Posts
Audience Research and Evaluation
How to Retain Participants in Visitor Research Studies
Research and evaluation projects allow museums to engage their communities, visitors, and non-visitors in various ways, but without anyone to participate in them, we are left with only our …
Different by Design: A New, Inclusive Framework for Accessible Museum Exhibitions
In January 2020, I authored a post for the Alliance Blog about speechless: different by design, an exhibition that I curated for the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and the High Museum of Art in …
“Wait, What? Toddlers in an Art Museum?”
Caitlin Mock Wilson, a mother of two young children and a Clyfford Still Museum (CSM) member, often went to museums with her parents as a young child. When she had her own children, she …
Museum Accessibility: An Art and a Science
Over the past decade, conversations about accessibility have increased within the museum field, and many organizations including AAM have identified it as a priority. There is not, however, …
Museums in a Pandemic: Audience Experiences
The Association of Independent Museums (UK) has published this Success Guide on Understanding Your Audiences which discusses the context including evaluation and research of audiences and …
Visitor Studies Manual
Created for the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) as a part of their Deepen the Participation of Museum Visitors, Donors and Stakeholders project, this evaluation resource tool provides …
Conducting Focus Groups
The Community Toolbox shares a page devoted to conducting focus groups. This page includes information on why and when to conduct a focus group and goes into detail on how to organize a …
Simple Steps to Effective Focus Groups
The American Evaluation Association shares two PDF resources related to developing effective focus groups. Focus groups can help institutions better understand how audiences feel about a …
A Free Survey to Measure a Sense of Belonging at Museums
Not everyone wants to visit a museum. This is in part because of operational issues like cost, location, schedule, but these aren’t the whole story. Some don’t even reach the point of …
CARE-apy: Discussing Data Collection Methods
Watch this recorded CARE-apy session where we explore numerous evaluation methods that you can use to understand a variety of things, including: Information that will help you make …
Family Interactive Spaces: Are They Necessary or Just Nice?
Cultivating a strong family audience is critical for museums, and as practitioners we use many different strategies to do this, including special family days and festivals, workshops, …
Recruiting Strategies: How to Find Community Members for Research Studies and More
Despite the ongoing effect of COVID-19 on museums’ daily operations, the national Measurement of Museum Social Impact (MOMSI) project has been forging ahead with thirty-eight museum …