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  • Essay / Why people visit museums and galleries: key theories of visitor studies and methodologies

    Museums are increasingly aware of their growing need for visitor studies. This information is used in a variety of ways, including making decisions, improving the experience, and building relationships between the museum and the local community. Museums attempt to listen and respond to the needs and interests of the public. With feedback provided, museums develop programs, museum spaces, and exhibitions. They also measure social impact on public value, which can be used as feedback for stakeholders, board members and sponsors. The essay will introduce some of the key theories of visitor studies and methodologies currently in practice, and explain the usefulness of these studies in discovering why people visit museums and galleries. Focusing on quantitative methods, I will describe how visitor motivations can be examined using evaluation and survey techniques. Using qualitative methods, I will discuss how museums use focus groups and written feedback. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayQuantitative methods focus on audience segmentation, such as demographics and attitudes that can be quantified. The quantitative method is intended for research that requires statistics, the results are very well measured and of great credibility. These are clear and well-defined variables. Quantitative data can collect information such as the percentage of locals versus tourists visiting the museum, how far visitors live from the museum, how many repeat visitors versus one-time visitors. In this method, the research can use tools such as surveys, open and closed questions, systematic monitoring and observation of visitors. Doering's key theory is that museum visitors have "different entry narratives" and different visit expectations. To meet the needs of museum visitors, museums are increasingly using an evaluation method. The mixed method combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. This is the most detailed and inclusive method. Korn states that “evaluation” is the systematic collection of data and information about the characteristics, activities, and results of an exhibition or public program. It offers different perspectives on the same issue by providing both measurement and understanding of it. It includes individual interviews, open-ended questions, focus groups and follow-up. Although not widely used in Britain, the evaluation methodology is used in the United States, in order to obtain additional funding and to prove that exhibitions are worth the grants. It is designed to focus on problem solving and ask questions about specific processes or outcomes. The assessment method involves four different stages of exposures: initial assessment, formative assessment, summative assessment and remedial assessment. The initial assessment takes place in the development phase of an exhibition, it helps to define the objectives, the layout of the exhibition, the terminology, the approaches to motivate the attention and interest of visitors, text formats, titles, graphics and, in particular, to manage the distortions that occur. ideasvisitors' preconceived ideas about the theme of the exhibition. Through this approach, visitors' views on the subject of the exhibition can be explored. Titles, story ideas and themes can be tested. The tools used can be both qualitative and quantitative. Formative evaluation is used during the planning stages, it tests the current plan and modifies the development process. Through the formative approach, visitors can explore understanding, reading and viewing the exhibition. Qualitative tools are mainly used in this step. Corrective Assessment Identity change after the opening of an exhibition, which is a refinement of an exhibition after its opening. Both a qualitative and quantitative tool is used. SummativeThe assessment is used after the end of the exhibition. It measures the impact and the result. Value must be defined to measure the success of this phase. This phase produced the final report which can be used as a reference for sponsors or administrators. Although assessment is a very effective approach to collecting information, the resources required make it difficult to apply frequently. The main resources needed are time and personnel. Dedicated skilled staff or external consultants consume a lot of budget. It also takes time if selected, it must be integrated into the budget and schedule of the exhibition and program. Despite these drawbacks, the evaluation process has proven its usefulness and effectiveness. It introduces shared authority into the planning and execution of an exhibition or program. The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania used the assessments to help create and modify a junior gallery. An initial assessment took place during the gallery planning phase. The interactive components of the results provided staff with feedback to design the content of each activity before the exhibition. During the exhibition, a formative evaluation was conducted to assess both the quality and value of each activity. Some components have been modified and improved based on feedback. The results of this evaluation helped staff members create activities that helped visitors better understand the exhibit and collection. The interpretation route was developed in collaboration between visitors and museum professionals. Surveys can allow museums to understand demographics such as age and gender, or geography, local or tourism and even the socio-economic and educational levels of their visitors. The usefulness of knowing demographics allows the museum to understand who is visiting the museum, but not necessarily. help them attract more visitors. In 2013, user surveys were conducted among around 200 cultural organizations and museums in Denmark. The survey focused on four contemporary challenges facing these organizations: identity and learning behaviors, space for intercultural dialogue, gender equality and cultural tourism. The survey was carried out using short structured questionnaires. The questionnaire asked visitors about their experience in the museum. He asked about their motivation for visiting the museum, dividing responses into two categories: reloader and explorer. “Recharger (I am here to recharge my batteries and find peace, quiet and time for introspection…)” or “Explorer (I am curious and interested. I am here today to gain new knowledge and inspiration) ". John Falk and Lynn Dierking (2012) developed visitor profiles, in whichthey pointed out that visitors may have various motivations for visiting museums at any given time. Explorer, facilitator, experience seeker, professional and recharger are profiles that they have identified. The museum and its staff cannot know what profile the visitor adopts when he enters the museum. However, the strategy allows museums to divide visitors into segments and facilitate better engagement, for example by creating specific itineraries and maps for certain profiles, personalizing experiences. The results of the survey led to the writing of several articles reflecting on the four challenges facing the museum. Collecting data using a closed-ended survey allows researchers to obtain simple analysis of the reports. This is appropriate for large samples, but arguably some of the information collected using this method is considered superficial and limited in measuring visitor experience (Daidson museum practices). Surveys can allow museums to understand demographics such as age and gender, or geography, local or tourism and even the socio-economic and educational levels of their visitors. The usefulness of knowing demographic data allows the museum to understand who is visiting, but does not necessarily help it attract more visitors. Qualitative data focuses on visitors' expectations, motivations and needs. Visitor studies are relatively new in museum studies, as museums are moving away from their traditional approach to preserving and exhibiting objects to focus on education and sharing information about their collection, which Doering recognizes . In order to study visitors, Falk and Dierking are key theorists who developed a contextual approach. learning model, identifying the motivations, incentives and expectations of why people visit museums. Taking into account the personal, sociocultural and physical context as well as the evolution of time, the qualitative method provides answers and in-depth investigations. Grounded data explores visitors' perspectives and interpretation of the world. Through the qualitative method, researchers are able to ensure the inclusion of diverse community voices, such as minorities. This helps the researcher understand the response to museum experiences, the journey they take and their reactions to the collections. A more recent example of using diverse methods is the use of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, surveys and focus groups: the research of John Bull and Shaikha Al Thani (2011) focused on the needs of family audiences in Qatar. Through the research, they discovered six key findings, such as social motivation playing a key role in museum visits, or understanding that families were often headed by the mother and that parents and children were unaware often exhibitions. Although using these methods can be time consuming and expensive, the utility of this visitor research was significant due to the lack of visitor research in Qatar and the lack of family visits to the museums identified by Bull and Al Thani. This provided key insights to enable museums to understand learning needs and modes and implement them in future exhibitions and understand how Qatari families value and perceive museums. Hudson (1975) notes that it is impossible to meet the needs of every person, but that identifying the reasons for their visit,.