Museums and Impact

Since the 1980s, governments throughout the western industrialized world have required greater emphasis on fiscal and public accountability within the public sector. As a result, museum value has been constructed in response to economic rationalism and government policies without sufficient input from the museum sector itself. This paper asserts that any discussion of the role of museums, the contribution they make to societies and appropriate ways of evaluating their impact requires the perspectives and contributions of all stakeholders. It examines preliminary findings from a study that asked about the impact of museums from the perspective of museum professionals and end‐users. It reports significant areas of agreement between public and professional cohorts regarding the role museums play and the contribution they make both to individuals and to the social and economic development.     

The Museum Profession: Protecting and Promoting Professional Commitments

Throughout their history, museums have performed diverse public services: from preservation, collection, and exhibition, to interpretation, education, and civic engagement. As Stephen E. Weil ( 2002 ) explains, since the mid‐twentieth century, museums have experienced two major revolutions. First, a revolution in focus from collection‐oriented to visitor‐oriented practices, and second, a revolution in public expectations as museums secured a position within the nonprofit sector (81–82). With competition for public, private, and philanthropic support resting upon measurable results, the evaluation of museums depends upon its ability to “accomplish its purpose” (5). However, the question remains: what is the museum's purpose? Which is the more important: collection and artifact preservation, or public engagement and education? An overview of museum practices reveals a multiplicity of professional tasks distributed among three imperatives: preservation, scholarship, and programming (Weil 2002 , 11). The competition for resources devoted to each of these imperatives can spark controversy—particularly if museum professionals answer the question of the purpose of museums differently. Organizational communication scholar, Janie M. Harden Fritz, developed a theoretical framework that seeks to respond to such controversies in Professional Civility: Communicating Virtue at Work. This essay considers Fritz's “professional civility” in the context of the American museum sector, lending insight to the question of museum purpose and function.     

Coming Together to Address Systemic Racism in Museums

A group of 25 multi‐generational, multi‐racial museum professionals met in January 2016 for a 3‐day dialogue about museums and race. They concurred that forming alliances among museum practitioners of all races and ethnic backgrounds is a critical step in dismantling the persistent and pervasive presence of structural racism in museums. This article asserts that there are both demographic and ethical imperatives for close examination of all aspects of museums’ programs, their staffs and boards, the publics they serve, and the organizations that exist because of them. It provides an introduction to the vocabulary and attendant systems of white privilege, oppression, and intersectionality, offers concrete suggestions for people of all backgrounds to join forces, and ends with a call to action to bring racial awareness and action to the forefront in our institutions, our communities, and our nation.     

Spectacular Design in Museum Exhibitions

Abstract Intrigued by the crowd‐pleasing effects of “the spectacle,” some museums and exhibition designers have begun to enlist the principles used by theaters, theme parks, and public attractions in order to turn museum venues into awe‐inspiring experiences — thereby elevating this inclination into a principle we call Spectacular Design. This article summarizes the results of a year‐long study that compared and contrasted two categories of spectacle: museum and non‐museum. The concept of spectacle is here examined, and a formula is identified, so we can see the commonalities present in Spectacular Design both in public attractions and in museum exhibitions. The hope is to redefine the model for the museum field.     

“Loving,Knowing Ignorance”: A Problem for the Educational Mission of Museums

In this essay, I suggest that Mariana Ortega's concept of “loving, knowing ignorance” (2006) provides a useful conceptual tool for museum practitioners who seek to advance a progressive mission. This form of ignorance assumes authority in describing and acting on behalf of a subject, even as it fails to take seriously the subject's self‐knowledge and agency. While Ortega initially coined this term to describe the stance of white feminists toward women of color, here I extend the concept to describe a wider range of knowers—in this case, the institutional museum. Using a case study at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to illustrate this problem, I will suggest that becoming aware of instances of loving, knowing ignorance and learning to avoid it is a key skill for museum professionals who hope for their institutions to fulfill their educational mission in a diverse and democratic society.     

Children's Museum Experiences: Identifying Powerful Mediators of Learning

This article reports on a study of young children and the nature of their learning through museum experiences. Environments such as museums are physical and social spaces where visitors encounter objects and ideas which they interpret through their own experiences, customs, beliefs, and values. The study was conducted in four different museum environments: a natural and social history museum, an art gallery, a science center, and a hybrid art/social history museum. The subjects were four‐ to seven‐year old children. At the conclusion of a ten‐week, multi‐visit museum program, interviews were conducted with children to probe the saliency of their experiences and the ways in which they came to understand the museums they visited. Emergent from this study, we address several findings that indicate that museum‐based exhibits and programmatic experiences embedded in the common and familiar socio‐cultural context of the child's world, such as play and story, provide greater impact and meaning than do museum exhibits and experiences that are decontexualized in nature.     

Competing Agendas: Young Children's Museum Field Trips

Abstract Visitors to museum settings have agendas that encompass a wide variety of missions. Agendas are known to directly influence visitor behavior and learning. Numerous agendas are at play during a visit to a museum. We suggest that in a museum‐based learning experience, children's agendas are often overlooked, and are at times in competition with the accompanying adult's agendas. This paper describes and qualitatively analyzes three episodes of competing agendas that occurred on young children's field trips to museums in Brisbane, Australia. The aim is to elucidate the kinds of tensions over agendas that can arise in the experience of young museum‐goers. Additionally, we hope to alert museum practitioners to the importance of considering children's agendas, with the aim of improving their museum experience. Suggestions are also made for ways in which educators can address children's agendas during museum visits in order to maximize learning outcomes.     

Engaging the Experts in Museum Computing: Seven Years of Queries on MCN‐L

MCN‐L, an email listserv administered by the Museum Computer Network, is open to anyone interested in discussing information technology in museums and other cultural heritage organizations. To determine how MCN‐L meets the needs of museum information professionals, this study presents an analysis of more than 6,000 emails sent to the listserv over a seven‐year period (2004–2011). The results of this analysis indicate that MCN‐L adds value to the online community of museum information professionals by providing an online communication channel focused on professional outreach and expert support, backed up by specific examples drawn from personal experiences. MCN‐L's emphasis on personal expertise is a key characteristic that speaks to the listserv's lasting value to the museum community and has implications for researchers and practitioners as they consider the future of computer‐mediated communication for all museum professionals.     

Evaluation of Touchable 3D‐Printed Replicas in Museums

The multisensory aspect of the museum, while neglected for many years, is undergoing a resurgence as museum workers have begun to push towards re‐establishing the senses as a major component of museum pedagogy. However, for many museums a major roadblock lies in the need to conserve rare objects, a need that prevents visitors from being able to interact with many objects in a meaningful way. This issue can be potentially overcome by the rapidly evolving field of 3D printing, which allows museum visitors to handle authentic replicas without damaging the originals. However, little is known about how museum visitors consider this approach, how they understand it and whether these surrogates are welcome within museums. A front‐end evaluation of this approach is presented, finding that visitors were enthusiastic about interacting with touchable 3D printed replicas, highlighting potential educational benefits among other considerations. Suggestions about the presentation of touchable 3D printed replicas are also discussed.     

The Intergrated Museum: A Meaningful Role in Society?

Abstract This article describes a process initiated in 1983, at the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN), which was based on the premise that a responsible natural history museum should assist society in shaping its collective future. The museum predicted that if it were able to help people understand themselves and their relationship to the natural world, the museum would again be seen as valuable to society, and thus would be supported in its efforts. The CMN therefore began to integrate its collections, scholarship, discovery, public programming, and public exhibits into broad, institution‐wide programs focused on the needs and interests of society. These programs enabled the museum to engage its visitors in “guided conversations” in which the museum provided the content, drawing on the research and communication strengths of the museum, while the audience, representing society, set the context. This guided conversation empowered the public to make informed decisions and to influence the museum and its work. CMN also designed exhibit formats that allowed the visiting public to contact industry and government decision‐makers with their opinions. The article describes the museum's evolution through several stages of increasing internal and external integration, ultimately using a managerial matrix to form project teams, with discipline‐based professionals focused on the interests and needs of society. Drawing on audience participation, the CMN reset its programming and offered advice and counsel to government and industry. The museum also took the first steps to include the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples as an additional source of wisdom about the natural world. Financial and other support grew rapidly, effectively demonstrating a successful programmatic feedback loop helping society to shape its future using the museum as an information source and communication tool. The effort was terminated before the integration was completed, but nonetheless, CMN demonstrated that is possible to achieve a programmatic feedback loop that includes collections, science, exhibits, the general public and both government and industry decision‐makers.     

Strategies against Architecture: Interactive Media and Transformative Technology at the Cooper Hewitt,Smithsonian Design Museum

After being closed for three years, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum reopened at the end of 2014 a transformed museum in a renovated heritage building: Andrew Carnegie's former home on the Upper East Side of New York City. New galleries, a collection that was being rapidly digitized, a new brand, and a desire for new audiences drove the museum to rethink and reposition its role as a design museum. At the core of the new museum is a digital platform, built in‐house, that connects collection‐ and patron‐management systems to in‐gallery and online experiences. These have allowed the museum to redesign everything from object labels and vitrines to the fundamentals of the “visitor experience.” This paper explores in detail the process, the decisions made—and resulting tradeoffs—during each stage of the process. In so doing, it reveals the challenges of collaborating with internal and external capacities, operating internationally with online collaboration tools, and rapid prototyping.     

Bojale Drum: Material Culture in Living Contexts

This paper discusses the three phases of the lifecycle of the bojale drum: its custodianship by the queen of Bakgatla‐baga‐Kgafela; the drum's use in bojale (girls’ initiation ceremony); and its presence in Phuthadikobo Museum, a community institution. This lifecycle was observed by the author prior, during, and post initiation in bojale, a girls’ initiation school in 2009. The drum's use, its royal significance and sacredness, is barely documented in its museum record, which can result in its misinterpretation. The recommendations are that the drum's documentation, preservation, handling, and storage in the museum should incorporate its intangible cultural attributes if the museum is to be relevant to the Bakgatla‐baga‐Kgafela community. In conclusion, bojale drum is an example of how material culture can connect a museum with its community through the living culture of bojale.     

New Directions,New Relationships: The Smithsonian's Twenty‐first Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference and the Natural History Museum,London

The Twenty‐first Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2012) has been more influential than similar conferences, resulting in new work streams and international collaborations for the Learning Research and Evaluation team at the Natural History Museum, London (NHM). The conference offered a rare opportunity to discuss issues relevant to our unique workplace and to be surrounded by an instant peer group. Although the event itself brought personal and professional satisfaction, it is the impact of the conference on our institution that has been most fulfilling. The conference has enabled us to think bigger—to think about the sector as a whole and the role the NHM can play as a large national museum.     

The Denver Community Museum

Abstract This essay recounts the story of the Denver Community Museum, a pop‐up institution which operated for almost a year in downtown Denver, Colorado. This temporary museum was designed to be short‐lived. It prompted experiments with audience participation and questioned past versus present, fact versus fiction, and the museum “voice.” This article gives an overview of the space and its operations. Using personal accounts, the article explores the value of participation for the museum’s audience, as well as for the institution itself. These narratives are used as a springboard for a larger discussion of museum practice and creating opportunities for personal connection within the museum.     

Creating a Business Strategy Evaluation Model for National Museums Based on the Views of Curators

The aim of this study is to find the critical factors that influence Taiwan's national museum business performance based on its curators’ views. The study explored the causal relationships among the criteria that emerged in the study and of each sub‐criteria. Since developing a business strategy is a multiple‐criteria decision‐making (MCDM) problem, this study adopted the causal‐effect model of decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique. The DEMATEL technique simplifies and visualizes the interrelationships among decision‐making criteria. The study identified four core criteria – benefits, opportunity, costs, and risks, as key influencers in the national museum business performance. Each key criteria was supported by a set of sub‐criteria which, when considered together, produced an influential network relations map. The results of this study provided Taiwan's national museum curators with an idea‐based understanding of how to create business and marketing strategies that could enhance exhibition features, experience activities, and facilities that could be linked to satisfaction of visitors’ desires and offer a potentials strategy for assessing likelihood of return visits.     

Equity of Access to Cultural Heritage: Museum Experience as a Facilitator of Learning and Socialization in Children with Autism

This article discusses a study focused on investigating the effects of an art museum cultural experience on learning and behaviors of visitors with special needs. The participants, selected by specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, were 10 families with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The author examined how the museum environment, with its opportunities for free‐choice, object‐based, and inquiry‐based learning, helped facilitate their educational and social needs. To record changes in the subjects' content knowledge and behavior, the author employed a mixed‐methods design, including the standardized Social Responsiveness Scale, parent surveys, behavioral observations, task evaluations, and parent interviews. The findings demonstrate that participation in a tailored educational museum program positively influences cognitive and social behaviors of children living with autism, thereby contributing to their overall well‐being. The paper also discusses implications for other museums nationwide working to establish quality access programs with long‐term benefits for special needs communities.     

The Mindful Museum

Abstract The convergence of global issues—ranging from climate change to the erosion of cultural diversity—has created a watershed of opportunity or an unprecedented crisis for museums. The contemporary museum business model based on consumption, entertainment and ancillary education is increasingly unsustainable and irrelevant in this context. This article explores the concept of a more responsible museum and the need for a heightened sense of social, environmental and economic stewardship as the foundation for a sustainable future, in a time of profound social and environmental change for society at large. Obstacles to organizational effectiveness are discussed, as are methods for enhancing greater organizational awareness of societal issues. Examples of progressive museum practice are also presented by way of illustration. The possible consequences of inaction suggest the need for museums to transform their culture‐and‐industry business model into one of a locally‐embedded problem‐solver, in tune with the challenges and aspirations of their communities.     

Measuring Infinity: José de Rivera's Smithsonian Sculpture on the National Mall

Abstract Large works of public sculpture outside our museum doors reveal aspects of a museum's self‐image. They beckon, reassure, or confront visitors with new ideas about what might lurk inside. Whether off‐the‐shelf or commissions by well‐known sculptors, these pieces matter. They are the noses on our museum faces. In this essay, one museum curator reflects on the layered meanings of his museum's entry art — meanings that, he argues, have the potential to evolve over time.