History Museums and Family Audiences - Why So Challenging? - Part II

What a thought-provoking call!

We just concluded our Museum Conversation on "History Museums and Family Audiences - Why So Challenging?" and we came away from it excited, inspired, and challenged.  If you were on the call, we hope you were as well.

Our discussion focused on the challenges of attracting family audiences, and our fantastic speakers from Conner Prairie, the National Museum of American History, and  American Girl Place Chicago shared with us their approaches and success stories.  Here are a few takeaways:

• It is about social experiences. Ellen Rosenthal, Executive Director of Conner Prairie, noted that families like to visit so that they can interact, and learn, together in an active environment.  At Conner Prairie, they have worked to make the entire site as hands-on and family-friendly as possible, from reproduction objects to backing off on guided tours (she noted that forcing a child to stand still and listen is never a good idea – neither is the parental “claw” on the child’s shoulder to hold them in place during a guided tour!). 
• Family connections are paramount. At American Girl Place, Gar Crispell, General Manager, said they utilize a litmus test on everything they do:  If moms trust it and girls love it, it passes the test. AGP focuses on strengthening the connections between moms and daughters, and the rest of the family, through the experiences at AGP.  Personalizing history brings it into the family, whether it is exploring a family tree in Bitty Bear’s Matinee or bonding with mom over the Julie Albright (1974) doll.       
• Make it easy to visit.  Megan Smith, Education Specialist at the National Museum of American History, stressed that you should never underestimate the importance of the small stuff.  That is, clean bathrooms, easy parking, clear signage, accessible lockers, and family restrooms and nursing areas.  Even small changes, like adding stools to the restrooms at Conner Prairie, can have big results.  It does not matter how great your program, or museum, is, if it is not easy for mom to get in and out with the kids, she will not come.
• Finally, visiting a history museum or historic site is about stories.  As Camy Clough, Senior Program Manager at the National Museum of American History noted, people want to “teleport themselves” to different times and places through the stories you tell.  People love great stories, whether it is about a famous figure of history or just your average Joe, because that is how they relate to those individuals, and the past.  This is certainly underscored by the success of American Girl, where the stories the dolls tell are the “chocolate cake” that has been fortified by the “vitamins” of history. 

We would love to hear more from you on this topic!  What successes have you had at your museum on these issues?  Any questions you would like to throw out to the panelists, or any insights you'd like to add.  To continue the conversation, just click on the “comments” link below

Finally, our thanks go out to our guests who shared their time and thoughts during this call, and to those of you who submitted questions to our guests and listened in. 

Comments

[Ken Bubp, COO, Conner Prairie Museum]

Lead take away: Think through the visit from all angles from the perspective of a family audience. How do your amenities (restrooms, drinking fountains, etc.) match with family expectations? In what ways can you provide opportunities for all members of the family to interact together? How do traffic patterns affect the way families experience things at our site?

Purposefully designing the overall experience is critical. Thanks to the NMAH staff in particular for reminding us of these key questions.

I wanted to follow up on some of what Ellen Rosenthal shared about Conner Prairie's experiences with moving toward families. At the risk of being immodest, I wanted to point everyone to a resource we've developed to help other museums develop a more family-friendly, conversational (and less didactic) approach to deploying front line staff and volunteers. Opening Doors to Great Guest Experiences is a DVD/CD-ROM training resource developed by Conner Prairie staff thanks to the generous support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It is an off-the-shelf training resource you can use with docents/interpreters/facilitators to help them strengthen their skills at engaging families (and all audiences). Again, thanks to IMLS, it is available at a very reasonable price at http://www.connerprairie.org/openingdoors/index.html .

[Paul Orselli]

Could any of the panelists comment on the general perception (right or wrong) that history museums are often one of the least interactive (or "hands-on") of all museum types?

Could this effect the visitation trends in history centers?

[Elizabeth Lewis, Connecticut Historical Society]

Have you done any studies asking visitors, of various ages and ethnicities, to rank exhibit components (most favorite, least favorite) in history exhibits? Components:

1. text - READ
2. objects - SEE
3. interactives - DO
4. graphics - SEE

Thanks.

[Jeff Arnett - Director of Education and Public Programs, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]

What can history museums do to better address the needs and interests of families with young children (i.e. age 8 and younger) or is this audience best served by the emerging number of children's museums?

[Ann Koski, The Wisconsin Historical Society]

Have there been any studies to show what PR method(s) is the most effective in terms of reaching and brining in family audiences?

[Leslie Obleschuk, National Park Service]

What do children, ages 10-12, visiting with their families, most like to do in history museums?

What do teenagers like to do in history museums?

[Dean Krimmel]

Too many missions, it seems to me, are hidebound and unimaginative, making it difficult for institutions to change their approach to learning, their visitor experience mindset and public images. Could the panel discuss the process of reinvigorating or reinventing a mission statement? Thanks.

[Jeff Arnett - Director of Education and Public Programs, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]

How do you balance the interactive needs and interests of families with children versus those of adult visitors who prefer a more academic or “traditional” museum experience? In other words, how do you design history exhibits that must be all things to all people and all ages?

Jeff Arnett, Ed.D.
Director, Education and Public Programs
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
25 Main Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
607.547.0349

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Hi Jeff - I think your question about history museums, children's museums, and young children is very important - and it is something I have given a lot of thought to. When I worked at history museums, I would have automatically said "yes," they should try to attract young families. Having completed the children's museum visitor survey for the Association of Children's Museums this spring, my answer is now "well . . . maybe."

The data clearly shows that young museum-going families do not visit history-based museums in large numbers until their oldest child hits 3rd grade. Additionally, the vast majority of history-based museums are very, very small organizations with extremely limited resources. For those organizations, unless they have a program for young children that is already working well, I would recommend focusing on older family audiences (children 3rd grade and up). They are just going to get more impact out of their limited resources.

But for organizations that are larger, and have more resources, a very thoughtful approach to attracting younger family audiences may result in some terrific, and effective programs (such as those we heard about at Conner Prairie, American Girl Place, and the National Museum of American History).

I would also encourage history museums of all sizes to reach out to children's museums for collaborative programs and events. Co-host activities at each other's museums, or work with them to help make your exhibits child-friendly. Many children's museums are dealing with crowding and space issues - why not seek funding to create a "branch" of the children's museum at your history museum, and offer reciprocal membership privileges to attract young families to your museum?

There are many creative ways that history museums and children's museums can work together to expand their work while maximizing resources - and from our research with children's museum visitors, parents would love to see these collaborations take place.

Good luck!

[Ellen Rosenthal, Connor Prairie Living History Museum]

I would like to respond to the excellent question about whether or not history museums are perceived as the least interactive of all museum types. My impression is that museums that are thought of as only showing or telling, particularly about topics not of interest to children, are thought to be the least interactive and therefore the least appropriate for children. Art museums and traditional history museums fall in this category. At Conner Prairie, we found that many of our guests did not think of us as a "museum". When we asked people what other "places" they visited that were similar to Conner Prairie, they named parks, battlefields, and a range of other outdoor experiences. Perhaps that is why when we asked in 1999 in a broad-based survey whether people in the region considered Conner Prairie a place for families or adults, over 90% said that it was a place for families. If the results of that study had shown that our brand was an adult brand and we were satisfied with level of our visitation, I'm not sure that we would have made such a significant push to engage children and families. As it is, in the last five years, we made the entire facility hands-on and added several new programs and interactive exhibits aimed at families with children. I'm happy to say that we've seen double digit attendance increases for the last two years.

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Hi Ann - Responding to your question about promotion to family audiences. For the current generation of parents, who for children in grade school and younger are predominantly Generation Xers, e-mail works quite well, as does articles in your local newspaper (think the weekly community papers, not the dailies). Word-of-mouth is also huge among 35 - 40 year old moms and word-of-mouth is something that you can orchestrate and control. We are planning on making word-of-mouth the topic of an upcoming e-newsletter, so keep an eye out for that.

The big question that museums will need to face in the next few years (and start planning for now) is Generation Y. As Gen Y enters their prime child-bearing years, promotion to young families will change dramatically because this is a generation that does not read newspapers at all and for whom e-mail is antiquated. We are trying to learn more about Gen Y, so it is a topic that will continue to come up. Stay tuned!

[Lora Nadolski, Antique Boat Museum]

Is “history” a turn-off word among kids and families?

[Ken Shefsiek, Geneva Historical Society]

Although I certainly don't disagree with the importance and value of interactive hands-on activities, I also believe that children can enjoy presentational educational experiences as well. Having worked as an educator at a group of historic house museums, although I may be patting myself on the back here, I learned that fourth graders could enjoy a guided house tour where they were not allowed to touch anything, provided that the topics addressed were those to which children could relate. Also necessary is verbal interaction, so that discussion can be stimulated. Interaction is more than touching and doing, and that interaction can be with a knowledgeable guide with the skills to relate to children. Also, if we start thinking that everything has to be hands-on, or rather that hands-on is the ideal, we will begin to think that historic house museums filled with important decorative arts and other artifacts that should not be touched are beyond hope. I also learned that children can respond to artifacts in a very powerful way, just by seeing them. The "authentic" can be inspirational to children as well as to adults. As an example, Monticello is not and cannot be Conner Prairie, but that does not mean that Monticello cannot create a family-friendly environment and provide a meaningful experience for children. This is certainly not to say that there are aren't opportunities for interactive activities even at Monticello, given the breadth of the property, but I still believe that a meaningful experience can be created within the house itself even when there is generally no touching.

I'm also concerned that if everything needs to be interactive and hands-on, we will begin to ignore teaching about those things that cannot be taught thusly. For example, I found that children can respond to a discussion of slavery, which is a topic that is difficult to make physically interactive or hands-on. Nor is it something that we would likely think of as "family-friendly." Sometimes we need to teach about horror that cannot and perhaps should not be made even remotely physically alive. The spoken word can still be a very powerful and useful thing.

Also, it seems to me that the comments of Ellen Rosenthal and Camy Clough suggest substantially different things. If it is compelling stories that engage people, story-telling does not seem to me to be a very interactive activity, unless listening is considered interactive. I agree that story-telling is very powerful, as it can emotionally engage people in a way that simply providing information cannot. Finding the good story is also something that is often more easily achievable than creating a museum space that is physically interactive.

I wonder, however, how much parents don't think their children will enjoy didactic learning and thus don't bring them to certain types of museums (I'm thinking mostly of historic house museums). Or perhaps the parents expect "leisure" time to be fun, and don't choose activities for themselves and their children that they see as "learning" rather than "recreation." We of course have to acknowledge such expectations--if we don't, then we will never attract more families--but we also shouldn't base our understanding of education and the process of learning upon parental expectations. Nor should we limit what we teach to things that seem "recreational."

Personally, I'm trying to think of ways to have "points of interaction" within a guided house tour, as where I work now simply cannot be overly interactive given the collection. Hopefully, finding those points will help with visitor engagement and allow us to promote ourselves as family-friendly, while still allowing us to be proper stewards of our collections.

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Hi Ken - Thanks for your comments. I think you make an important distinction here on the guided tour issue: school program tours versus general visitation tours.

And the distinction has to do with expectations. When teachers bring their students to a historic site, they have an expectation that the museum will be guiding the students around. And the students are in the learning mind-set of school (ok, they are probably excited to be out of the classroom too), but with an expectation that someone is going to talk with them and engage with them as a class. I have seen you giving school programs (full disclosure, Ken and I worked together at a historic site in New York State), and your presentation is engaging, informative, and fun.

But I think families approach historic sites with different expectations. Our research indicates that about 2/3 are seeking family time when they visit museums, and the guided tour format does not lend itself to family time, even if the family is all on the same tour. You can have the most spectacular, engaging guide, but if a family has an expectation that a site only gives guided tours, they may simply decide not to come at all. The question then becomes how can you engage visitors at your site in an active way without sacrificing the learning opportunities? And, of course, how do you then spread the word to those potential visitors? Huge questions - and ones that I hope we can answer sooner rather than later with hard research data.

[Ken Shefsiek, Geneva Historical Society]

Thanks for your response, Susie, and your research helps to confirm one of the questions I raised, which has to do with what parents want for their families when they visit. And the research to which you refer does not indicate that presentational education no longer works (which is an impression I sometimes get from individuals who promote hands-on learning), but rather what parents desire, which are not necessarily the same things. The question, then, that we must ask is not necessarily what works but what is needed, BUT at the same time we cannot lose sight of our educational mission. I would rather have one person have a meaningful learning experience rather than 10 people have fun while getting a touch of learning (although it is true that I might need to modify my goals in order to get the financial resources necessary to operate).

[Marie Scatena, Chicago History Museum]

In thinking about Leslie's question, what do teenagers like to do in history museums, I think it's important to determine if teenagers are visiting as school/tour group museum visitors, as individuals visiting museums with friends or family or to participate in a public program. In the first case, teenagers display a need for time to socialize with each other by forming stationary groups-often leaning on each other. So providing or pointing out good 'stopping points' within an exhibition seem to impress this age group.

In history museums, teenagers seem to enjoy choice and challenge. They have a greater need than younger students to wander freely through exhibitions at their own pace. During school group visits, they often have assignments to complete, and are usually relieved or pleased to have an adult staff person ask what they are doing, and offer assistance. Within school group visits, teenagers seem to enjoy being able to make decisions about what they experience- at least for a portion of their visit. They truly seem to relish compelling stories about individuals, and journalistic- type interpretations, including personal testimony and eyewitness accounts. They look for media stations or kiosks to gather around, but equally seem to enjoy objects and still photography which tell stories resonating with their own experiences.

As non-school group visitors, teenagers seem to see museum visits as ways to spend time with friends and family, and enjoy engaging in conversation with people who are with them about discoveries made in exhibitions. As public program participants, teenagers demonstrate a veiled curiosity about exhibition content. They often appear to use exhibitions as a backdrop for socializing, and to take opportunities to look closely when they think no one else is looking at them.

The perceived threat of groups of teenagers gathering in public spaces, appears to be a fairly widespread adult perception. Since teenagers also tend to be aware of this, and self-conscious, a non-judgmental help in negotiating space, and a friendly welcome is possibly more important for them than for younger or older visitors.

[James Chung, Reach Advisors]

Jeff from the National Baseball Hall of Fame asked an interesting question about how to balance the interactive needs and interests of families with children versus those of adult visitors--in other words, how do you design history exhibits that must be all things to all people and all ages?

I wanted to post some late but quick thoughts on that. I actually had to grapple with that issue for a big player in the tourism industry, and here are a few of the topline insights:

One of the things we did was to identify areas of common interests, attitudes and expectations. For example, we often find that teens and young adults have a lot of shared values and interests with their Baby Boomer parents (or at least much more so than past generations where young adults and parents typically ran in opposite directions from each other). In those happy cases of convergence, there's less need for focus.

But sometimes, you have rather different but important audiences that have divergent attitudes and actions. In those cases, we start to pull out various tactics. Some of those include:

- Navigational pathways: Do they navigate differently? Can the points of biggest divergence be in areas where they inherently visit (or can be steered) where the others are less likely to wander?

- Day-parting: Do they come at different times? Does that create an opportunity to address them differently?

- Acknowledged differences: If you can't avoid the conflict, can you highlight the differences in a manner where both realize the drivers behind the difference and end up either appreciating the differences (or laughing about them)?

Anyway, this is actually a much weightier topic than I will ever be able to capture in this five-minute blog response, so if you (or others) wish to talk further, feel free to let us know. Thanks for the question!