In this article related to evaluation and multicultural audiences, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood presents a "progress report" on a visitor center and environmental education project in Puerto Rico that is being designed to serve both the local Puerto rican audience as well as the international visitor. Bitgood shares findings from the study featured in a report to the Caribbean National Forest, part of the USDA National Forest Service.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood and Don Thompson address the issue of how museums can appeal to multicultural audiences and assess the impact of their attempts to attract new audiences. Bitgood and Thompson outline a four-step process for addressing problems of multicultural audiences.
In this article, Rosalyn Rubenstein discusses how the focus group method can be used in museum visitor studies. Rubenstein provides a general description of the focus group method, describes the process by breaking it down into its component parts, uses case studies as examples of how focus groups have been used and the data they elicit, and draws conclusion about the projects to which focus groups are appropriate. This paper also makes reference to aspects of methodology in consumer market research and revisions, which Rubenstein uses to apply the technique to museum audience research.
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Rosalyn RubensteinVisitor Studies Association
In this article, Sydney Donahoe discusses visitor research at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Donahoe explains three main reasons for conducting this research: advertising and marketing campaigns, to improve their product, and to assess visitor learning and enjoyment.
In this article, Marilyn G. Hood of Hood Associates discusses a visitor study of the Holden Arboretum in rural Mentor, Ohio. The year-long study helped arboretum staff and trustees learn how the institution might more effectively serve its audience, which they suspected differ from season to season.
In this article, G. Donald Adams of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village discusses the influence of positive word-of-mouth on motivating attendance at museums and other visitor attractions. Adams shares an example of a word-of-mouth situation and how assessments made at various stages in the process can help a museum plan public programs that create positive impressions.
In this article, Harris H. Shettel, museum consultant, questions why so few museums evaluate educational program and evaluations. Shettel provides six factors that she that explain why this is the case.
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Harris H. ShettelVisitor Studies Association
In this article, Patricia Munro discusses the "Baffling Beauty" project developed by the Anstiftung, a nonprofit research organization in Munich. Munro summarizes the development of this "health forum," traveling exhibition as well as how evaluation techniques were integrated into the exhibit planning and implementation process.
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Patricia MunroVisitor Studies Association
In this article, Kirsten Bohlig, discusses a research project conducted by the Department of Sociology of the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) to study the variety of regional cultural attractions over a two year period. The objective was to determine the current amount of participation and thereby find ways to improve the cultural infrastructure in the area.
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Kirsten BohligVisitor Studies Association
In this article, Michael Spock, of the Informal Learning Program at the University of Chicago, discusses his fundamental and situational concerns that surround the practice of museum exhibit and program evaluation. Spock offers observations on the situational politics from his exhibit evaluation work at the Field Museum and suggests how semantics plays a more fundamental role in the evaluation process.
In this article, Harris Shettel, an evaluation consultant, discusses the politics of evaluation and how the recent use of visitor data to inform decision making at all levels qualifies as a paradigm shift in the approach taken to museum public programming.
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Harris ShettelVisitor Studies Association
In this brief article, Pete Conroy, Curator of Natural History at the Anniston Museum of Natural History, discusses his tactics for successfully grabbing the attention of kids during his wildlife lectures. He uses distasteful potty humor to make his presentations more effective.