Museum Audience Insight

Museum 2.0: From blogging to hands-on-the-wheel

We at Reach Advisors have always been fans of Nina Simon and her visionary and creative ideas for participatory experiences in museums.  Therefore, we are rather excited about watching how concepts raised in her Museum 2.0 blog will unfold as she changes gears and dons (many) new hats as the Executive Director of the Museum of Art & History at the McPherson Center in Santa Cruz, California.   Now she's on a new stage, and it's going to be worth watching the show unfold. 

For those who haven't been following the Museum 2.0 blog, here are some of our favorite posts, in which she puts her finger on the pulse of trends that museums can benefit from:

• Kickstarter: Funding Creativity in a New (Old) Way  - Note:  It's worth watching Kickstarter projects.  It's a game changer for bringing small innovations to life.  Or perhaps more accurately, Kickstarter has become an effective vehicle reflecting the changes in how new audiences are engaging with creativity.
• Take a Side Trip to the Denver Art Museum - Note:  We just love how this museum pushes the limits in engaging and expanding their audience.
• Hackerspaces: DIY Science Centers for Adults - Note:  We love talking about DIY/hackerspaces, and their potential for museums.  Just note that the hackerspace concept isn't just about science, or just about adults.  They are siphoning off museum audiences of all ages, but some museums may be in a unique position to do something meaningful with this concept.
• Scratch: An Educational Online Multi-Generational Community that Works - Note:  For museums interested in a granular post about the intentional design of a powerful online community, Scratch (from the MIT Media Lab) is a ridiculously sticky online tool and community that creates deep engagement among tens of thousands of children across the globe.

We are looking forward to continuing to follow Nina’s work on Museum 2.0, seeing how her thinking evolves as a practitioner in the field, and watching how the Museum of Art & History engages the Santa Cruz community and helps museums everywhere rethink the relationship between the institution and the communities they serve.  Best wishes, Nina! 

 

 

 

Library Cards Are Empowering. Museum Membership Cards Could Be Too.

Think back to that day when you got your first library card.  Do you remember it?  Were you about five or six?  Did you feel really important that day?  Almost like an adult?

In our recent study of library users, we found that there were a lot of different things that adult respondents remembered from their childhood library experiences.  But some of the most vivid memories revolved around receiving their first library card. 

Why?  Because the library card is empowering.  It opens the door to different worlds, to far-flung lands and distant planets, to tales of heartbreak and joy.  It also conveys responsibility and maturity, and makes a young library user feel important and like an adult (just like mom and dad!).  As one respondent shared with us:

“. . . the kindly Librarian  . . .  asked me to sign my name on a form--a first--and she handed me the card, shook my hand, and welcomed me to the community of the world's readers . . .  That card meant more to me than anything except maybe my bicycle and dog.”

Libraries do a pretty good job of making that first library card a special moment.  Which has us thinking.  What about museums?

A museum membership card is also empowering.  It also opens the door to different worlds, to exploration, and to adventure.  It also is a very adult thing to have in one’s wallet.  But, generally, museums don’t give membership cards to children.

Which begs the question, why not?  Imagine how important a child would feel, receiving that museum membership card.  How adult they would feel, presenting it for entry (along with mom or dad, of course!).  Picture them storing it someplace important, and fingering it from time to time.  Consider the meaning that card would have for them, and how it makes them feel about museums in general, and your museum in particular.  Look ahead 25 – 30 years in the future, and how museums might figure in their lives as adults.  

There are a few museums that do give membership cards to children.  It is easy to see how proud James’s children were a few years ago upon receiving their membership cards to the American Museum of Natural History (pictured).  We’d just love to see more of these excited, and important, children at museums across the country.

(Oh – and there is a pragmatic benefit to giving membership cards to children.  It is an easy way to find out the ages and genders of children in your member households, allowing you to target your programming even better.)

But here is another idea.  Why limit membership cards to children of members?  Why not start a program where any local child can become a museum member?  For free.  You don't have to mail them anything, you don't have to even record them in a database, and the card would only allow them into the museum for free, not their parents.  It might be a cost-effective way to encourage more visits, generate goodwill, and create a special, and impactful, memory for a child.

Does your museum give membership cards to children?  Why or why not?  To share your thoughts, simply click on “comments” below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)

Books: The Ultimate Sticky Object?

Dinosaurs are sticky.  So are dioramas.  And suits of armor, dollhouses, and majestic architecture. 

We know these are sticky, as in memorable, from the considerable research we conducted last year on what adult museum-goers remember from their childhood museum experiences. 

But what about libraries?  Are there similar patterns?

When we conducted our study of libraries last year, we asked respondents to think back to their childhood library experiences, and tell us what they remember.  Interestingly, there were some similar patterns.

What do people remember? 

Overwhelmingly, books.  Looking at books.  Reading books.  Favorite books. 

“I never felt so wonderfully excited as a child when visiting my hometown library The walls and stacks of books full of secrets, adventures and stories of children who went to magical places, heartwarming family stories and imaginary friends all tucked between the shelves. I loved to talk to the librarians about new books and offer my opinion on them.”

And if they were not remembering books, they were remembering actually checking out books.

“I was utterly amazed that I was allowed to take 6 children's books home with me. What was even more astounding was that after I read them, I could turn them in for 6 more. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. ”

The activities and programs that took place in the children’s room were also memorable, as were the tangible rewards of reading programs:

“I remember the summer reading clubs. Every summer would have a new theme, a colored sheet of paper with, say, a haunted house background, and then every week I'd give a short report on what I read and get stickers. There were some prizes/event at the end, which I can't remember, but, man, I loved the theme sheets and stickers.”

Just like in our museum work, the scale of a library could be extremely memorable.  People talked about grand buildings, miles of books, and the stories hidden away within those books.

“It smelled wonderful. Like old books and wood. There were large glass windows and high, high ceilings. The books went on forever!”

Of course, librarians were memorable as well.  While most librarians were remembered fondly,

“Very supportive children's librarian, who would ask me ‘Where are you going this week?’ I was going places in my mind and imagination. And the librarian knew it!”

some were not,

“I hated it! It was very scary place and librarians were very mean. I always felt like I was bothering them if I had a question.”

There was one other area that was hugely memorable – that first library card.  We’ll explore that more in our next post.

So what did we learn about library memories, and how do these memories help us think about museum experiences?  Overall, the memories were similar. 

• While library memories are overwhelmingly about books, museum memories are about the fantastic objects that museums care for.  Collections, whether books or rocks, are memorable.
• Grand architecture and immense scale are common themes, and do not appear to be at all forbidding to young children, but instead delight and intrigue.
• Small, tangible mementos, such as stickers and ribbons, are retained or remembered from libraries, and small items given to children visiting museums (such as that length of silk thread, given to me at an exhibition on China, that I have held onto for 25 years) are also treasured.
• The kindness of a librarian, or a museum employee, can be a wonderful thing. 

These similar themes reinforce how important these “sticky” experiences are for children, and while not every museum is going to be able to hit all four memory hot buttons, it is worth considering how your museum is maximizing your sticky opportunities to ensure that young children today grow up with positive museum experiences to remember over the decades to come.

So what do you think?  What are your earliest library memories?  To share your thoughts, simply click on “comments” below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)