In this paper, Chris Steiner of the Albuquerque Museum investigates evaluation and its relation to art programs and organization. Steiner explores questions related to the appropriateness of evaluation in the art realm as well as new methods designed to facilitate the artistic creativity associated with the arts. Steiner presents eleven guidelines and recommendations for facilitating evaluation as an ongoing open-system-based process for arts organizations.
In this paper, Douglas Worts of the Art Gallery of Ontario discusses how forging partnerships with corporations, schools, universities, and other cultural organizations can help museums achieve economics of scale while maximizing their human and financial resources. Specifically, Worts describes the benefits of an honest and respectful partnership between museums and the public, with examples from his own work at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
In this paper, Robert M. Woltman of the Albuquerque Museum discusses the vocabulary of exhibit design. Woltman provides examples of how this vocabulary has been used at his institution to impart a sense of place.
In this paper, Sanford S. Shaman, of the Gallery of Art at the University of Haifa, discusses the spiritual void in contemporary art that accounts for the art's inability to communicate with visitors. Shaman describes how this lack of spiritual content renders much of today's art private and non-communicative in the eyes of many critics.
In this paper, Margaret M. Ropp of the Michigan State University Museum discusses a study that explored visitors' experiences with the exhibit, "Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity" and the role that the video interpretation played. The exhibition team was concerned that African art is often seen as primitive, anonymous, and devoid of creativity, so they developed individual videos for the 11 featured artists in an effort to counter those stereotypes. The major finding is that the videos helped the visitors who watched them to connect the creative process, the artist and the final product
In this paper, Robert C. Webb, of Suffolk University, presents literature related to much-debated topic about using music in an exhibit. In particular, Webb discusses four topics of interest to museum professionals: (1) the complexity of the term "background music" (2) the roles and uses of mood created by music (3) the use of music to cue appropriate behavior and perceptions and (4) the influence of background music on the comprehension of verbal material.
In this paper, researchers at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid discuss their evaluation study of the Tiphlologic Museum, a special project of the National Organization for Blind people in Spain. Key study objects, methodology, and findings are defined.
This is a brief summary of a 1982 article in "Curator" entitled "Video vs Wall-Panel Display: An Experiment in Museum Learning," which discusses key findings from a survey of visitors who viewed a special painting exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Information about an artist and his work was alternately provided for visitors by color wall panels, a video display, a combination of the two, or the information was not provided at all.
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Visitor Studies AssociationJ. LandayR Bridge
This is a summary of A.W. Melton's 1935 paper, "Problems of Installation in Museums of Art." Melton described a series of studies that demonstrated two important factors that influence visitor behavior: (1) the tendency to turn right when entering a museum gallery and (2) the strong attraction of exits.
This is a brief summary of Edward S. Robinson's 1928 AAM Monograph "The Behavior of the Museum Visitor." Robinson highlights the importance of object size, positioning, and density for determining visitor attention in art museums.
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.