Introduction

Museums have always been an important part of

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