Visitor Research and Canadian Museums

The March/April issue of Muse included the article "A Case For Visitor Research in Canadian Art Museums" by Katherine Dennis.  The piece looked at the current state of visitor research and the need to articulate the public value of museums to stakeholders and community members. 

There are no national standards for visitors research and there tends to be little consistency between institutional practices.  Many visitor research projects are done as a one off and "most museums seldom go beyond measuring attendance and membership numbers.  Some use these figures as a proxy for quality -- assuming more is better....these relatively simple metrics convey little about the audience's experience or the museum's value to an individual or the community."

Visitor stats aren't a bad thing.  They tend to be the easiest to generate and do tell you something about your museum.  Additionally board members and other stakeholders often like to know about visitor numbers and correlate increased visitors with success.  However, the article is right in it's assertion that stats relating to the number of visitors can't tell you about experience or effectiveness of programming.

Dennis argues that museums need to develop systematic research programs which can generate data to be used in program development, funding applications, and to highlight the importance and relevancy of museum programming.  But a lot of organizations are lacking to tools and knowledge required to develop metrics and effective visitor research programs.  Dennis is currently working with the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies to develop a comprehensive visitor research program.  It will be interesting to see the results of this initiative and if other institutions can use it as a model. 

Unique User Groups and Heritage Organizations

The users groups of heritage organizations vary greatly from organization to organization.  People who frequent a university archive, a children's museum, and a local history corner at a public library typically have very different needs.  Providing quality programming depends on heritage institutions knowing their users and gearing specific programming to different types of users. 

One of the unique user groups I've been thinking a lot about recently is visitors from outside of Canada.  This group of patrons contains a variety of users but in my case the group is made up of academics from foreign universities, tourists, and international students.

Visiting academics from afar are often undertaking directed research and may require assistance in making the most of their time in the area. Conversely, tourists and international students often know little about the institution or local history.  Tours and basic public programming should be expanded to explain the significance of the heritage held by your institution.  You may also need to incorporate some broader Canadian or regional history into your tour for the information to make sense.

For example, a group of international students receiving a historic site tour of a former residential school may have little understanding of colonialism in Canada.  It would make sense for the tour introduction to include an explanation of the residential school system, the factors that contributed to the creation of such a system, and a general overview of Settler-First Nation relations.  It is also crucial that staff are using language appropriate to the group - using Canadian-ism and jargon isn't going to be helpful to most international visitors.

Thoughtful planning and tailoring tours to specific groups help enhance visitor experiences.  Feedback from visitors and experimenting with different formats can help you decide what outreach methods work best.

What types of targeted user group programming does your institution offer?

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon