is of value to our world culture F< Additionally, free#choice learning is imperative to the children today and thus the society of tomorrow. )alk and 32 Ibid.,/. 23 +ierking have found that children spend over /DK of their time outside school. *earning outside school has not been documented well until recently. 2If youth do spend more than /D percent of their time outside school, do they actually learn anything of value during that timeC Bur research, and that of others, would suggest that the answer is an une5uivocal yes.4 FF "he more e-posure children get to the avenues of free#chlice learning around them, the more likely they are to become lifelong learners, and the better our society is in the future. Providing locations, such as museums, for children to spend their off#time produces a certain comfort with learning, in essence, it teaches kids how to seek out knowledge, and how to problem solve. 2A vibrant free#choice learning sector is as fundamental to youth development as are 5uality schools, a thriving economy, and healthy, safe communities. "o successfully educate youth today, the I.$. education system cannot be based solely on schooling it must also include a focus on free#choice and workplace learning.4 FA
9ven if adults were not e-posed to free#choice learning settings as children, it is never too late. "here is always potential to become a lifelong learner. 2:esearch strongly suggests that the more the separate influential spheres of 33 )alk. 2Bptimi!ing out#of#school time@ "he role of free#choice learning,4 0<. 34 Ibid., 0E. 24 family, school, work and elective learning overlap in peoples lives, the more likely they are to become successful lifelong learners.4 FE "he reason that free#choice learning is so important to museums is that, 5uite frankly, it is where the money isM As society is trying to multitask activities into their e-tra forty#five minutes a day, learning is moving its way up top of the list of e-tracurricular Hthings to do. Bne can see this in every aspect of society from the presence of ", channels, to their vacations away from home. "he +iscovery 7hannel within the past ten years has added +iscovery ;ealth, +iscovery Lids, Animal Planet, and the "ravel 7hannel to their list of viewing options. 9co and cultural tourism are the fastest growing sector of the tourist industry. F1 9ven retail stores are becoming free#choice learning locations, offering classes such as scrap booking at Michaels 7rafts, book groups at 'arnes and %oble, and pet training at Pet 7o. It is clear that 2free choice learning is hotM "he demand for leisure#time free#choice learning is at an all time high, so also do efforts to satisfy that demand3"oy Manufacturers of America was 35 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, A. 36 )alk, *essons Githout *imit, </. 25 recently 5uoted as saying, H)amily entertainment and education is where the business is.4 F>
6et money is not the only reason that free#choice learning is important to museums. "he most important reason that e-ploring free#choice learning is of value to museums is the fact that a visitor e-pressing free#choice learning almost always helps museums fulfill their mission. As established, museums have worked education into one of the essential functions of a museum. )ree#choice learning, in essence, puts the onus on the visitor. Museums no longer have to teach visitors. "his, however, in no way means that museum education is Hoff the hook, but instead means that museums must evaluate their methods of current education to be that of Hfacilitator, not Hteacher. Ideally, museums are settings that provide a variety of e-periences to stimulate the visitor, and from which the visitor may chose applicable e-periences that add and shape their prior knowledge, the end result being a satisfied learner. As any museum knows, a satisfied learner is a satisfied customer, and a satisfied customer is a repeat customer. In order for museums to facilitate their visitors learning e-periences, however, museums must understand how a visitor learns. 37 Ibid.,<A. 26 "homas Lrakauer, a science museum director in the I.$., once jokingly said, 2Ge teach people what they almost already know.4 ;e may have been joking but he was actually 5uite close to the truth. Most of the time, the museum# visiting public learns about things that they Halmost already knew or that they once knew and now Hrelearn. F0
From the Visitors Perspective: Ho" Visitors !earn 2"opic P is presented to a learner either in the form of an e-hibition, demonstration, lecture, te-t, program, film, or immersive e-perience. *earning is determined by measuring the positive change in the amount of topic P the individual absorbs. "his is the model of learning all of us grew up with it is simple, straightforward, and seems on the surface totally reasonable. ;owever, this model makes a number of leaps of faith, particularly within the conte-t of museum learning. (ust to name a few, it assumes that the learner is predisposed intellectually, emotionally, and motivationally to learn topic P it assumes that the individual actually attended to topic 38 (ohn )alk and Michael $torksdieck, 2*earning $cience )rom Museums.4 ;istoria, 7ancais, $aude# Manghuinhos, .< supplement =<DDE?@ ..0. 27 P =which in a museum is a huge assumption? it assumes that topic P was presented in a form that was commensurate with learning within the limited time and attention constraints of a typical museum e-perience and it assumes that change in understanding is always measurable as a 5uantitative addition of information.4 F/ (ohn )alk and +ierking believe so strongly in the concept of free#choice learning and its evolution that that they have dedicated the entirety of their both of their careers to researching this phenomenon and its relevance to free#choice learning settings such as museums. In order to better understand what brings visitors to museums as free# choice learning settings, one must first understand the important information about how individuals learn and process information in general, a concept that )alk and +ierking have indeed e-plored in full. ,isitors are uni5ue, as uni5ue as every object in a collection of a museum. 7urators would never use the same label copy for every artwork or object, so why then have museums lumped together visitor learning into one categoryC "hen again, it really isnt the museum communitys fault, 39 Ibid., ..0. 28 educational pedagogy is constantly changing. Museums, however, have the importance of being educational institutions that do not need to meet tests and standards as do school settings. Museums are, for the most part, institutions that people chose to come and visit to e-perience the full personal, sociocultural, and physical aspects of learning. )alk and $torksdieck have narrowed down eleven factors influencing learning inside a museum, under the umbrella of three larger categories@ Personal conte-t .. Motivation and e-pectations <. Prior knowledge and e-perience F. Prior interests and beliefs A. 7hoice and control $ociocultural conte-t E. Githin#group social mediation 1. )acilitated mediation by others Physical conte-t >. Advance organi!ers 0. Brientation to the physical space /. Architecture and large#scale environment .D. +esign of e-hibits and content of labels ... $ubse5uent reinforcing events and e-periences outside 29 the museum "hough these categories all affect the visitors e-perience, 2%one of the variables dominate4 AD :ather, they work together to form the complete e-perience of learning. As humans know innately, learning is a personali!ed e-perience. 7ertain individuals have a passion for science, others art, some computers, and some literature. 'ecause no two people are e-act, no two learning patterns are alike, everyone is e-periencing learning in a personal way. Most importantly, relating to the personal aspect of the ac5uisition of knowledge, is that learning is ongoing. Lnowledge is gained across ones lifetime, and at any given time, any given person, is at a different stage in his or her learning development. 2*earning is not an instantaneous phenomenon but rather a cumulative process of ac5uisition and consolidation. "hus, e-periences occurring after the =museum? visit fre5uently play an important role in determining, in the long#term, what is actually Hlearned in the museum.4 A. A person may have e-posure to the same principle several times before he or she actually learns it. A visit to a museum might spark a memory and result in an individual re#learning a topic that he or she had once known. 29ach memory, rather than being a 40 Ibid., .<<. 41 Ibid., .<.. 30 single artifact of the past of uni5ue imprint, $chachter describes, is a production that emerges over time and in the present, in response to and though the integration of memory cues and memories. "hus we have a model of memory which functions rather like a museum@ one which confounds as much as it synthesi!es information by bringing together 2cues,4 or artifacts, and historians, or rememberers, to interact in the production of memory.4 A< Additionally, each individual learns with different Hparts of his or her brain. 8ardners learning model, a standard among the educational field, presents seven types of learning@ .. *inguistic <. mathematical F. $patial A. Musical E. Linesthetic 1. Interpersonal >. Intrapersonal AF
'roken down, some people enjoy reading, others speaking, some can perform math on a dime, others prefer music, certain individuals e-cel at sports, some individuals prefer to learn alone, and some individuals learn best 42 7rane.2Memory, +istortion, and the ;istory Museum.4 E<. 43 )alk, "he Museum 9-perience, .D.. 31 amongst others. "his is e-emplified in ones adult years at the onset of career choice, one usually chooses careers that play out his or her strengths. "his impacts the museum world greatly, because museums attract different people with different learning styles, it is good to have multiple learning options available to increase learning. "he Albright Lno- Art 8allery, among other galleries in the country, provides HAudio Gands so that linguistic learners can actually listen to the e-hibit, as well as be visually stimulated. It also holds yoga classes in the galleries for Linesthetic learners. "heatrical performances were a staple of the 'uffalo Museum of $ciences Ginter Gonders 9-hibit in <DD<, and the Munson Gilliams Proctor Arts Institute in Itica, %6 holds regular (a!! concerts and classical music performances. Museums are responding today by having e-periences that may be personali!ed according to learning style and preference. )urthermore, learning is deepened when individuals are learning about things that they want to broaden their knowledge in, things that motivate, interest, and challenge them. Motivation is one of the most mysterious aspects of learning because different intrinsic, arguably innate, reasons motivate people to learn about different things at different times in their lives. Motivation is the spark that 32 drives the need to learn about a subject. Inder the umbrella of motivation is also interest. 2Ghen we use the term interest we are not just referring to what someone likes or dislikes. :ather, we refer to a psychological construct that includes attention, persistence in a task, and continued curiosity.4 AA Individuals learn best when the task is both interesting and challenging enough to provide stimulation to continue. ;owever, if the task is too hard, people just move on. "his is shown in numerous museum case studies. 28enerally, the e-hibits selected are ones that provide appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, and emotional challenge. $uccessful museum e-hibitions, performances, films, programs, and websites, share this 5uality. AE Museum visitors often act a bit like H8oldie *ocks.4 If an e-hibit is too hard to grasp, visitors just move on. If it is too easy, they move on. Ghen an e-hibit provides just enough stimulation# learning occurs. Additionally, individuals can be are motivated both intrinsically and e-trinsically. )alk and +ierking point out that 2over forty years ago, Psychologists reali!ed that basic dichotomy e-isted in learning@ either people learned when they felt they wanted to or they learned because they felt they had to. "he outcomes of learning, it seemed, 44 )alk, *earning )rom Museums, <<. 45 Ibid., <<#FE. 33 differed significantly depending upon weather the motivation was intrinsic or e-trinsic.4 A1 "he outcomes indicated above, point to the conclusion that people learn better when they chose to learn rather than when they are mandated to. Museums e-emplify this, individuals dont all have to see the same e-hibit or read the same labels. Museums, if allowed to be, can be completely intrinsically motivated. %o one can learn for another person. ;umankind has not yet developed the technology to fuse minds or transfer knowledge. Intil then, its every man or woman for him or herself. It has been determined, however, that an individuals e-perience can be nurtured along, or facilitated. Mentors and teachers are, in fact, facilitators of the learning e-perience. "hey are helping their students, or trainees, make the leap from point Ha =the absence of knowledge? to point Hb =understanding?. 2A persons learning can only be facilitated, not taught directly, and a person learns well only those things perceived to be conducive to the maintenance or enhancement of self.4 A> People helping people to learn about different subjects, in other words facilitating learning, is how humankind learns together as a society. )alk and +ierking studied a wide range of museums showing 2that when a staff member or docent was available to 46 Ibid., ./. 47 )alk, "he Museum 9-perience, .DE. 34 answer 5uestions informally for families the time spent at an individual e-hibit increased to as much as twenty two minutes.4 A0 #)amilies spend more time at e-hibitions involving interaction with other visitors or docents of staff. .."his research suggests that investing effort in having knowledgeable and skilled interpreters available to assist visitors is one way to communicate that the museum is a place for learning, a community of practice.4 A/ "he importance of sociocultural learning became a major educational factor when :ussian psychologist, *ev $emanovich ,ygotsky, established in the early ./DDs that individuals dont just learn everything from scratch, they build upon learning that has been done by the society and that has been past down through the ages. 2In ,ygotskys view all learning is built upon previous learning, not just he learning of the individual, but the learning of the entire society. 2 ED
,ygotsky further theori!ed that learners always learn as part of a social group. "his can still be shown today, especially while observing the teacherJ student, parentJ child, facilitatorJ facilitated relationship. Individuals learn to understand their world and the value of behavior, e-pectations, artifacts, institutions, 48 )alk, *earning )rom Museums,/F. 49 Ibid. 50 Ibid., ED#E.. 35 and social relations through social interactions and meaningful e-periences. 9stablished above, learning is a continuous process for individuals and society. 2"his learning results in societal members who can keep the society functional and society that defines for its members what it means to be a functional human4 E. *astly, individuals always learn in a physical environment. "his is theoretically how humans evolved, and factually how we continue to learn and develop new knowledge. ;umans are physical beings constantly taking in information from our physical environment. *earning is situational and 2bound to the environment which it occurs.4 E< If an individuals physical environment is supportive, more likely that not, he or she will develop faster. Millions of children in the Inited $tates overcome learning disabilities every year, while children in third world countries may never even learn how to read. 9ducation is factually tied to the supportiveness of the learning environment. 2People are highly motivated to learn when they are in supporting environments,4 and when learning is associated with positive memories. EF Museums strive to be 51 Ibid., A.. 52 Ibid. 53 Ibid., .0. 36 supportive environments to be able to provide comfortable settings in which to learn . 7learly human society is a society of learning, )alk and +ierking refer to human society as 2A $ociety of *earners.4 2Bther investigators come at learning from a different tack and emphasi!e the collaborative, social nature of learning, thinking of learning not as primarily the process of accumulating knowledge but rather as a process of becoming enculturated into a community of learners.4 EA Individuals learn from others, and teach others who teach others, and so on. 9ducation does not just happen in schools, rather, learning happens trough an 29ducational Infrastructure4 of which museums, schools, community centers, clubs, and churches all belong. EE Museums and the Visitor: The Visitor $%perience Museums can benefit so much from just observing visitors. Marketing companies know this already, and have so successfully observed product information, that some marketing firms, in some ways, know individuals better than they know themselves. )alk and +ierking have combined their 54 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, .A. 55 Ibid.,A0. 37 skill at the science of observation, and their passion for free choice learning and have actually observed the museum visitor from entrance to e-it, documenting how a visitor Hchunks data, when the visitor goes to the museum store, and even when the visitor needs to use the restroom. "hese documentations are so essential to museums today, that some museums have even mandated that all members of their museum staff read )alk and +ierkings book, The Museum Experience. 2*earning always occurs within the physical environment in fact it is always a dialogue with that physical environment.4 E1 Museums are often the settings for free# choice learning to occur. According to the educational theory supported by )alk and +ierking, one has to actually be in a physical environment, hopefully a supportive one, to be able to learn. ,isitors usually come to museums as free# choice settings, and are motivated by different reasons. )alk and +ierking have interviewed hundreds of visitors asking them why museums are their recreational choice. "he most common answers were@ )or educational reasons Museum going is a social event It is part of a life cycle =ie. My parents took me, so I am taking my child? 56 )alk, 2*earning $cience )rom Museums,4..>#.AF. 38 Place Practicality Museums are free choice learning settings, and individuals are drawn to them for that very reason. Individuals also see museums as a place to venture together with wide variety of ages and backgrounds, sharing and learning from one another. Individuals are more inclined to visit museums when they have been before# i.e. as children. $ome people visit museums because of the awe of the location. Many museums are designed by famous architects and are supported by pillars#many museums are art in themselves. *astly, visitors are attracted to museum settings because it is practical. ,isitors assume that they will be able to keep their social group occupied for at least a half a day, for a relatively ine-pensive amount, possibly have a meal, and maybe pick up a souvenir or two. In some influential findings by the I*I, and the basis for the book 2"he Museum 9-perience,4 hundreds of first#time visitors were tracked from beginning to end of a museum visit. "he results of their behavior have been broken down into four phases. As visitors first arrive they e-perience a phase of orientation, the word 2orientation4 can be replaced with 39 2disorientation4 to truly reflect e-actly what the visitor is going through as they enter a museum for the first time. ,isitors spend the first few minutes of a visit figuring out where the restroom is, where to hang their coats, getting strollers or wheelchairs, and reading maps. More often than not, visitors are actually more confused after reading a map, and instead end up asking guards or front desk attendants for directions to the restroom or the entrance of the e-hibit. 2"here is a need for visitors to orient themselves in space, to e-plore that which is novel, to prepare themselves mentally for what is to come, and to make overall sense of the museum environment.4 E> +epending on how well a museum is organi!ed to assist the visitor through this phase, Brientation can take as little as three minutes to as many as five. After visitors adjust to their new environment they seek out their first e-hibit, 2the typical visitor will move to the first e-hibition gallery, usually on the first floor, and to the right.4 E0 "he visitor reads a relatively high amount of label copy =compared to what they will read throughout the rest of their visit? and e-amines each objectJ artwork carefully. "his phase, because of the visitors high attention span, has been dubbed 2Intensive 57 )alk, *earning )rom Museums, ..F. 58 (ohn )alk ed. )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation =%ew 6ork@ "eachers 7ollege Press, <DD.?, page .<F. 40 *ooking.4 "his phase lasts from fifteen minutes to forty minutes. Bnce a visitor has finished the first few e-hibits or displays his or her interests start to wean. "he visitor no longer views every single e-hibit, but rather stops at whatever is most interesting to him or her. ,isitor studies have shown that 2"he capacity of humans to recall information was limited by H"he magic number seven, plus or minus two.4 E/ "his does not mean that visitors can only look at seven items at a time before their brain 5uits. Ghat these studies have shown is that the visitors tend to chunk together bits of information in sevens. A visitor may look at a display and see a field journal, birds, binoculars, a bird call, a backpack, and a bird book. After seeing these si- items the visitor will most likely assume that the display is about bird watching or ornithology. Bnce a visitor has chunked items for twenty to fourty#five minutes, the visitors brain is tired. *ess label copy is read, if any, and visitors begin to tire. 'ecause of the Hnon committal tendencies of this phase it is referred to as 29-hibit 7ruising.4 "his phase is the longest phase of the four and lasts for roughly twenty to forty#five minutes. 59 )alk, *earning )rom Museums , ../# .<.. 41 Ghen some visitors in the group begin to tire and become saturated with information the topic of conversation shifts from how fascinating the museums objects are, to things like 2*ets visit the gift shop,4 or 2*ets go eat somewhere.4 ,isitors establish that it is time to leave the museum for about three to ten minutes, and the visit ends. Ghat is most interesting is that fre5uent visitors to the same museum only e-perience two of the four phases, intensive looking and leave talking. ,isitors that have been to a particular museum before do not feel pressure to see everything, thus can focus more on individual e-hibits and label copy. 1D 29nvironments that have mystery provide a moderate sense of the unknown, are comple-, and invite e-ploration are far more desirable than those without these 5ualities3Ghen settings were e-tremely novel learning was depressed. *earning was also depressed in e-tremely familiar =i.e. boring? settings.4 1. In general, visitors that have been to a particular museum before, and that are e-periencing a new e-hibit, will tend to learn a bit more. "his is due to the contrast of novelty and familiarity of a museum, as well as the seasoned visitors ability to chunk information more efficiently than a new visitor. 60 )alk, "he Museum 9-perience, 1D#1<. 61 )alk, *earning )rom Museums, ..E. 42 Anything that a museum does to ease or presently lengthen the museum visit in the above four phases, will greatly improve the chances that the visitor will remember the learning environment as supportive, and thus the museum a favorable place to be. "hese lengthening techni5ues include shows, movies, benches, cafes, museum stores, and staff members. Bne of the most important assets in lengthening the museum visit is staff. Museum staff can make or break a museum visit. Bne can safely assume that though only <K of African Americans interviewed actually e-perienced racism at a museum, that <K so strongly associates the racism with the museum that that is why they actually chose not to visit any museum at all. Museum staff, however, can also welcome the museum visitor. Ghen a museum staff member from security guard, to facilitator, docent to manager, was available to answer 5uestions for a visitor, both learning and visit length increased. 2$tudies in a wide range of museums showed that when a staff member or docent was available to answer 5uestions informally for families the time spent at an individual e-hibit increased by as much as twenty two minutes.4 1<
62 Ibid., /F . 43 ,isit time also increased when visitors got to interact with each other. 2)amilies spend more time at e-hibitions involving interaction with other visitors, docents or staff. "his research suggests that investing effort in having knowledgeable and skilled interpreters available to assist visitors is one way to communicate that the museum is a place for learning, a community of practice.4 1F "he investment in training to empower museum staff with knowledge and facilitation training will never be fruitless. "he museum has the market cornered when it comes to free#choice learning seeing as how they have the 2authenticity of the genuine article backed by the e-pertise of the museum staff4 "his combination 2can vividly bring to life appropriate parts of the curriculum, create the keenest interest, and stimulate the mind and the imagination to a far greater e-tent than other visual aids on film or tape, which are in comparison, Hsecondhand.4 1A 63 Ibid., /F. 64 7andler 2Museums in 9ducation,4 .0>. 44 Museums and the Visitor: The Visitor Agenda "hough )alk and +ierking found that there are four phases to a museum visit, the museum visit starts even before the visitor is inside the museum. "he visitors preconception of what he or she will do at the museum count as a phase in and of itself. "his phase is so important, infact, that it can actually dramatically increase or decrease learning. "hese preconceptions are appropriately referred to by )alk and +ierking as 2"he ,isitor Agenda.4 "he visitor agenda is made up of many prior e-periences and e-pectations. "he visitor agenda can be based on such things as previous museum visits, commercials for the 45 museum, newspaper articles, stories from a friend, and even ", shows. 1E
"hese agendas and their effects were first studied by )alk and +ierking in a !oo setting in the early .//Ds. 7hildren who were on the !oo field trip were pre tested, given an orientation, and then post tested. "wo orientations were developed. "he first orientation was child centered and discussed things like which animals would be seen, where the restrooms were, what would be served for lunch, and weather or not there would be a visit to the gift shop. "he second agenda was school#centered and discussed what scientific principles would be discussed on the trip, described the !oo staff that they would meet =)alk and +ierking, .//<?.4 11 "he students were split into two groups and one was given the child centered orientation, one was not. "he group Hthat was provided with the child centered orientation# intended to set the children at ease about the trip by informing them about the practical aspects of their !oo visit, 2"hey performed better on the cognitive test of !oo animals that the group that was provided cognitive facts and concepts an orientation, and significantly better at their observational skills4 1> 65 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, >1. 66 (ohn )alk and (ohn 'alling, 2"he field trip milieu@ *earning and behavior as a function of conte-tual events.4 (ournal of 9ducational :esearch. >1 no . =./0<? <F. 67 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, 0A. 46 'y preparing children to know what e-actly they would see allowed the novelty of the environment to be more familiar and thus approachable. 7hildren did not have to ask where the restrooms were, when they would see the baby elephant, what they were going to eat for lunch, or weather or not they would visit the gift shop they already knew. 'y pre#answering these 5uestions for the children, they were able to free up their worries and learn. 7hildren are not the only demographic to benefit from orientation. )amilies often share the same worries as children when visiting the museum for the first time, such as, parking, restrooms, food availability, and so on. 29ducation relating to the family agenda greatly enhanced the visitors perceptions of the 5uality of their visits. Attention to the visitors social agenda is one way that museums can enhance the overall cognitive and social 5uality of a museum.4 10 Providing amenities that meet, or e-ceed, the e-pectations of the visitor agenda heighten the perception of his or her e-perience. "he best e-amples of these amenities are restaurants and museum stores. 2"he average visitor deems the 5uality of the gift shop and food service as important, or more important, than the 5uality of the artifacts or e-hibition design.4 1/ Poor food, dirty 68 )alk, "he Museum 9-perience, FE 69 Ibid.,/D#/. 47 restrooms, and a lousy store will make an impact on a visitor, no matter how nice the e-hibition. In some cases memories of souvenirs purchased in museum store outlast the visitors memories of the e-hibit itself. 2People distinctly remembered museum souvenirs that they had purchased as many as twenty or more years earlier. Properly presented the gift shop may be one of the best educational tools a museum possesses.4 >D
Amenities such as restaurants, stores, parking, and restrooms can not only greatly enhance the 5uality of the museum visitors e-perience, it also lengthens the museum e-perience altogether. &pposition "here is no doubt that )alk and +ierkings findings are revolutionary to the world of museums. "hese findings have been met with very little criticism since the ./0Ds when the I*I first implemented them. All change comes with some opposition, however, as do the ideas of )alk and +ierking. Ghen visitor friendly e-hibits replace less popular e-hibits some people feel threatened. Additionally, those who have recently undergone budget cuts, and have had to see that money go to another department, need to place blame 70 Ibid.,/D#/. 48 somewhere. Bften this blame gets placed on the visitor, and sometimes this blame even gets put on +isneyM "hrongs of museum visitors are usually welcomed with open arms at most institutions across the Inited $tates. ,isitation in the thousands is to be celebrated, not scorned. ;owever, no matter what decades are researched, small samplings of museum employees find themselves to be very uncomfortable with visitor research receiving a share of the museums funding and attention. Mostly, the museum employees who get aggravated are those who do not generally work with visitors. 7ertain museum employees have become very uneasy about the attention =and money? that visitor research has received, attention and money that is now shared when previously not. ;owever, these feelings of jealousy are often based on falsehoods, and competition is sparked when, in fact, a celebration should be thrown. "he perfect e-ample of the tension between two departments is that of (ohn "errell, a former anthropologist for )ield Museum. "errell produced an article in the early .//Ds, 2+isneyland and "he )uture of Museum Anthropology,4 referring to his e-perience with a new wave of e-hibit design. "his new method first took into account the visitors perspective and designed e-hibits accordingly. 49 "hese e-hibit managers were using many of the same techni5ues taught by )alk and +ierking. 2)irst, less money today is being spent at )ield Museum on museum#based science than is being spent on mounting fun, visitor friendly, interactive e-hibitions3$econd, museum educators here and elsewhere in the country, long the underdogs of the museum world, have been deputi!ed by museum presidents to do whatever needs to be done to boost attendance figures at the museum gate.4 >. )ield Museum, like many museums, has undergone a series of layoffs and rehires over the past thirty years in an attempt to increase visitor attendance. "errell blames these layoffs, as well as the interest in increasing visitor attendance, on the )ield Museums competition with +isneyland. "errell also takes stabs at the e-hibit task force leaders for producing watered#down e-hibits and makes it seem that project managers, such as )alk and +ierking, disregard the curator while installing new 2visitor friendly4 e-hibits. 2"he curator driven#e-hibit is dead. )rom this day forth we will give our museum visitors what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.4 ><
2,isitors to )ield Museum will never again have to read a label that isnt catchy, fun and just meaty enough to delete 71 "errell, 2+isneyland and the )uture of Museum Anthropology.4 .A/. 72 Ibid.,.ED. 50 without a trace of boredom. %ever again will there be too many things on display. 2 >F
)ield Museum is not the only e-ample of museum layoffs producing such opposition to change. *ayoffs at museums such as the 'oston Museum have also produced bitterness. In .///, when then director Malcolm :odgers re#structured, it resulted in the loss of jobs for several curators. 2Museum professionals and art historians viewed :ogers action as Ha centrali!ation of power that devalues curators, making them pawns to administrators who will stress bottom#line considerations rather than intellectual content when decisions are made on programming4 >A 9-amples such as )ield Museum and the 'oston Museum make it seem that directors are monarchs of some sort that are moving curators, their only opposition to domination, out of their way. "errell and employees of the 'oston Museum are not the only museum professionals to carry out hostility to the newfound visitor#centric museum views. $ilvia 6ount in her article 2'raving and 'ridging the 8reat +ivide,4 again compares this new interest in visitor studies to +isney. 2Arguably, the +isney model is an e-treme one for most cultural institutions, and not likely to displace the primary educational aims of the museums increasingly 73 Ibid., .E.. 74 $ylvia 6ount, 2'raving =And 'ridging? the 8reat +ivide.4 American Art ., no F =<DD.?@ A. 51 populist agenda37urators have become little more than e-hibition coordinators, carrying out projects on directorial assignment rather than reviving the institutional support to initiate and reali!e conse5uential efforts.4 >E "he edutainment of museum visitors is such a hot topic that, 2Bn </ and FD May ./// a symposium with the theme of e-plaining modern science in a museum conte-t was held in $tockholm, $weden3Among the speakers were some of the leading figures in the field of $cience Museums. )or these published proceedings, =the si-teen papers were? divided into two sections3dealing with the core problems in e-plaining modern science in the museum conte-t. ;ow does the curator or museum director strike a balance between entertainment and educationC ;ow do you avoid being too +isney#like or too celebratoryC ;ow do you avoid over simplification on one hand, and too much comple-ity, on the otherC ;ow do you keep the attention of the visitorC4 >1
'esides the opposition to redesigning e-hibits to be visitor friendly, many museum professionals see it as a waste to invest such money and time into visitor research. Marcus 8oldstein, a museum worker, concluded the following after his own e-perience observing visitors in a museum@ 75 Ibid., A. 76 :othenberg, M. 2Museums and Modern $cience.4 Isis, /< no. F =<DD.?@ E>1. 52 .? :elativley very few in the community vusut the museum mor tan once a year, if that often <? Ghen the museum is visited the usual thing is to try a nd see everything ,and since observing all the e-hibits in every single hall in a large museum is physically fatiguing, an e-cersion through the whole museum is generally an e-hausting e-perience. Indeed, as a result of these latter two considerations, the usual visit to the museum can scarcely be more than a superficial survey, at best. F? Gith respect to significance of the e-hibits, the attitude of the vast majority of the visitors would probably be that they were all curious and very intersting# but little more. A? If the above observations are substantially correct, it seems to me difficult to e-cape the conclusion that the museums have in large measue failed to make any considerable or lasting impression on the thought or mores of the community at large. >> "he above two attacks on the new visitor centered museum approach are certainly most ridiculous, and defiantly unfounded. )irst of all, as 5uoted by "errell, )ield Museum made it a task to actually write interesting label copy for 77 8oldstein, 2"he Museum as a Potential )orce for $ocial 9nlightenment,4 ./>#./0. 53 their visitors. "errell sees this as a weakness. Inderstanding that not every person that walks into a museum holds a P;+, )ield Museum chose to invest into visitor research so that people could be stimulated, not overwhelmed, while reading label copy. Bbviously this move to concise label copy was a result of having studied visitor learning behavior. As )alk and +ierking have found in their studies, visitors can only Hchunk a certain amount of information. %o one, not even a seasoned museum lover, looks forward to going to a museum and reading boring label copyM In response to the second, there is a certain stigma attached to designing e-hibitions that visitors will like. Almost as if the museum fears that large crowds mean that the museum has sold out. Bn the other hand, however, some very controversial, cutting edge, e-hibits have managed to attract huge crowds. 9-hibits such as the 9nola 8ay and Mapplethorpe have managed to attract many visitors while still producing very cutting edge e-hibitions. Museums do not need to 2sell out4 and reduce the 5uality of their e-hibitions to increase visitor attendance. 2It is possible to produce e-hibitions that are both 2smart and popular,4 serving personal and institutional aims.4 >0 78 6ount, 2'raving =And 'ridging? the 8reat +ivide,4 1. 54 $econdly, "errell and 6ount both refer to museums becoming +isney#like as a bad thing, but never really truly e-press why. "errell blames several rounds of layoffs at )ield Museum on the alleged competition with +isneyland. "his conclusion is rather interesting, seeing as how )ield Museum is in 7hicago, and the closest +isney entity is in )lorida. It would be ama!ing to find a museum visitor in 7hicago who, instead of going to )ield Museum, flew to )lorida on a whim to visit +isney. It is true that many museums today are looking to +isneys strong visitor service approach, and trying to replicate it themselves. Museums study +isney because it has high attendance on a daily basis, however, museums as local free#choice learning settings have a competitive edge on amusement parks like +isney. Museums are less e-pensive, local, educational, and part of the community. *astly, many museum employees give visitors a bad rap because employees are not trained to understand visitors. 8oldstein concludes above that no one really visits museums, let alone learns from them. 8oldstein, however, isnt the first to assume what the visitor likes or dislikes, wants or doesnt want. 9mployee assumptions need to be cleared up with factual research to better understand the truth. If employees are not educated on the statistics, assumptions 55 like 8oldsteins contribute to a bad perception of the museum. $eeing as how one can easily dismiss the previous two attacks on visitor research, the only concrete criticism to )alk and +ierking is that they never actually propose how a museum might pay for this important research. "he lack of money is one of the main hindrances, if not the only, to museums implementing regular and scheduled visitor research. "hough education has been worked into the mission statement of many museums funding hardly ever spontaneously follows. Any change that a museum wishes to make must be funded, and because visitor satisfaction is such an abstract idea it is hard to justify that implementing visitor research will pay for itself. 2)ew museums however, can afford to maintain more than a skeleton staff of specialists at the present time. 'efore there will be a greater demand for trained museum instructors budgets must be supplemented for the support of educational programs.4 >/
)alk and +ierking admit that museums are under funded, especially by the government. 2Bur belief that as a society, we fail to recogni!e and value the learning that occurs outside credentialed institutions. 'ecause free choice learning is underappreciated, it is also under funded, 79 7hristison, 2Museum 9ducation@ $ome Practical 7onsiderations,4 F./. 56 diluting its presence and impact. )ederal support for free# choice educational institutions, such as libraries, museums, community based organi!ations, national parks, and public television and radio, represents roughly . percent of the nations total e-penditures on public education.4 0D
"he only proposition that )alk and +ierking make is to increase government funding. %ow days, government funding is surely unstable. It seems that museums that want to survive, and dare say flourish, have to come up with money themselves. 2"he American museum, owing much as it does to the generosity of the private citi!en, has not been become a public responsibility. Gith public schools, libraries, and recreational programs needing additional support, in many communities the museum stands little immediate chance of increased revenue from ta-es.4 0. It is clear that )alk and +ierking support that free choice learning is a national benefit, but there are no current recommendations about how to increase national awareness about the phenomenon of free choice learning. Adding to the lack of funding for museums to educate their public and increase visitor awareness, museums cant even afford to support the staff that they already have, 80 )alk. 2Bptimi!ing out#of#school time@ "he role of free#choice learning,4 0<. 81 7hristison, 2Museum 9ducation@ $ome Practical 7onsiderations,4 F.0. 57 most of the education department is filled with volunteers who are docents, visitor service representatives, or gallery shop personnel. ,olunteers are a mi-ed bag, some are reliable and some are not. In most museums, volunteers are allowed to act in a way that employees never could. 2"he other pu!!ling aspect is hardly ever overlooked@ why do institutions that increasingly call themselves professional and are e-pected by the public to be educational resources use unpaid nonprofessionals to do their teaching for themC "his study discerns a growing interest in professionali!ing museum education, a lack of definition of the profession, and the very real human and financial difficulties museums face in trying to replace their volunteer docents with professional instructors.4 0< )inding funding for museum visitor research is a bit out of the scope of this thesis, however, it is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed if museums truly want to follow through with implementing visitor research programs, and is the only true inhibitor to museum visitor research. Museum Imp'ementation: 82 $ilver, 2"he Art Museum and Its 8eneral Public,4 <D/. 58 Testing ;armoni!ing Museums goals and visitors goals re5uire continuous amounts of research. It is possible, however, for any museum, no matter what budget, to create and implement their own tests. 'y following simple procedures and choosing from a variety of testing choices, museum employees can implement the same techni5ues used by )alk and +ierking to create useful evaluation tools. 'y learning techni5ues, rather then hiring on e-pensive consultants, museums can implement these techni5ues regularly, not just for special projects. Ghen reading various articles and books by )alk and +ierking, one can easily spot the techni5ues that they use over and over again in their research. "hese techni5ues include@ design setting sampling methodology results. 0F
83 )alk, 2)actors Influencing African American *eisure "ime,4 .<>. 59 Museum employees can learn the principles of these research methods and can adapt them individually to each museum and program as needed. In order to design a report, the test designer must know what information it needs to gain from the public. +esigning a research test is a lot like making a roadmap. "here needs to be a clear destination in order to know which roads to take. In the design phase, a museum may choose to include the objective, the hypothesis, and the test and method =a.k.a. the scientific method?. "he test designer may also want to include the number of people of whom they want to test and the budget for the testing. "he designer may also want to include in the design phase who is going to implement the testing. +esign is probably the longest phase seeing as how an e-cellent design will yield e-cellent results. "he scientific method is widely used among virtually every research firm as a design for test implementation. *ikewise, the scientific method can be used for museum research as in the case of )alk and +ierking. "he scientific method has five steps@ objective hypothesis 60 test interpretation conclusion. "herefore, when a museum wants to improve a program or function, the first step is to ask an appropriate 5uestion, in essence, to develop an objective. "he objective is different from test design in the way that it is the purpose for the test not the design of the test. "he objective does not contain things like location, budget, or sampling 5uotas. An objective does, however, clearly state the purpose for the test. "heoretically one has the objective abstractly defined before he or she even designs a test. Bne can study an e-ample of )alk using this scientific method in his research and findings in the article, 2)actors Influencing African American *eisure "ime Itili!ation of Museums.4 Ghen )alk was researching the African American population and museum non#attendance, his objective was to find out the reason why African Americans do not attend museums as much as other ethnic groups. 0A Gith that objective he then tested several hypotheses. )alks hypotheses included racism, income, accessibility, education, and attendance as children. )alks choice of 84 Ibid., A.#1D. 61 testing information was to use a survey in which he probed for such demographic information such as age, gender, income, marriage status, presence of children, and museum attendance per lifetime. )alks interpretation of the data was that even highly educated African Americans with a high income still do not visit museums as much as their e5ually educated and affluent Ghite counterparts. )alk also interprets that less than <K of the African American population chose not to visit museums because of racism. ;is conclusion, as mentioned above, is that the most common reason for non#attendance of African Americans was not income and education as previously hypothesi!ed, however, was due to the non attendance as children. Bnce a clear design is made, the museum must chose a location i.e. inside the museum, outside the museum, nationally, internationally, regionally, or limited to a single e-hibit or display. "he possibilities are endless. $omething to think of when picking the location, however, is traffic flow. "he location must be busy enough to collect a full sampling, however, not so busy that it creates a bottleneck or visitor dissatisfaction. Bne of the most important steps of implementing a study is that the designer picks an appropriate method of testing. Bne would not want to administer a self led survey to 62 individuals who may not be able to read, for e-ample. "here are many tests that can be developed depending on the needs of the museum. $ome of the techni5ues used by )alk and +ierking in their books and articles are researching archival data, case studies, focus groups, interviews, naturalistic in5uiry, observation, polls, post#it surveys, surveysJ 5uestionnaires. 9ach of these tools are wonderful ways to delve into information, rather then making hasty assumptions. Archival +ata is e-tremely important to any museum. Attendance records per e-hibition, revenue, comment cards, newspaper articles, and e-hibition catalogues are keys into a museums past. Ghen one looks at these separate peaces of data years later, he or she can build correlations between apparently unrelated subjects. A great e-ample of this is when museums compare admissions demographic and attendance data with museum store buying data. If museums take the e-tra step to evaluate the two in conjunction, one can see statistical changes in the buying habits of the public per e-hibition. Most museums are very familiar with the case study, and use them to study other e-hibitions that have gone well, or that have gone poorly. *ikewise many museums are able to predict weather their attendance will rise or fall based on 63 traveling e-hibits that have toured in similar cities. Museums can use the case study to better understand visitors too. 7ase studies are a great way to predict how visitors might act when put in a specific situation seeing as how they are uncontrolled, and pretty much based on observation and documentation. A great way to test an e-hibit in its final phases is to have a test group, though a test group can be used in almost any situation. Ipon the implementation of Bur Place In $pace, the 'uffalo Museum of $cience relied on do!ens of test groups to test the e-hibit in its roughest stages. "est groups are often more manageable then widespread audiences, because the test administrator has the chance to observe the positives and negatives of how e-hibit and museum aspects are used by the real live visitor. It is imperative to use small test groups for any substantial change that a museum wants to make. A local museum =that shall remain unnamed? did not use a test group when adding new automatic paper towel dispensers in the restrooms for visitors in wheelchairs. "hese new paper towel dispensers were set up roughly five feet from the ground and bolted into the wall. $everal weeks later a museum staff member noticed that these paper towel dispensers, which were installed for the convenience of an individual who was seated in a wheelchair, 64 were actually out of reachM ;ad the museum used a test group, or even just seated a person in a wheelchair, they would have known e-actly where to mount the dispenser. "est groups can save a museum a lot of money and headaches. Museum staff members love to conduct interviewsM In fact, it is probably the most used data collection techni5ue in museums. Interviews can be informal ways to gather data from a visitor without making the visitor feel uncomfortable. Isually visitors enjoy giving information and being of help. Bbservation and naturalistic in5uiry are practically the basis for the book The Museum Experience. Bne will be surprised how much he or she learns by discussing oneself as a visitor and just observing, or even by just listening to visitors. Ghen one sees how museum space can be adjusted for visitors 5uality of e-perience, it will be a repeat visit. Museums all over are adding benches in galleries where there used to be none. Bffering places to sit at certain intervals throughout a museum trip is an e-ample of naturalistic in5uiry, or observing of the visitor. %aturalistic in5uiry happens when museum visitors are learning how to use a space, an e-hibit, a map# almost anything. Bbservation and natural in5uiry go hand in hand in the way that one must observe natural in5uiry in order to gain data. 65 Polls are often a great way to offer an interactive e-perience for visitors to offer their say. 'y offering positive rewards for this open feedback to a specific 5uestion, it can often offer visitors a chance to get a reward for participation. Polls are usually 5uick and easy for family visitors on the run, however, if no one is administering the poll, the reliability of the information is not always accurate. Many museums offer post#it feedback boards to allow visitors to communicate with one another, and to communicate with museum. 'y posing a general 5uestion and allowing for unstructured feedback, answers can be 5uite interesting. Bne will find that visitors begin to communicate with each other, piggyback on previous answers, and even ask 5uestions themselves. *astly, one of the most popular tools of museum feedback is the use of the survey. Many museum professionals conduct surveys for the sake of surveys, without any real structured purpose or objective, however, with an appropriate purpose and several hypotheses the survey is a powerful tool. $urveys have the ability to address one or more 5uestions at a time, and allow for these 5uestions to be linked together in purpose. )or e-ample if a museums objective was to find out if age or income held a bigger 66 part of weather or not visitors became members a survey could be designed. "his survey may e-plore both visitor age and amount of income ju-taposed with fre5uency of visitation, and museum membership. Ghen a location and design are settled on, the sampling is ready to begin. "he term sampling refers to the actual collection of people that are participating in the research. "he design phase has already established how many people are to be tested, and therefore, all the test administrator has to do during the sampling phase is meet the appropriate 5uota. *astly, after all the data is collected and the information is interpreted, the results are ready to be prepared. :esults can be presented in a table, a graph, a te-t document, verbally, on a website# almost anywhere. "he most important part of sharing the results of a test, however, is that it is understandable and accurate. $eeing as how the vast majority of the museum may not have taken part in all of the phases if administering tests, it is important to communicate the results without jargon and with relevance to the purpose of the test. )alk displayed his 67 data for the above study in the table to follow@ 0E A table like this makes sure that the tester is straight forward and understandable to those who did not participate in the test. 85 Ibid. 68 2,isitors e-pectations, shaped by consumer culture and tradition, have been recogni!ed as valuable resources for museum educators and curators visible in the use of guestbooks for feedback and documentation of a particular e-hibit and studies of museum attendance and education.4 01
Museum Imp'ementation: Training Bnce research is completed it is essential that the results are shared# not just with one or two choice board members, but with the whole staff. 9very staff member should know why visitors attend their institution# or why they dont. 9very staff member should know how to interact with a visitor and facilitate him or her in their learning process. "he museum is responsible for arranging for regular training sessions based on visitor learning habits, visitor and museum relationships, and, lastly, the museum is responsible for evaluating employees on there knowledge and rewarding successful progress. 'elow, and attached, is a training session format with worksheets that a museum might use to educate their staff on the work of (ohn )alk and *ynn 86 7rane. 2Memory, +istortion, and the ;istory Museum.4 A>. 69 +ierking. "his training session can be performed as part of a college level course, a staff meeting, or as training for a specific department. All items of the training are based on )alk and +ierkings research. 2;ow many museums can assert that they have tried to ensure that every visitor leaves with the institution with an understanding of what the museum wished to communicateC4 0> Museums must teach their staff members what to communicate on behalf of the institution. Museums can no longer assume that employees will just absorb knowledge about how they should act, it isnt fair to the museum, the visitor, or the employee. *uckely )alk and +ierking have left the museum world with HA Professionals 8uide,4 which makes an e-cellent starting point for a museum training program. A Professionals 8uide .. 9ach visitor learns in a different way, and builds on e-isting knowledge <. All visitors personali!e information to conform to what they already know F. 9very visitor arrives with an agenda 87 (ohn )alk, "he Museum 9-perience, .F.. 70 A. Most visitors come to a museum as part of a social group E."he visitors e-perience is impacted by museum staff and other visitors 1. ,isitors come to see objects outside their normal e-perience >. ,isitors are influenced by physical space of the museum 0. ,isitors encounter an array of e-periences, and choose according to their preferences /. "he visitors attention is influenced by the location of e-hibits and orientation 00 88 Ibid., .AD#.ED. 71 Day( 'ass &ne: Ho" Visitors !earn &ne Hour Princip'e: 9ach visitor learns in a different way, and builds on e-isting knowledge. )upp'ies: :adio for music to be used throughout the 2challenge4 phase. ;at Paper 7olored pens and markers $%p'anation *+, minutes-: *earning is seldom a Q bRc. "here are many variables to be taken into account. An individuals learning is based ob building new information upon e-isting knowledge and creating associations. "oday we will be learning how to facilitate those associations. 72 All people are all different, and based on a theory of learning typology called 28ardners *earning Model4 =named for the psychologist that created it? there are seven different learning types. "oday we are going to e-perience what it might be like to learn in each of these ways. "he way visitors learn@ *inguistic@ *inguistic learners can remember words well and seem to have an infinite vocabulary. Mathematical@ Mathematical learners are analytical and do very well with reasoning, charts, spreadsheets, and numbers. $patial@ "hose with spacial intelligence do well with pictures, some even have photographic memories. Musical@ *earners who do well with music are those that can memori!e jingles on a dime, pick up new instruments, or even compose music. Linesthetic@ Linesthetic learners learn through physical motion and e-cel in sports and physical activities. Interpersonal@ *earners learn well with others. Intrapersonal@ *earners learn well alone. 0/
89 Ibid.,.D.. 73 ;ow many people here consider themselves to be linguistic learnersC MathematicalC $patialC MusicalC LinestheticC InterpersonalC IntrapersonalC "o design an e-hibit or program that offers something for each intelligence is really 5uite easy. Ghen teaching about Abstract 9-pressionism, the artistic movement, the facilitator may read about the movement =linguistic?, analy!e the patterns in the lines =mathematical?, *earners may look at different works of art that are not of the movement. and ask them to compare works that are of the movement =spatial?. "he facilitator may play a series of songs to be matched up with works of art that Hlook like the music# or write a poem about an Abstract work =musical?. )acilitators could incorporate actual painting of abstract works =kinesthetic?. Leep in mind that it is important to mi- up group activities and individual activities for the intrapersonal and intrapersonal learners. ha''enge *./ minutes-: Pair up into seven groups and draw a learning type from a hat. +esign a lesson for a group that is of your chosen learning type about the current e-hibit on view. 74
)haring 0esu'ts *+, minutes-: $hare with the group the lesson that you designed and your reasons behind it. Allow the group to give input and suggestions. Discussion *+/ minutes-: Ghat did you learn about different learning types todayC Ghat are some suggestions that you can give to make the gallery that you are in now a place that is contusive to all learnersC ;ow might you be able to ask a visitor about how he or she learns without being offensiveC 75 Day( 'ass &ne: Persona'i1ing Information &ne Hour Princip'e T"o: All visitors personali!e information to conform to what they already know. )upp'ies: A museum on an open day Pencils and pads $%p'anation *+, minutes-: All visitors learn in different ways, which we learned in the last session. Ghat is also important to remember about visitors is that they build upon prior knowledge, interests, and beliefs. It is important for visitors to be able to personali!e the information in an e-hibit. "he more personali!ed the information, the better the chance of the visitor remembering it. "oday we are going to practice facilitating the personali!ation of information to the 76 visitor by observation and by learning how to pose open# ended 5uestions.. Bpen ended 5uestions are 5uestions that usually do not end with Hyes or Hno. Ising open ended 5uestions with visitors will help us learn about their preferences so that we can gear the information to the visitor, and help them personali!e it. )or e-ample, when observing visitors at an e-hibit about cats it is easy to observe that a visitor may be comparing what they are learning to their own cat. $ince most visitors are part of social groups, it is easy to overhear them talk about the principles they are learning, thus witnessing the personali!ation first hand. Bpen ended 5uestion e-amples@ In what waysC ;ow manyC ;ow mightC Ghat is your opinion of thisC If you couldC Ghat does this remind you ofC Asking open ended 5uestions about a show on 9gypt may lead to a conversation like the following@ 77 )acilitator@ Ghat do you think of the 9gypt e-hibit so farC ,isitor@ I like it, but the beetles freak me out. )acilitator@ ;ave you seen a beetle like this beforeC ,isitor@ 6es, once, on ",. )acilitator@ I know that seeing unusual beetles is odd in this part of the world, but did you know that the ancient 9gyptians thought that these beetles pushed the sun across the skyC ,isitor@ GowM "hat is great, now I love beetles. BL, so maybe the results wont be this e-treme, but you get the picture. Asking open ended 5uestions allows for a teaching opportunity with the visitor. ha''enge *2/ minutes-: Pair up into teams of two or three, and pick two galleries within the same museum to study. Pick an unobtrusive spot in the gallery and stay for ten minutes in each gallery =move to where there is the most attendance?. If you listen carefully you may be able to hear visitors personali!ing information, if you do write the gist of the information down. 78 $tudy the e-hibit and write three open ended 5uestions you might ask a visitor if you were facilitating to help them personali!e the information in the gallery. Discussion *+, minutes-: 9ach group may alternate sharing e-periences within the galleries they chose. 79 Day( 'ass Three: Visitor Agendas &ne Hour Princip'e three: 9very visitor arrives with an agenda )upp'ies: Museum on an open or closed day A hat Gheelchair 'aby doll 'lindfold 9arplugs $unglasses $%p'anation *+, minutes-: Bften one of the largest factors inhibiting visitor learning and having a good time in a museum is the their own agenda. A visitors agenda is, in short, all the things they worry about and e-pect to do that day. 9-amples of items on a visitor agenda for an eight year old child when visiting the !oo on a field trip might be@ to see their favorite animal, to get a day off of school, to eat a special lunch, to go the museum store, to pet a live animal, to ride on the bus, and to talk with real live !oologists. Ghen situations 80 occur that are not on the visitors agenda, visitors become confused, and this confusion inhibits learning. )or e-ample, $u!y O may e-pect to go to the !oo and see an elephant just like last time she was at the !oo. If the !oo has taken the elephant off display for that day, $u!y will spend the whole day thinking about when she will see the elephant, and miss learning about penguins and seals. At the end of the day $u!ie will have learned little, and will have been very upset about not seeing the elephant. (ohn )alk and *ynn +ierking actually documented children on field trips at !oos who were split into two groups. Bne group was told what they would see at the !oo, how long they will spend in the store, what museum professionals they will talk to, and how long the bus ride would be. Bne group was not told any information. 'oth groups were pre#tested and post#tested. "he group with the prep course 2performed better on the cognitive test of !oo animals that the group that was provided cognitive facts and concepts an orientation, and significantly better at their observational skills4 /D ha''enge *2/ minutes-: 'y putting yourself in a visitors shoes, you can begin to understand how different visitor agendas really are for 90 )alk, )ree 7hoice $cience 9ducation, 0A. 81 each person. "oday we will pick a different visitor type out of a hat, and you will actually write, from beginning to end, a visitor agenda. 'e sure to include what you e-pect to see, what concerns you have, and three suggestions that you have for the museum after writing your agenda. $tart from the museum parking lot. 'e sure to visit one restroom, one gallery, the museum store, and the vending areaJ restaurant. Gork in pairs of <. $cenarios =pulled out of a hat?@ 7hose a blindfold. 6ou are a person with impared vision with your aide. 7hoose the wheelchair. 6ou are an individual and hisJher aid who does not have full use of your legs. 7hose the baby doll. 6ou are a parents of a young child. 7hose the earplugs. 6ou are a person without full hearing with your aide. 8et the sunglasses. 6ou are a person who has limited vision with your aide. 6ou are an eight year old child and your parent. 6ou are a fifteen year old child and your parent. Discussion *fifteen minutes-: 82 8o around the room and share your e-periences and your suggestions. Day( 'ass Four: )ocia' 3roups 83 &ne Hour Princip'e Four: Most visitors come to a museum as part of a social group )upp'ies: Museum Pencil and paper $%p'anation *+/ minutes-: 'ecause visitors come to museums to spend time together and learn, it is important for museums to provide e-periences that can be shared and that can also be individual. 'ecause the largest group that visits museums are family groups with children between the ages eight to twelve, it is very important to offer diverse learning materials, facilities, and e-periences. An e-ample of this is offering a kids menu at the restaurant, benches to sit and talk, guides for children and adults, and so on. ha''enge *2/ Minutes-: 8o out into the museum and chose a gallery to research for thirty minutes. +ocument every group that enters the gallery, how they interact, who seems most interested, and what their habits are. 'e sure to include the following information@ Potential age 84 %umber in group Assumed relationship ;abits After finishing the observation, pick two groups that differ demographically to compare and contrast them against one another. )haring 0esu'ts( Discussion *./ Minutes-: Ghat did you learn about the visitors that you observed. ;ow were they alike and how were they differentC Day( 'ass Five: Tips For Faci'itating 85 &ne Hour Princip'e Five: "he visitors e-perience is impacted by museum staff and other visitors $%p'anation *+/ Minutes-: $uccessful facilitators guide learners to a successful conclusion without giving the answer flat out. )acilitators should make learners feel comfortable to ask and discuss 5uestions, and should plan activities that will be inclusive. )alk and +ierking have put a list together of tips for facilitators@ .. At the most basic level, 5uality learning e-periences and programs should accommodate the need for more than one person to share the e-perience socially and physically. <. :eward and foster social interaction, rather than penali!e and inhibit it. F. Invest in people there are few more successful devices for facilitation learning than a 5uality human facilitator. 8ood facilitators re5uire training, not just on the content, but most importantly in the art of 86 communication good communication starts with good listeningM A. 7reate opportunities for group dialogue that e-tend beyond the temporal limits of the initial e-perience. 7onnect the e-perience to other media, such as Geb sites, ", and museums. E. 7reate situations where motivated novices can work alongside knowledgeable mentors in an atmosphere of collaboration and shared goals. 1. Itili!e stories songs poems dance and or music that help string together information for the learner in a profoundly human conte-t. >. 'e sensitive to the cultural specificity of language, gesture, and narrative and avoid the use of linguistic idioms and culturally specific humor when developing educational programs. 0. )inally, recogni!e and build upon the diverse norms and values of many cultures. /. ha''enge *./ minutes-: )acilitating is one of the hardest things to do in a museum setting, especially as a staff member who does not usually engage with the public. "o be a successful 91 )alk, *essons Githout *imit,.A/. 87 facilitator one does not have to be an e-pertM All that is needed is creativity, confidence, and an open mind. 7hose a partner and visit the gallery. Prepare a ten minute lesson on a work of artJ scienceJ history that you find. 7hose your own target audience and use the guidelines above. 'e sure to include opportunities for group interaction, dialogue, and mentoring. )haring *./ minutes-: $hare your chosen topic and lesson plan. Discussion *+/ minutes-: Ghat was easy about designing these activitiesC Ghat was difficultC ;ow might you incorporate these ideas with visitors that are not in a formal lesson, i.e. just walking down the hallwayC Day( 'ass )i%: ompetitive $dge 88 &ne Hour Princip'e )i% ,isitors come to see objects outside their normal e-perience. )upp'ies: Museum mission statement $%p'anation *+/ Minutes-: ,isitors attend museums to break a routine. ,isitors want to come and spend time with their social group, learn, and feel like they have seenJ done something special. Museums have a competitive edge as a free#choice educational location with objects that are real, reproduced almost e-actly, or even able to be touched. $ome museum professionals feel as if museums are in competition with other recreational institutions, however, museums need to define their competitive edge more strongly. "he more we, as museum, see ourselves as totally uni5ue# even from other museums# the more likely society is to see museums as uni5ue places as well. ha''enge *2/ Minutes-: A competitive edge is an asset that is uni5ue to an institution. "oday we will be defining the competitive edge of our museum, based the museums mission statement. 'eak into groups and create a marketing campaign for the museum 89 based on the competitive edges that your group comes up with. Isually a museum has a marketing department to come up with campaigns and advertising programs, however, all museum employees should see the competitive edge of their museum, and be able to share it with visitors when needed. Incorporate answers to the following 5uestions in your marketing campaign@ Ghat objects does this museum have that are outside the visitors every day e-perience Ghat does this museum offer that no other recreational activity offersC Ghat does this museum offer that no other museum offersC ;ow can the employees in the museum more energetically reflect the Museums competitive edgeC Leep in mind, the four Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion. $plit up into teams of four or five )haring( Discussion *./ Minutes-: $hare your marketing campaigns with the group Day( 'ass )even: The Physica' $nvironment 90 &ne Hour Princip'e )even ,isitors are influenced by physical space of the museum )upp'ies: A museum on an open or closed day Pencil and paper $%p'anation *+, minutes-: All learning occurs within a physical environment. ;umans interact with their environment to e-tract and arrange data that results in the non#physical knowledge that they collect. In a museum, visitors make use of the following factors which all contribute to their learning setting. Advance organi!ers =maps and signs? Brientation to the physical space =becoming familiar with the area, usually the first five minutes of the visitors e-perience. =)inding bathrooms, coatracks3? Architecture and large#scale environment =discovering the 5uality of the building? +esign of e-hibits and content of labels =color of galleries, length of labels? $ubse5uent reinforcing events and e-periences outside =learning after leaving the museum? 91 $ome other facts to consider are that most museum visitors read some label copy, but no one reads all of it. *ikewise, museum visitors usually can not understand maps in their current format. 7olors of the galleries impact visitors as well, visitors learn best when their environment is novel enough to stimulate, but not so novel that it is overwhelming. Bne can compare the museum visitor to 8oldie *ocks, the visitor wants the novelty, color label, and signage to be not too overdone, not too underdone, but to be Hjust right. "his is an awfully big burden on the museum staff, how much is too much, which amount is not enoughC Bften times it is simply trial and error. "he best rule of thumb is the rule of seven. ,isitors can e-perience and combine about seven plus or minus two items of information at a time. "his chunking process helps the visitor sort their e-ternal stimulation into their memory for easy recall. )or e-ample, a red gallery with white artwork, blue benches, and stars may call to mind an instillation of the American )lag without a visitor even having to read label. "he human brain is e-cellent at chunking information. ha''enge *2/ Minutes-: 92 Pick one each of the following that you find here in the gallery@ Museum label copy A gallery with color on the walls A museum map $ignage A newsletter *ist one praise, one potential, and one concern. )or e-ample 2"his label copy is easy to understand, visitors can easily use it to draw conclusions about abstract artwork, however, the font is too small.4 +ivide into groups of two or three. )haring( Discussion *+, Minutes-: $hare your selections with the group. Day( 'ass $ight: 93 The Visitor )morgas4ord &ne Hour Princip'e $ight ,isitors encounter an array of e-periences, and choose according to their preferences. )upp'ies: Bne "able with the colors@ :ed, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, violet, light blue, baby yellow, brown, pink, black, white, blue green, red orange. Bne "able with the swatches@ :ed, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple. Bne table with the swatches@ :ed, yellow, blue. Bne table with a green swatch )our pieces of flip#chart paper numbered one, two, and three. $%p'anation *+, Minutes-: %o two visitors will e-perience a museum in the same way. 9ach visitor finds different aspects of the same e-hibit interesting. ,isitors e-ercise discretion each time they visit a museum. As we learned in previous classes, these choices can be based on learning style, age, fre5uency of museum visits, education, and income. It is important to 94 provide a breath of e-periences so that different visitors can chose e-periences according to their preferences. )alk and +ierking recommend offering different e-hibit entry and e-it points as one of the suggestions to support the visitors preference. *ikewise, providing more than one mode of learning, activity, artwork so on, will help the visitor chose the e-perience that most closely matches his or her preferences. Although visitors like choices, museums do not have to offer one choice for every individual. 'y performing some visitor research on e-hibit attendance museums can discover which e-hibits get the most attendance, ant therefore match most closely with its visitors perspective. ha''enge *+, Min-: "here are three different tables, each filled with a variety of different colors. 7an you find your favorite color on table oneC Bn table twoC Bn all three tablesC Bn table fourC If you found your favorite color on table one, mark flipchart paper one. If you found your favorite color on table two mark the flip chart paper numbered two. If you found your favorite color on table three mark flipchart three. If you found your favorite color on table four mark the flipchart paper numbered four. Mark all the charts that apply. Discussion *2/ minutes-: 95 Ghat percentage of the class found their favorite color on table oneC =Ge can find this number by dividing the number of hash marks on the flip chart paper, and dividing it by the total hash marks present?. Bn table twoC "hreeC )ourC "he majority of you should have found your choice on table one or two. "here really isnt much difference between the choices on table on and two when compared ne-t to each other, however, there is a dramatic difference between two and four. "his e-periment proves that the more choices that are given, means that a wider audience will be reached, and the more likely a visitor is to find an item that matches his or her preference. It also proves that there is a saturation point which occurs where you have reached a good sampling of people, and no matter how many additional programs, artworks, food choices, are offered, virtually the same amount of people will be affected. If a museum professional keeps good statistics the saturation point can be found easily by tracking attendance or visitation to an e-hibit. If an e-hibit is e-periencing low attendance, it may not be many peoples preference to visit it. It needs to be revamped to attract more people and reach more preferences. 96 Day( 'ass 5ine: &rientation &ne Hour Princip'e 5ine: "he visitors attention is influenced by the location of e-hibits and orientation /< )upp'ies: Maps Paper Markers Pens 7ardboard 8lue $%p'anation *+, Minutes-: Brientation, and the visitors e-perience of the physical space is very important to the perceived e-perience of the visitor. "he e-ploration of the museums physical space is, the essence, the platform for learning. In some influential findings by the I*I, and the basis for the book 2"he Museum 9-perience,4 hundreds of first#time visitors were tracked from beginning to end of a museum visit and were observed during the following phases@ 92 )alk, "he Museum 9-perience, .AD#.ED 97 .. Brientation =F#E minutes? $ome museums make it easy for visitors to know where they are 00, and guardsJ information desk staff lets visitors know weather or not they are welcome. )inding the restrooms, viewing maps =though maps in their current design are 5uite counter productive? <. Intensive *ooking =.E to AD minutes? )ocusing intensely, reading label copy. >. most label copy is read during this phase, about <D min. F. 9-hibit 7ruising =<D#AE min? ,isitors Hcruise the museum, drawn to whatever interests them the most. $ome members of the social group begin to tire. A. *eave "alking =F#.Dmin? $tart to ignore even visually e-citing e-hibits, and turn their attention from things to people. /F "hese phases revolve around the physical space, receiving good guidance during Brientation, reading clear label copy while Intensive *ooking, stopping at eye#catching displays while 9-hibit 7ruising, or locating the e-it while *eave "alking. It is important to the visitor agenda to receive an accurate orientation. ha''enge *2/ Minutes-: 93 Falk, The Museum Experience, 60 98 Bbtain a copy of the museums map. Ising the location, design a new, easy to read map. Ise color, make it F#+, increase the si!e of the te-t, or subtract te-t. "hink outside the bo- to create the most thourough orientation for the visitor. *ikewise, write a Hspeel for the admissions desk staff to be able to use when orienting the visitor to the space. Discussion +, minutes: $hare your ideas and results onc'usion The Future &f Visitor )tudies 99 "he only constant is change itself, and that is true for museums as well. Museums are homes for artifacts, artwork, remains, and technology. At the same time the museum is location for the public to come and learn. "he public comes to learn without tests, without a rigid timeline, on their own, based on only intrinsic motivations. Museums are free choice learning settings that adapt to represent the future while offering the nostalgia of the past. Museums are truly uni5ue institutions and add to the 5uality of life of millions. $ince the birth of museums collections display, preservation, and management have been the main emphasis of many museums. Githin the past century, however, museums have begun to research ways to facilitate a dialogue with the public and the objects that are housed within the museum. :esearchers like )alk and +ierking have paved the way for a new phase of museum research# visitor research. ,isitor research is the future of the museum world. 9-ploring new ways to create partnerships with the community, increase visitor utili!ation of museums, and to provide settings for free choice education will be on the museums list of strategic goals long into the future. Museums are entering a new phase where they can not depend on the private funder, government funding, or even the 100 endowment. Museums need to develop relationships with the public so as to cultivate future donors, maintain a community presence, and secure longevity well into the future. Museums are reali!ing that visitors are the key to their staying power. Museums have the capability to research the visitor just as do )alk and +ierking. "he information that )alk and +ierking have already provided for the museum world is invaluable. "hey are the first of many to begin to see visitors as individuals with preferences, habits, learning capability, and desires. ,isitors matter, and )alk and +ierking have proven it. "he techni5ues that )alk and +ierking use are approachable, easily implemented, and relatively ine-pensive to use. Any museum that has access to a library can check out their books and adapt their techni5ues for specific museums and begin to implement a visitor research program. It is an e-citing era to witness, an era where museum visitors and museum collections depend on each other to some e-tent. $urely the new age of museums will not be without a viable visitor research program. Bi4'iography 101 'rown 8oode, 'rown, 8. 2Bn the 7lassification of Museums.4 Science, New Series E>, no. F =.0/1?@ .EA#.1.. 'latti, (o 2"he Museum 9-perience. (ohn ;. )alk *ynne +. +ierking.4 The Journal of American History 0D, no.A =./>0?@ .EEF#.EEA. 7andler, 8.M. 2Museums in 9ducation@ "he 7hanging :ole of 9ducation $ervices in 'ritish Museums4 The History Teacher /, no. < =./>1?@ .0F#./E. 7hristison, Murel '. 2Museum 9ducation@ $ome Practical 7onsiderations.4 ollege ArtJournal >. =$pring ./A0?@ F.A#F<D. 7rane, $usan. 2Memory, +istortion, and the ;istory Museum.4 History an! Theory F1, no. A =.//>?@ AA#1F. )alk, (ohn and *inn +earking, 2Bptimi!ing out#of#school time@ "he role of free#choice learning.4 New "irections #or $outh "e%elopment />, =$pring, <DDF?@ >E#00. )alk, (ohn. 2)actors Influencing African American *eisure "ime Itili!ation of Museums.4 Journal of &eisure 'esearch <> no . =.//E?@ A.#1D 102 )alk, (ohn and (ohn 'alling. 2"he field trip milieu@ *earning and behavior as a )unction of 7onte-tual 9vents.4 Journal of E!ucational 'esearch >1 no. . =./0<?@ <<#<0. )alk, (ohn and Michael $torksdieck. 2*earning $cience )rom Museums.4 Historia, ancais, Sau!e( Manghuinhos .< supplement =<DDE?@ ..>#.AF. )alk, (ohn ed. #ree hoice Science E!ucation. %ew 6ork@ "eachers 7ollege Press, <DD.. )alk, (ohn and *ynne +ierking. &earning #rom Museums. Galnut 7reek@ Alta Mira Press, <DDD. )alk, (ohn and *ynne +ierking. The Museum Experience. Gashington +7@ Ghalesback 'ooks, .//<. )alk, (ohn and *ynne +ierking. &essons )ithout &imit. Galnut 7reek@ Alta Mira Press, <DD<. "errell, (ohn, 2+isneyland and the )uture of Museum 103 Anthropology.4 American Anthropologist /F, no . =.//.?@ .A/#.E 8oldstein, Marcus 2"he Museum as a Potential )orce for $ocial 9nlightenment.4 American Association for the A!%ancement of Science /<, no. <F0F =./AD? ./>#./0 :othenberg, M. 2Museums and Modern $cience.4 *sis /< no. F =<DD.?@ E>1 "he 7ollege Art Association of America. 2+iscussion of the :eport of a 7omitee of American Association of Museums on training of Museum Gorkers.4 The +ulletin of the ollege Art Association of America ., no. F =./.>?@ <.# <0. $ilver, Adele, 2"he Art Museum and Its 8eneral Public.4 Art Journal F>, no. F =./>0?@ <D0#<.D. 6ount, $ylvia. 2'raving =And 'ridging? the 8reat +ivide.4 American Art ., no F =<DD.?@ <#>. 104