Museum environments, visitors’ behaviour, and well-being: beyond the conventional wisdom

ABSTRACT

We introduce a taxonomy of museum environments, based upon three dimensions: the auratic/non-auratic character of the environment, visitors’ cultural attendance, and level of cultural attendance of the social context. We consider a case study of a museum environment characterized by the least favourable socio-cognitive conditions, and conduct a study on 102 museum visitors about their cognitive performance in terms of attention and recall, cultural habits, evaluation of museum services, and psychological well-being. In spite of a fair cognitive performance in terms of attention and recall and a general satisfaction with the museum environment features, a weak relationship between performance and cultural habits, and between cultural habits and psychological well-being, is found. We conclude that museum policies for low-attendance museum environments should be carefully reconsidered in order to stimulate visitors to develop more culturally oriented habits, with possible positive impacts also in terms of well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Museum environments
• cultural attendance
• attention and recall
• aura
• museum policy
• psychological well-being

Acknowledgements

Preliminary versions of this study have been presented at the International Joint Workshop Programme, Doshisha University, Kyoto, 2011, and at the international conference on Markets and Happiness, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan, 2011. We thank conference audiences for useful remarks. We are moreover grateful to two anonymous referees of this journal for their comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Guido Ferilli is Assistant Professor of Cultural and Economic Policy at IULM University in Milan and is member of the Strategy Group of A Soul for Europe. His research and publications focus upon cultural and economic policy in the regional and urban sphere. He has a vast experience in EU projects and in the management and coordination of urban and territorial planning processes in Europe and Latin America. He is currently coordinating cultural planning projects in various regions of Sweden.

Enzo Grossi, MD, is Scientific Consultant at Fondazione Bracco, Milan. He is author of more than 300 papers in various fields of medical science and in particular on the well-being impact of cultural activities. He has been project coordinator of the activities of Bracco Foundation at Expo Milan and is regularly participating in international conferences in the medical field.

Pier Luigi Sacco is Visiting Professor of Applied Humanities at Harvard University and Professor of Cultural Economics at IULM University Milan. Has published widely in the fields of cultural economics and policy, evolutionary game theory, nonlinear dynamics, and consults with governments and companies in the fields of cultural policy and culture-led development. Has been keynote speaker in major cultural policy conferences worldwide for governments, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and UNESCO.

Giorgio Tavano Blessi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at IULM University, Milan, and at the University of Bologna. His research is on urban studies and policy, and on the well-being impact of cultural participation. He has published widely on these themes on international journals, and has managed local projects on cultural policy design for community well-being.