Museum experiences that change visitors

Abstract

Transform, transforming, and transformative are common terms for describing museum spaces, the creation of objects on display, and experiences for visitors. But is there evidence that museums profoundly change visitors through their objects, collections, exhibitions, public programs, and websites? The nature of transformational museum experiences and potential ‘triggers for transformation’ are the focus of this article. Two case studies describe ways in which visitors articulate change they have experienced. Included are projects about teachers and artists during an intense two-week summer institute in an interdisciplinary museum and about visitors to a traveling exhibition highlighting the role Canada plays in international development. Individuals’ comments and questions indicated that experiences with authentic objects and the unexpected, highly emotional responses, new cultural and attitudinal understandings, as well as motivation to become more proactive in the way they live their lives, may have been triggers for transformational experiences.

Keywords:

• museums
• evidence of value
• on-site and online experiences
• personal change
• transformational museum experiences
• visitor experience

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the AKFC Bridges that Unite team for inviting me to evaluate their project and consenting to have material from evaluation reports included in this publication. I also am appreciative of the ongoing support of Walter Pitman, co-founder of the Ontario Arts Education Institute. I thank the reviewers of this article for their insightful comments and suggestions for improving earlier versions.

Notes

1. See also Barabási (2003) and J.R. McNeill and W.H. McNeill (2003) on grasping connections and links across the world's surfaces, over its history, and into its depths.

2. For example, Caruth and Bernstein (2007), Din and Hecht (2007), Marty (2008), Samis (2007), Witschey et al. (2006), and Woods (2007). Simon (2008, 42) describes how changes in social networking tools such as citizen journalism, blogs and talkback walls are reflecting ‘individual voices and stories’. A collaboration of museum professionals and others participating in the Steve Project believe that social tagging may provide profound new ways to describe and access museum collections and encourage visitor engagement with museum objects (http://www.steve.museum/).

3. See Soren and Lemelin (2004), research for the Canadian Heritage Information Network (Soren 2004, 2005, 2007), and a conference presentation at the American Association of Museums 2006 annual meeting by Folsom et al. (2006).

4. I am most appreciative of the thoughtful and stimulating discussion with 16 students in my 2009 Museums and their Publics course at University of Toronto in response to reading a version of this article.

5. Personal communication in response to reading a version of this article, 25 April 2009.

6. The dedicated team for Bridges that Unite included managers and content developers at AKFC, designers at BaAM Productions, and Eric Young Enterprises Inc., a social marketing agency that addresses some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary society.

7. During 2008, the exhibition traveled across venues in western Canada, including the Victoria Conference Centre, Nickle Arts Museum in Calgary, and Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre in Vancouver. During 2009, the exhibition will be in Ontario and Nova Scotia venues.

8. For example, Janes and Conaty (2005), Lang, Reeve, and Woollard (2006), and Thomas and Carey (2005).