This paper discusses the Museum Impact and Evaluation Study, a research collaborative originated by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and made up of nine museums from across the country. The intent of the study was to reach toward understanding the long-term outcomes of museums visits, focusing on the relationships that develop between visitors and museums and exhibits within museums over time. This overview provides a summation of the project's scope, research process, plan, and current status.
This paper explains the Interactive Experience Model, which encompasses the actions that the visitor is engaged in during a museum visit. This model is useful for thinking about issues related to museum learning and provides a framework for understanding the totality of the museum experience--a socially, cognitively, kinesthetically, and aesthetically rich experience.
This paper deals with two major audience research projects. One is a community perceptions study conducted by telephone with citizens of St. Louis city and county in 1990 by the Missouri Botanical Garden. The second is a year-long on-site visitor study at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Both studies were designed, analyzed, and interpreted by Marilyn G. Hood of Hood Associates. Dr. Hood will present the settings in which these two projects were accomplished and describe how they were carried out; Ernestina Short, Community Liaison for the Missouri Botanical
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marilyn G. HoodErnestina ShortG. Donald Adams
This paper is based on presentation given at a participatory session at the Visitor Studies Conference with the aim of creating a descriptive list of the qualities and conditions that lead to a positive museum experience (PME). This article sorts, names, and discusses the characteristics generated by the group.
This paper presents an overview of the Museum Impact and Evaluation Study and some of its key findings. The project that began in January 1990 and was completed in 1992 explored relationships between museums and their visitors and was intended to help staff members understand how they develop these relationships, what characterizes these relationships, and how these relationships are maintained.
This paper discusses the importance of serving both internal and external publics, which requires attention to their values, expectations, and satisfactions, not just what decision-makers think they should want or expect from the museum. Author Marilyn G. Hood, of Hood Associates, presents data from two recent audience research projects that reveal internal publics (visitors, including volunteers, members or donors) may hold distinctly different views and preferences, and that these may contrast with those held by visitors and the community. This data can offer guidance for improving internal
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.
This paper discusses objectives, methods, and findings from a 1992 comprehensive evaluation of the Children's Museum, part of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. This classical program evaluation aimed to inform the planning and designing of an expansion project.
This paper discusses a collaboration between the Brooklyn Children's Museum and Brooklyn Botanic Garden on a series of educational programs and exhibits entitled "Breaking Ground." Developers aimed to create programs to teach basic science principles related to botany, ethnobotany, and urban ecology, promote urban children's understanding of the importance of plants to humans, biologically and culturally, and foster positive environmental ethics in children 6 to 12 years of age. Findings from a research study to support the development of these programs are briefly outlined in this paper.
This paper analyzes the effectiveness of real people (actors) as communicators of messages in museums. It includes findings from an evaluation of professional actors, who assume the roles of fictitious and real characters from the history of science, technology, and medicine at the Science Museum in London. The study attempted to understand more fully how visitors react to such live interpretations.
In this paper, the Museum of New Mexico's Thomas J. Caperton discusses how public programs often threaten preservation efforts at historic sties. Caperton suggests that alternative methods of interpretation can be accomplished in a museum setting through experimental archaeology and other programming.
This paper describes findings from a study intended to improve the Confrontation Gallery at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. This remedial evaluation involved placing written text on the plexiglass photo panels that corresponded to the audi-recorded statements. Text placement was completed in two phases to asses the possibility that having written text on all panels would create competition for attention and result in less attention.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen BitgoodAnn CleghornAmy CotaMelody CrawfordDonald PattersonChris Danemeyer