I am an experienced audience researcher and it’s a tough gig. My preferred surveys are ones inside an exhibition where I can talk to visitors as they leave an exhibition/ gallery (rather than exiting the museum) or actually tracking visitors to observe their response to an exhibition without any interaction. Exit surveys are much tougher because once people are ready to leave the museum they are always rushing for transport or their next destination or their family has had enough Museum for one day. It’s hard to compare museums except on a few points which are important - membership, visitor reach
(Local, interstate or international) , repeat visitation, type of collection. I do think that you can compare by category - house museum, regional museum, maritime museum, natural history museum etc. It would be great to learn from each other and share ideas on audience engagement.
I hadn't heard of too many people actually doing field-based participant observation, but I agree it's a fantastic method. I agree with you vis-a-vis comparison as well, although I might add that there is no comparison that can't be made without context - even a regional gallery in a tourist down is going to throw up some very different numbers to one in a mining town, for example.
Always happy for a chat. Pop me a message on LinkedIn and we'll make some time.
I am an experienced audience researcher and it’s a tough gig. My preferred surveys are ones inside an exhibition where I can talk to visitors as they leave an exhibition/ gallery (rather than exiting the museum) or actually tracking visitors to observe their response to an exhibition without any interaction. Exit surveys are much tougher because once people are ready to leave the museum they are always rushing for transport or their next destination or their family has had enough Museum for one day. It’s hard to compare museums except on a few points which are important - membership, visitor reach
(Local, interstate or international) , repeat visitation, type of collection. I do think that you can compare by category - house museum, regional museum, maritime museum, natural history museum etc. It would be great to learn from each other and share ideas on audience engagement.
I hadn't heard of too many people actually doing field-based participant observation, but I agree it's a fantastic method. I agree with you vis-a-vis comparison as well, although I might add that there is no comparison that can't be made without context - even a regional gallery in a tourist down is going to throw up some very different numbers to one in a mining town, for example.
Always happy for a chat. Pop me a message on LinkedIn and we'll make some time.