Museum Audience Insight

Childhood Museum Memories and Adult Visitation: does museum type matter?

Over the past several weeks we have been sharing our preliminary results from our recent research into childhood museum memories and how they might affect adult perceptions of museums.  We fielded an excellent question that essentially asked, “Are adults who responded to a history-based museum more likely to remember visiting a history-based museum as children than other museum respondents?” 

To find out, we decided we wanted to go back and re-code by genre.  That is, all respondents were asked to take our survey by some museum.  We had already pre-sorted results so that respondents could be segmented into four main genres:  those who responded to an art museum, history-based museum, children’s museum, or science center.  (To find out more about the initial survey scope, click here.  To find out more about our methodology on coding memories, click here.)

But there was a big problem with simply coding by museum type in this way.  The samples are not the same.  That is, respondents from art museums and history-based museums tend to be older, meaning memories from science centers and children’s museums might be under-represented.  We needed to keep the samples consistent, so we ONLY pulled the memories of moms in their 30s and 40s, and coded them.  This segment was also large enough to code across all four museum genres.

So what did we learn?  The short answer is yes.  There is a correlation.

• History-based museum moms were 1.4x to 2.7 x more likely to have a history-based museum memory than moms from the other genres
• Art museum moms were 1.7x to 2.3x more likely to remember an art museum
• Science center moms were 1.5x more likely to remember a science museum

Yet when it came to children’s museums it wasn’t true.  That is, moms from children’s museums were not any more likely to remember children’s museums.  (This doesn’t totally surprise us, however, as relatively few respondents remember children’s museums in the first place.  See our initial post on memories, and scroll down to “initial findings” to find out why.)  But children’s museum moms were actually the most likely to remember science center, being 1.3x more likely than science center moms (and over 2x more likely than history-based and art museum moms). 

So yes.  There appears to overall be a correlation between the type of museum remembered in an early childhood museum memory, and the type of museum an adult engages with enough to be on an e-mail list and respond to a survey for.  Which means that creating memorable museum experiences for children is important for museums of all types!

What do you think?  What do you remember from your childhood museum experiences?  To share, simply click on "comments" below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to http://reachadvisors.typepad.com to add a comment.)

From Fantastic to Crabby, Museum Employees Are Memorable

Staff matter.  Oh, they really do.   In our recent research into adult memories of early childhood museum visits, staff, or docents and volunteers (most people cannot distinguish between the two), come up a fair amount. 

The vast majority of memories involving staff are positive, and historic sites disproportionately show up.  Historic costumes are memorable, and the guided tours or costumed interpretation common at historic sites lend them to a greater number of memories. 

But not all memories that included staff were from historic sites, and not all memories were positive.  Some memories involved becoming separated from one’s family or group, and staff stepping in.  A few mentioned how a negative experience cast a pall over the entire experience.  And there were some that illustrate how an attentive staff member can make a museum experience truly unforgettable for a child.

• Trip to New York and the Met.  I remember the museum seem[ed] huge and I got lost, so many people so many rooms.  Staff member found me and brought me to the office and gave me a drink with cookies.  It was a great cookie and my parents came and got me.
• “[The staff member] ruined a perfectly wonderful day with my family … EVERY employee counts. Even the crabby old lady behind the counter in the gift shop makes an impact on a child.”
• “I found a bone in a field and was sure it was a dinosaur bone … [The staff] were so sweet in spending the time to talk with me even though, of course, it was a cow bone. I have become an avocational archaeologist … Museums definitely influence children!!!”

Every touch point between visitors and staff (volunteer or paid) is important, but for a child, it can be transformative and memorable for decades to come. 

What do you think?  What do you remember from your childhood museum experiences?  To share, simply click on "comments" below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to http://reachadvisors.typepad.com to add a comment.)

Photo Courtesy:  Erie Maritime Museum

Career Choices: how museums sometimes make a difference

Last week we explored how museums can be fascinating places that spark in young children a desire to learn more.  This week we are going to take that even further, to a smaller group for whom museum visits truly transformed them, and their life paths. 

These memories, out of the thousands of memories we collected from adults in our recent research into early childhood memories of museum visits, are not numerous, but they do illustrate the tremendous capacity for museums to have a powerful effect on children.  They tell us how visiting museums truly changed the life course for children, giving them an interest that drove them into successful career choices as adults.  And, happily, these individuals specifically linked their career choice with childhood museum experiences.

 

• “The museum was the public museum in my city. I was fascinated by the fetuses at various ages and by the dioramas of native animals. I subsequently became an obstetrician with a love of nature.”
• “ . . . I was so awed that I have never forgotten it! The underground coal mine [at the Museum of Science and Industry] must have pushed me over the edge because I became a Geologist! :D”
• “5th birthday, NYC's Museum of Natural History.  Blew me away and I became an archaeologist.”
• “We visited a historic house.  I became an architect.”
• “Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pa.  Participated in Saturday classes as a school child. Rode the streetcar (trolley) from a steel town to get there.  It stimulated my interest in science and nature and was a primary reason I went on to get a PhD in Engineering.”

Now it should be noted that the number of memories that made a specific link between childhood museum experiences and eventual career choices are not significant in number.  But they do illustrate how important museums can be to young children, transforming them in critical ways.  And that is something museums should be proud of and strive to have happen with youngsters today.

What do you think?  What do you remember from your childhood museum experiences?  To share, simply click on "comments" below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to http://reachadvisors.typepad.com to add a comment.)

Photo Courtesy:  Atlanta History Center's Swan House