Can a museum be too popular?!

We welcome a new guest-blogger today, our Summer Research Fellow Alison Buchbinder.  Alison has been with Reach Advisors since graduating from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture in May, and in September will move on to a new position in public relations.  She has brought her Generation Y perspective, as well as her insatiable curiosity, to the table as we have analyzed and pored over a great deal of data this summer.  We will miss her terribly.  Thanks for contributing to the blog, Alison!

 

For someone who went to museum school, New York City is like letting a kid loose in the candy shop.  This summer, I’ve been visiting museums all over the city.   I’m not particularly systematic about the museums I pick.  I’m equally happy to visit a “popular” museum as a “less well-known” museum. 

But this summer, my reactions to these two types of museums shocked me.  I haven’t enjoyed my visits to the rock-star, “popular” museums.  This is not like me.  In college, I loved going to museums and keeping score of all of the different paintings I could identify.  I loved the feeling of walking amongst my teachers’ projected slides.  I didn’t mind that in the more popular painting galleries, I jostled elbows with tourists and had to duck and weave to get close.  I was a tourist too, after all.  I wasn’t going to get this chance again any time soon. 

This week in New York, ducking and weaving drove me insane.  I wanted to gaze without someone taller than me walking in front of the painting and not noticing.  I wanted to ponder an artist’s decisions in silence.  The galleries reverberated with shuffling feet and buzzed with couples talking to one another.  I wanted a beautiful, quiet place of retreat.  I expected that I’d be able to find that in the “popular” museums.  Perhaps that was my mistake.  It should have occurred to me that these were major tourist destinations.  So, I was confronted with a decision – do I abandon the museum because it’s crazy and go find a coffee shop to read in, or do I find a way to block out all the other culture vultures?  I had already bailed out on another “popular” earlier in the week for the same reason. 

This time, however, I pulled out my iPod.  Instant bliss.  The crowds didn’t matter.  I was cocooned.  Suddenly, I really started enjoying the museum.  I bopped around.  I stopped trying to read labels.  If I saw a gallery that looked interesting, I popped in.  If the art didn’t speak to me or it was too crowded, I popped out.  Instead of feeling miserable because of the crowd, the iPod made me feel separate and untouchable.  I rocked out – all my senses engaged and focused.    

The next afternoon, I chose another museum.  What a different experience!  The place had few visitors.  Getting my ticket wasn’t a rushed transaction; it was my first connection to the museum.  I walked away smiling, excited to see what this place was about.  The first gallery I entered was deserted.  I moved at my own pace.  I read labels slowly – moving back and forth between the object and the description.  I didn’t try to gulp the information, like I did at the other museum.  If something caught my attention, I had the luxury of looking until I was satisfied.  I didn’t feel rushed or pretentious.  I even felt comfortable enough to commit a major museum faux pas:  I saw an object I thought my roommate should know about, and because no one was around I called to tell her.  I could have texted quietly, but I wanted to hear her reaction.  I left a couple hours later at closing time – rested, excited, and delighted.  I’m still not sure if I like their collection, but I’m looking forward to going back and exploring some more.  I feel like I discovered an underappreciated jewel.  And my iPod?  It stayed in my bag . . . . totally unneeded.

Despite ending up having a great time at the “popular” museum, it would take a really outstanding exhibit to get me back through those doors.  For me, the museum’s success is also its downfall.  It’s too popular.  It didn’t feel like a special, magical place.  It felt like a consumed, tourist attraction.  In contrast, the other museum provided me with the respite and inspiration I craved.

So can a museum be too popular?  Maybe.  When the number of visitors ultimately detracts from the visitor experience, that is a problem.  Yet museums are here to serve the public good, and that means, at least in part, serving as much of the public as possible.  How do museums resolve that tension?  In Susie’s next blog post we will look at the idea of respite and retreat in museums in more detail, so stay tuned!

- Alison Buchbinder

Comments

[Nina Simon]

When I worked at the Spy Museum (a VERY popular and packed place), the then COO would often comment that visitors had two major complaints: 1. I can't get a ticket, and 2. it's too crowded. His feeling was that as long as both of those opinions were represented he was doing his job--maintaining the right balance between great visitor experience in the galleries with avoidance of turning people away at the door. When the line is packed, you have some time to mentally prepare for a packed experience, too.

For me, it depends on my comfort level with a type of museum. With a type that I love (small, interactive, weird), I want the room to roam in my own way. But in big museums, especially art museums, I feel somewhat unconfident and prefer to hide in the crowd. It's like going to a movie on opening night--there's social excitement in the experience. In emptyish ones I feel more pressure to have a reverent experience--to do the museum "properly". Crowds confirm that I've made a good recreation decision and give me a variety of models for engagement.

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Hi Nina - Thanks for your comment - your thoughts on art museums and confidence are fascinating. While I feel confident in art museums, I can see how others may not feel the same (and there are many other venues I do not feel confident in . . . like a football game!).

Your reaction to empty art museum galleries is a lot like my reaction to less-than-crowded art and craft fairs. I like going to art and craft fairs, but I want a comfortable crowd there with me. Otherwise, I feel bad for walking past a booth, and an artist, that creates stuff that frankly I just do not care for. Or I feel bad for stopping and looking, but not buying. I feel pressure to act a certain way, or interact with the artist when I may not want to. Whereas a crowd does give me the freedom to graze quietly, without attention.

The inherent challenge is in the balancing act for more popular museums. What is preferred? Serving more people at an ok level, or fewer people really, really well?

[History Day Guy]

I think that Cell Phone Tours and i-pods are a good way to escape the crowds. It is wonderful to have a gallery to yourself but I would give anything to see the rooms in our museum bustling with life. Even if that life belonged to plumbers, hair dressers, and bus drivers, and not 6k donors, academics and Museum Studies grads.
I think being a savvy museum goer or an insider gives us the chance to discern when the best times to visit for optimal me time with the art and the rest of the time let's celebrate that culture is being embraced by the masses!

[Laura Roberts]

In the immortal words of Yogi Berra - "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded." There are times that I just won't visit a popular museum but I agree with Nina, you also want confirmation that you've made a good decision and a comfortable number of people communicate that. I've noticed that when students write about museums that are deserted, they read that as deservedly unpopular.

But there are things we can do to make the experience of a crowded museum more pleasant. Staff (including guards) trained to suggest galleries that are less popular. Shorter segments on the audio tour so folks move along more quickly. Smarter hanging, better lighting and larger print on the labels so more people can enjoy a work of art at the same time. Frequent, attractive places to sit so people move away from the art while they are chatting.

I also suggest popular museums think about using pricing to manage demand... drop the price when the museum is empty and see if more cost-conscious visitors shift over!