In this article, Donna M. McElroy, education curator at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center (Pueblo, Colorado), discusses evaluation strategies and key findings used to create and improve a self-guide "birds-eye view" map to the Asian Collection at the Denver Art Museum.
In this article, Colorado State University researcher Jerome Dagostino presents a review of three noteworthy museum studies to highlight the variety of different survey techniques used to evaluate art museums.
This is an abstract of Barbara J. Soren's 1990 Ph.D. Dissertation at Toronto University. Soren used an interpretive approach to understand the educational function of museums in curriculum-making terms. Soren conducted research at three informal sites in Ontario and found that planning for public education has features typical of a formal. curriculum-making process.
This is an abstract of Marilyn G. Hood's 1981 Ph.D. dissertation at Ohio State University. Hood researched the relationship between critical attributes of leisure choices and audience preferences for selected activities, such as museum participation. The research was carried out at the Toledo Museum of Art.
In this article, Marilyn G. Hood, Ph.D., of Hood Associates, discusses African-American attendance and non-attendance at art museums. Hood presents findings from focus groups and individual interviews used to better understand African-American feelings about and perceptions of art museums, which she divides into internal dimensions and external dimensions.
This article highlights findings from a study conducted by researchers at Jacksonville State University that assessed group visitor behavior at four exhibits at the Anniston Museum of Natural History. Researchers studied if male and female adults behave differently at exhibits when they are with a child than when they are with another adult as well as whether or not adult behavior was consistent across different types of exhibits.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen BitgoodChifumi KitazawaAndrea CavenderKaren Nettles
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Amy Cota and Stephen Bitgood share findings from a study of label content, specifically the effects of length and sequence. Researchers aimed to answer the following questions: (1) If the entire label is read, will retention of information be related to the length of the text? and (2) When information is presented in two paragraphs, is the order of presentation important?
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Ann Cleghorn summarizes a 1993 "Museum Management and Curatorship" article written by Paulette M. McManus. The article cites findings from a study of visitor's memories as indicators of the impact of museum visits. The study analyzed visitors ages 8-50 years, who visited "Gallery 33, A Meeting Ground of Cultures in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery," an exhibition about human society and includes materials on beliefs, values, customs, and art from around the world.
In this article, researchers from Colorado State University discuss a research study at the Denver Art Museum. The study investigated how one survey of visitors to the museum was used to increase staff awareness of different levels of audience commitment, while at the same time yielding evaluation information about an Asian Art exhibit to guide planning of new interpretation materials.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ross LoomisMarc FuscoRuth EdwardsMelora McDermott
In this article, Eileen Walker of the Royal Ontario Museum discusses the usefulness of front-end evaluation as the museum renovates all of its galleries. In particular, Walker outlines the front-end evaluation process of the museum's new European Galleries, which aimed at determining visitors' interests, prior knowledge, activities, and preferences in areas related to European Decorative Arts and to the display of such objects. The data informed and facilitated decision-making in the early stages of the gallery development project.
In this article, M. Hagedorn-Saupe discusses visitor-related research efforts at the Institute fur Museumskunde in Berlin. Hagedorn-Saupe provides an overview of data collection studies on museum visits and related projects, visitor research projects and collaboration with other institutions, and long-term projects at the Institute.