Investigating Sustained Visitor/Museum Relationships: Employing Narrative Research in the Field of Museum Visitor Studies

ABSTRACT

Museums today are faced with a number of challenges and are currently searching for ways to attract and retain audiences and engage with the public. In order to address these issues, researchers have called for studies to help construct a more complete understanding of the visitor experience. Few studies employ methodological approaches that provide in-depth accounts of the museum experience. Narrative methodology is one means by which researchers may access rich accounts of the multi-faceted nature of audience relationships with museums. This article reports preliminary findings from a narrative research study that aimed to explore sustained visitor/museum relationships. The narrative methodology adopted for this study provides novel insights into the nature of these relationships and extends our understanding of those museum experiences that build and strengthen relationships with visitors.

Historically, museums have served as important sites for cultural engagement. Despite the significant role they play in society, museums today are faced with a number of challenges. Some of these challenges stem from reduced government funding, resulting in increased pressure to attract diverse audiences and a need to justify the public value of museums (Goulding, 2000; Pitman, 1999). Other challenges may be attributed to the rapidly changing society in which we live—changes in demographics, lifestyle and leisure time activities, and communication and technology (Casey & Wehner, 2002; Fewster, 2005; Macdonald & Fyfe, 1996).

In recent years, museums have had to address issues of sustainability and re-examine their roles and missions. In response, many museums have adopted a strong visitor focus (Kotler & Kotler, 2004) and are currently searching for ways to relate to their audiences and engage with the public (Orr, 2004). Consequently, museums must seek new ways to stay relevant, attract and retain visitors, and secure their position as important cultural institutions. In the context of these challenges, researchers have called for studies to help construct a more complete view of museum visitors' experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, Hetland, & Karaganis, 2003; Dierking, Falk, & Ellenbogen, 2005; Goulding, 2000; Silverman & O'Neill, 2004).

Although the field of visitor research has grown rapidly over the last few decades, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the museum experience. Several factors contribute to these gaps. First, much of the existing body of visitor research employs survey research to either collect data for demographic profiles or evaluation studies to measure the effectiveness of specific exhibitions and programs (Goulding, 2000; Roberts, 1997). Few studies have involved in-depth probing of the complexities of the museum experience. Second, much of what is known about the museum experience is derived from studies that have focused primarily on cognitive engagement and learning outcomes. Only recently have researchers investigated the wider range of experiences and benefits museums provide visitors (Packer, 2008; Silverman, 2002). And third, much of the research has been conducted with single-visit participants (Ellenbogen, 2003), and consequently provides a limited “snapshot” view of the museum visitor and the visitor experience. Although researchers have investigated “long-term” impacts of museum visits (Anderson, Storksdieck, & Spock, 2007), there is little research that has involved probing the role museum experiences play in the larger context of people's lives.

Given that one of the imperatives of visitor research is to more fully understand visitors' expectations, motivations, and experiences in order to design effective museum experiences that result in increased participation and visitation, it is important to ask visitors who visit museums on a regular basis what brings them back. Surprisingly, few studies have focused on regular visitors (those who visit any number of museums on a regular basis) even though these are an important segment of the larger museum audience (see Ellenbogen, 2003; Leinhardt, Tittle, & Knutson, 2000; Verdaasdonk, van Rees, Stokmans, van Eijck, & Verboord, 1996). Even fewer studies have investigated visitors who make return visits to one museum (see McManus, 2001). Importantly, although these studies provide insights concerning regular visitors, they do not consider the dynamic nature of visitors' visitation patterns and engagement with museums over time.

As a consequence of the limited amount of research focusing on regular visitors, there are gaps in our understanding about this audience in general, and significant gaps in our understanding of individuals who make return visits to one museum, the focus of this study. Consequently, little is known about how visitors form and sustain continuing relationships with cultural institutions such as a museum. To date, discussion in the literature concerning individuals who come back to one museum on more than one occasion has focused primarily on occurrence and frequency (e.g., McManus, 2001; Verdaasdonk et al., 1996). This study moves beyond these descriptions of how many times or how often visits occur, and instead focuses on the nature of the engagement returning visitors have with a single museum over time. The concept of sustained engagement, the central focus of this study, is a concept that has not been formalized in the literature. In its current usage in the literature, it has been employed to describe goals museums have for visitor interaction with specific exhibits ¹ or works of art (Bradburne, 2001), or as a general aim for museums—to aim for sustained engagement with visitors (Pitman & Hirzy, 2004). In this study, the concept of sustained engagement describes a relationship an individual establishes with a particular museum that is maintained (albeit with varying levels of connection) through different life stages.

The larger study on which this article draws (Everett, 2009) aimed to understand the life experiences individuals have with a museum that lead to the development and maintenance of sustained visitor/museum relationships. That study sought to investigate the following five research questions; this article reports preliminary findings regarding Questions 1 and 2:

1. What factors contribute to the formation of a sustained visitor/museum relationship?

2. What factors influence the development of a sustained visitor/museum relationship?

3. In what ways do individuals who have a sustained relationship with a museum engage with that museum?

4. What benefits are derived from sustained visitor/museum relationships?

5. What factors contribute to sustaining a visitor/museum relationship?

In this research, a distinction is made between how sustained visitor/museum relationships form (Research Question 1) and how they develop (Research Question 2). The former focuses on the initiation of the relationship; the latter on the progression of that relationship—the visits an individual makes to one museum after the initial visit.

Because there is limited empirical data on the phenomenon of sustained visitor/museum relationships, an exploratory qualitative approach was employed. Within that broad methodological framework, a narrative inquiry methodology was adopted to investigate the study's guiding questions (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Narrative inquiry is the study of experience as story (Clandinin, 2006). Narrative inquirers aim to “understand the ways in which individuals and communities story a life, and live their stories” (Barrett & Stauffer, in press, p. 2). Given this interest in individual experience and relationships with the institution of the museum, a narrative methodology was deemed to be most suitable to answer the study's guiding questions.

Methodological Framework

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in narrative ways of knowing, leading to an upsurge in employing narrative research methods and techniques (Czarniawska, 2004). Although narrative research has a long tradition in disciplines such as anthropology, counseling, history, and psychology (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006), the turn to narrative in education is relatively recent. The term narrative inquiry first appeared in an educational research context in an article by Connelly and Clandinin published in 1990 (Clandinin, Pushor, & Murray Orr, 2007). Clandinin and Connelly's (2000) approach to narrative research is grounded in Dewey's philosophy of experience: “Narrative inquiry is the study of experience, and experience, as John Dewey taught is a matter of people in relation contextually and temporally” (p. 189). Their framework for narrative inquiry draws on three specific conditions of Dewey's experience: interaction, continuity, and situation. Like Dewey, they view experience as involving people in relationship with others and their environment (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). They contend that in order to understand experience, one needs to examine the personal, social, and temporal elements of experience as well as the context in which experience takes place (Ollerenshaw & Creswell, 2002). Although narrative inquiry shares features of other qualitative research approaches, such as the social focus in ethnography and the focus on experience in phenomenology, it is the simultaneous exploration of all three elements—temporality, sociality, and place—that shapes a narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006). Through their research, Connelly and Clandinin (1990) “have come to understand experience as narratively constructed and narratively lived”, and thus argue, that it is appropriate to “study experience narratively” (p. 19). A fundamental characteristic of narrative inquiry rests in a view of the research process as relational. Throughout the inquiry, researcher and participants work together as co-researchers. Meaning is constructed through negotiation and collaboration between the participants and the inquirer (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000).

The narrative research design adopted for this study provides opportunities to delve deeply into the complexities surrounding the phenomenon of visitor/museum relationships, and to gain novel insights, from the visitor's perspective, about the role museum visiting plays in individual lives. The purpose of this article is not to report on the whole study, but to illustrate the uses of narrative inquiry in visitor research through the analysis of data generated with 1 of 7 participants.

METHOD

Setting

The museum used as the setting for the study is the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) located in Hobart. Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city with a population of approximately 200,000. The TMAG was established in the 1840s as the Museum of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The museum complex contains historically significant buildings including the city's oldest building, the 1808 Commissariat Store. The TMAG is distinctive in character. It is one of only three combined museum and art galleries in Australia, and it has the “broadest collecting mandate of any single institution in Australia” (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 2007, p. vii). The museum's collections include natural science, social history, and art. Because of its history, role in the community, and diverse collections, the site offers many unique opportunities to investigate museums as sites for sustained engagement.

Participants

Purposeful sampling (Patton, 2002) was used to recruit study participants who had a sustained relationship with the TMAG (defined here as making return visits to the TMAG for three years or longer). Purposeful sampling, an approach commonly used in qualitative studies, is a sampling strategy in which participants are selected purposefully because they are the people who can provide the greatest amount of insight to help understand the phenomenon under investigation. Seven participants were recruited to participate in the study (2 children and 5 adults) through a snowball sampling technique (Patton, 2002). Participants ranged in age from 5 to 80 years in order to provide a cross-the-life-spectrum perspective of the phenomenon. This article reports preliminary findings related to one participant, Cecilia (a pseudonym).

Data Generation

Field texts (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) were generated through interviews, observations, and researcher notes. Interviews were the primary data source used in the study. A three-interview series designed by Dolbeare and Schuman (Schuman, 1982, as cited in Seidman, 1998) was used to generate accounts of the participants' historic, current, and anticipated future involvement with the museum. All interviews were semi-structured and open-ended in nature. Questions were designed to stimulate conversations concerning museum visitation and engagement.

The data were generated over a period of seven months, with each participant's data being generated over a period of approximately two months. Three interviews were conducted with each participant. The time between these interviews varied from one week to one month, depending on participant availability. Each interview lasted for approximately 1 hour; with slightly less time for the children. The first interview focused on participants' past museum experiences. The second interview focused on participants' present museum experiences. At the conclusion of the second interview, participants were asked to guide the (first-named) researcher through the museum, and to show some of their favorite areas and objects. These tours ranged in length from 20 minutes to 1 hour. During the tours, participants were interviewed regarding their responses to the museum and its collection. Audio and video recording devices were used during the tour to record conversations, comments, facial expressions, and embodied responses. The third interview focused on the meaning participants ascribed to their relationship with the museum, and on participants' anticipated future museum experiences (Seidman, 1998). All interviews were audio-taped.

To more fully understand the ways in which participants typically engaged with the museum, they were asked to contact the researcher prior to one of their visits to the TMAG. During this visit, the researcher observed from a distance and had minimal interaction with the participant. It is acknowledged that the researcher's presence may have influenced participants' behavior; however valuable insights were gained by observing the participants in this way, particularly with the child participants. Observations of these visits were recorded using field notes (Creswell, 1998). In addition to interviews and observations, a journal of reflective notes was kept throughout the study, recording thoughts, ideas, and descriptions related to the phenomenon under study. Reflective notes informed and guided the research and provided insights that facilitated a deeper understanding of the phenomenon under investigation (Creswell, 1998).

Data Analysis

Data analysis occurred in two stages: Stage 1—crafting individual narrative accounts (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) and Stage 2—thematic analysis (Seidman, 1998). During the first stage of analysis, all interviews (including guided tours) were transcribed. Interview transcripts, observation field notes, and researcher notes were read and re-read; guided tour videos were viewed and re-viewed. Using a narrative analysis framework (Ollerenshaw & Creswell, 2002), key passages were identified within the dimensions of interaction (personal, social, and physical/place) and continuity (past, present, and future). While analyzing the field texts, the researcher was mindful of the questions that guided the study. She searched for narrative threads, tensions, and themes (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). The next step in the analysis process was writing and retelling individual stories. In writing these interim texts, key passages from the transcripts of interviews and tours were woven into the narrative accounts to retell the story using the participants' words.

After the interim narrative accounts were written, participants were asked to read and review their individual stories to ensure the accuracy of the account—a process referred to as member-checking (Seidman, 1998). In the case of the 5-year-old participant with limited reading ability, her mother was asked to assist her in performing this activity. After participants read their accounts, a meeting was arranged to discuss their individual “museum story.” During these conversations, a wide range of issues was discussed, including any changes participants wanted made to their stories, the thoughts and feelings they experienced while reading it, and the ways in which the narrative inquiry process affected them. Changes participants requested included modifications to spoken language, specifically to correct grammatical errors and remove fillers such as “ah,” “um,” “like,” and “you know.” After discussing the proposed changes, the researcher and participants came to an agreement that the requested edits pertaining to the style of speech would be made to the stories as long as it did not change the intention, meaning, or feel of the conversation. These conversations were central to the meaning-making process. Through this collaborative process, new understandings about the participant's relationship with the TMAG were constructed.

During the second stage of analysis, narrative accounts were analyzed to identify thematic connections—similarities and differences within and between cases (Seidman, 1998). Narrative accounts were re-read. Each narrative was organized according to categories. The five questions that guided the research served as initial categories: (a) What factors contribute to the formation of a sustained visitor/museum relationship? (b) What factors influence the development of a sustained visitor/museum relationship? (c) In what ways do individuals who have a sustained relationship with a museum engage with that museum? (d) What benefits are derived from sustained visitor/museum relationships? (e) What factors contribute to sustaining a visitor/museum relationship? Key passages of the narratives relating to each of the categories (form, develop, engage, benefits, and sustain) were identified and color-coded. Excerpts pertaining to each of these categories were compiled into separate documents. Themes and threads that emerged from individual stories were compared and contrasted with those that emerged from other participants' stories to identify similarities and differences in experience. Employing two stages of analysis resulted in a thorough examination of the phenomenon of sustained visitor/museum relationships—participants' individual stories were re-told and thematic connections within and between cases were identified.

FINDINGS

The larger study's findings are presented as rich narrative accounts of the meanings, values, and beliefs of museum visitation in the lives of these seven participants and are reported by Everett (2009). In the following section, a condensed portion of one participant's narrative frames a discussion concerning: (a) those factors through which a sustained visitor/museum relationship forms and develops; and (b) the value of narrative research in the field of visitor studies.

Cecilia is a 59-year-old Australian woman who has lived most of her life in Tasmania. She has five grown children and one grandchild. Divorced, she lives alone in a small rented apartment located within walking distance to the museum. Although she has many interests, she is passionate about art.

Cecilia's Story

Cecilia's first words to me were, “I think I've always been interested in the arts, um, even as a young child though I wasn't encouraged into it …”. That statement set the tone for placing Cecilia's museum visiting experiences in the context of her life history.

Cecilia was born in South Australia, and moved to Tasmania with her family when she was a very young child, around the age of two. She grew up in a small, rural, “picturesque” town situated approximately 35 minutes northwest of Hobart; the same location where four previous generations on her mother's side of the family had settled. Cecilia remembers having an interest in art at a very early age; an interest she believes was sparked by the church-related experiences she had as a young child.

But I know where I started seeing artworks to begin with was ah, we had a [church] calendar at home, and I still buy this same sort of calendar each year, and it had, it has artworks from museums and art galleries all around the world. And that's when I think I first noticed art, on church walls and you know, I was taking it in that way.

Reflecting on her childhood, she paints a picture of growing up in a home where the arts and creativity were not valued. She does not have any memories of visiting museums or art galleries. Cecilia's school environment also lacked stimulation in the area of art. The only art experiences she recalls from her school days were doing “maybe some of that paperwork” and the three art lessons she had.

My friends' mother was an artist, and I was so envious of the way they were drawing, and their mother came into the school to give art lessons and I got the feel of the colors, and (pause) you know…

Although formal art experiences were lacking in her childhood, Cecilia's creative juices were fed by participating in other arts-related activities both in and outside of school—drama, singing, and playing dress-up. She remembers attending ballet classes on Saturday mornings and how devastated she was when the dance teacher stopped making visits to the “country towns.”

Cecilia recalls her formative years as being filled primarily with everyday issues of survival.

… But I wasn't in the environment to participate in, other than getting along with life every day, you know, survival. It wasn't about going to art school or, it was about getting a job and living and, you know, surviving.

At 16, after finishing three years of high school, Cecilia left home and moved in with her grandparents who lived in Hobart.

And I only did three years … People did Schools Board which is the fourth year of high school plus matric, ² two years matric. But that wasn't really encouraged much. You know you were sort of encouraged to leave school. You either went into nursing or teaching, or to secretarial school.

At the age of 20, after working “several jobs” and doing some interstate travelling, she returned to Hobart to get her certification as a “mothercraft ³ ” nurse. After finishing her studies, she sought employment in Western Australia. It was there, at the age of 22, that Cecilia found her way back to art. While working full-time as a mothercraft nurse in Perth, Cecilia enrolled in an art class that she attended in the evenings after work. She can still recall how excited she felt when she first learned “how to hold the [drawing] pencil properly.”

After leaving Western Australia, Cecilia moved around a bit, returning to Hobart for a short time, then moving to Melbourne. While in Melbourne, continuing to work as a mothercraft nurse, she began mingling with the performing arts crowd. She became “involved more or less into the theatre, theatrical part of the arts… just going to shows and that sort of thing, but not participating.”

After moving back to Tasmania in her mid-twenties, Cecilia again enrolled in an art class. During this time, she became romantically involved with an artist. As a result of that relationship, Cecilia started “mixing” with artists and became more involved in the local art scene. It was during this stage in her life that Cecilia believes she had her first museum (or art gallery) experience. She cannot recall any specific details, but she believes her first museum experience occurred at the TMAG when she was in her mid-twenties. She thinks it may have occurred while attending an art opening at the TMAG with her circle of artist friends.

When Cecilia was 27, she married the artist. Shortly after they were married, they started a family. After having children, Cecilia started making regular visits to the TMAG as a family activity. She selected the TMAG as a site for family excursions because “It was interesting, and it was free (pause) quiet time…”. In addition to outings at the TMAG, Cecilia took her children to art openings at other smaller art galleries. She was determined to provide her children with the sort of experiences she wished had been a part of her childhood. The cultural experiences she had with her children were a way of making up for the experiences she missed out on as a child.

Well, once I had my children, I wanted to encourage them to go. So that's when I would take them. So, I was sort of becoming the child I think and I was enjoying it through them (laugh).

In her early forties, when her marriage ended, Cecilia found herself entering another stage in her life. Once again, she made regular visits to the TMAG, but this time it was without her children.

I used to be on my own every second weekend when the children used to go to their father's and that's where I'd go. I'd do the whole art gallery scene… I joined the Friends of the Museum too, after my marriage broke up, just to have connection with (pause) like-minded people and so most weekends I would do that.

For the next 15 years or so, Cecilia continued to visit the TMAG on a regular basis, primarily to view art exhibitions and to attend Friends' events and exhibition openings; sometimes visiting on her own, and other times visiting in the company of friends. During this period, she also helped arrange floral displays for the TMAG.

About three years ago, Cecilia ended her association with the Friends of the Museum because she “just sort of felt a bit saturated,” feeling as though she no longer had enough in common with people in the group. During the period after she left the Friends' association, although her visits to the TMAG did not occur as often as they had in the past, she continued to take in new exhibitions, both museum and art gallery. After a couple of years passed, Cecilia returned to a more active involvement with the TMAG. “Somehow ah, you know I'd get involved and then I drift away for a while and then I seem to want to be back.”

Currently, Cecilia is involved in many activities including attending art classes and talks as part of the University of the Third Age (U3A), attending lectures at the art school, learning how to compose haikus through a class offered at the Botanical Gardens, and volunteering her time at a local thrift shop. In addition to these activities, Cecilia also makes regular visits to the TMAG. Her relationship with the TMAG today is multi-faceted. She experiences it in a variety of ways—making weekly visits as a member of the Art Guides' group, as a grandmother, with friends, and on her own.

Last year, Cecilia joined the Art Guides' group. She heard about the group from friends—friends who are or were members of the group. Cecilia attends Art Guides' meetings at the TMAG every Tuesday. During these meetings, a small group of people get together to discuss “what's going on in the local art scene,” share information about their various art-related projects, and receive training for the delivery of public tours of the Art Gallery. Cecilia also experiences the museum with her only grandchild, 5-yr-old Jasmine. Cecilia and Jasmine visit the Museum and Art Gallery together approximately three times a year. They have been making these visits for the last couple of years, since Jasmine was about three years old. Cecilia typically takes her granddaughter to the TMAG when she is looking after her. She hopes the visits “encourage her to observe” so that “perhaps she will be creative later on [in life].” Occasionally, Cecilia visits the TMAG with friends. Her visits to the museum with friends do not happen as frequently as they did in the past because “people's lives are so busy.” Cecilia also experiences the TMAG on her own. She makes unaccompanied visits to the TMAG approximately “six times a year but, could be more, all depends on the exhibition that's on.” When Cecilia goes to the museum alone she “usually sort of might be already be in a, a sort of quiet thoughtful mood”.

Over the last 30 plus years, and through different life stages, Cecilia has experienced the TMAG in many ways. Although she says, “It feels like another good place for me to be, like a home, you know a comfortable home”, she cannot predict what her future involvement there will look like. “I don't know. I just go with the flow. I might stay with it, or I might sort of get bored with it.” “It all depends” on her level of interest and whether she decides to “start painting” again.

DISCUSSION

This excerpt of Cecilia's story reveals novel insights about sustained visitor/museum relationships. In the telling and retelling of Cecilia's story, we get a sense of the complex set of personal (interests and personal characteristic) and situational (home and educational background) factors that influence the formation and development of a sustained visitor/museum relationship.

Cecilia's narrative provides insights about what draws her to the museum. We come to know Cecilia as a woman who has a strong interest in art. She is a person who values creativity and who has a deep appreciation for the aesthetic. She actively seeks out opportunities for self development—to improve her skills as artist and increase her understanding of art history. We also come to see Cecilia as a person who has a desire to learn, a curious mind, and a preference for engaging in leisure time activities that are worthwhile and challenging—all attributes that have been used to describe people who regularly visit museums (Davies, 2005; Hood, 1983; Spock, 2006).

While Cecilia's story confirms some characteristics shared by regular visitors, it refutes others. Through the restorying, we come to understand that Cecilia does not fit the description of the typical museum visitor—a person with high level of income and education (Burton & Scott, 2003; Falk, 1998). She completed only three years of high school. An additional feature of Cecilia's background that is uncharacteristic of regular museum-going adults is the age at which she was first exposed to museums. Although early exposure to museums has been shown to influence museum visitation later in life (Burton & Scott, 2003; Gray, 1998; Hood, 1983), Cecilia was not exposed to museums as a child. She did not visit museums during her childhood or adolescence. Her first visit to a museum occurred when she was in her mid-twenties. This suggests that sustained visitor/museum relationships can form for individuals at any age and from diverse backgrounds.

Through her story, we also gain insights about pathways into museums. Although Cecilia had an interest in art from an early age, she did not visit the museum even after she moved to Hobart to live with her grandparents when she was sixteen. Visiting a museum was not in her consciousness. She had not been acculturated into the world of museums. Her pathway into the museum, in her mid-twenties, occurred as a result of meeting an artist in an art class. It was through this relationship with the artist, someone who had previous experience with art museums, that Cecilia was brought into the museum community. The artist served as an informal cultural guide, introducing her to the museum. Through her association with people who were artists and regular museum-goers she came to see herself as someone who fit in with “the museum crowd”. While exposure to museums through parents and school is commonly reported in the literature, little attention is given to the role friends and partners play in influencing museum visiting behavior. Cecilia's narrative provides novel insights about the important role significant others can play in introducing people to museums, and the pathways through which sustained visitor/museum relationships form.

An important contribution narrative research makes to understanding visitors is the opportunity to place museum visitation within the broader context of people's lives. The narrative research design provides opportunities to follow threads and identify tensions (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) that influenced Cecilia's museum visitation. In her narrative, we follow the thread of Cecilia's deep interest in art that is woven throughout her story. We see tensions that arose—working to overcome the limitations of her home environment and educational background to actively pursue her love of art. As an adult she sought out opportunities to connect with art. Visiting the museum, enrolling in classes, attending lectures, always finding ways to feed her passion and stay connected to the local art scene. These insights provide a deeper understanding about what sustains Cecilia's involvement with the museum. Such insights about visitors can facilitate experiences that better meet visitor needs in order to deepen engagement and strengthen visitor/museum relationships.

The study's narrative research methodology also affords opportunities to see how Cecilia's relationship with the museum has changed over time. First as a young woman and wife, it was a place she and her artist friends would go to socialize and attend art openings. Then as a mother, it was an interesting, free place she could go to have quiet time with her children. Later, when her marriage ended, on her weekends alone, it was a place she could go to be around “like-minded people.” And now as a single woman whose children are grown, with more time to devote to pursuing her own interests, the museum provides for a variety of needs—social, cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic. Her relationship with the museum today keeps her connected to the art world and shapes her identity as an artist. This supports other research that finds museums as important sites for fulfilling identity-related needs (Falk, Heimlich, & Bronnenkant, 2008; Rounds, 2006). Through her story, we get a more complete picture of the role the museum has played in Cecilia's life. We see the variety of ways in which she has engaged with the museum over a 35-year period—how her relationship with the museum has evolved and how it has served to meet a variety of needs through various life stages.

CONCLUSION

This study illustrates the rich understanding that may emerge when narrative inquiry approaches are employed to investigate questions in the field of visitor studies. The narrative methodology adopted for this study provides a deeper understanding of the museum experience and highlights the unique qualities of each visitor's engagement with museums. From the passage of Cecilia's story presented above, we gain valuable insights about how a relationship with a museum forms and develops. Cecilia's narrative illuminates the complexities involved in the formation of a sustained visitor/museum relationship. The study's findings challenge contemporary understandings of who visits museums. Cecilia's narrative reveals that visitors come with a range of levels of education and that high levels of education are not a prerequisite for engagement with a museum. Furthermore, sustained visitor/museum relationships can form for people from varied backgrounds and at any age. Her narrative also provides novel insights about pathways to museums, specifically the important role significant others, serving as informal cultural guides, play in introducing people to museums.

The narrative approach adopted for this study provides a unique opportunity to explore visitor/museum relationships over time, and to place museum visiting in the context of individuals' lives. Cecilia's story provides novel insights about how a sustained visitor/museum relationship evolves through different life stages. These novel insights into the ways in which visitor/museum relationships develop will assist museums in fulfilling their charter to serve their local communities, and to serve individual residents throughout their lifetime in that community. Insights gained from the study's narrative research design reveal important features of museum experiences that may facilitate retaining visitors and reaching new audiences. Such outcomes may assist museums in securing their position as vital centers for cultural engagement.

Although the time requirement involved in narrative research may restrict its use in the field of visitor studies, this study's methodological approach and findings have implications for future visitor research. Museum evaluation practice might incorporate some use of narrative work to add depth, insight, and richness to standard survey methods. In addition, because of the great potential sustained visitor/museum relationships offer museums in terms of expanding their outreach and service to the community, additional research about this important audience segment is needed. The larger study from which this research account is drawn examined the life stories of seven individuals' sustained engagement with a museum, a “quirky” one located as close to the Antarctic as you can get. To develop and implement strategies to facilitate and strengthen relationships with visitors and encourage visitation over the lifespan, we need to know more.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michele Everett has worked in museums for 20 years as both an educator and researcher. She is completing a PhD at the University of Tasmania. Email: [email protected].

Margaret S. Barrett is Professor and Head of the School of Music at The University of Queensland. Her research encompasses the role of music and the arts in human cognition and social and cultural development. Email: [email protected].

Notes

1. The Exploratorium uses the term active prolonged engagement to describe the goal for visitor interaction with science exhibits (Humphrey, Gutwill, & the Exploratorium APE Team, 2005).

2. In Tasmania, high school includes grades 7–10. Years 11 and 12 are referred to as matriculation college or matric.

3. Child care worker.