Engaging Museum Audiences – MW08

Engaging Museum Audiences

Shelley Bernstien

 

Target First Saturdays

Brooklyn Museum Visitor Video Competition

Hosted by You Tube

Rules posted:

 

• How to participate – the clearer the rules the better
• Filming Artwork
• Filming People
• Filming Performances
• Content

Lessons learned:

 

• Trust your audience
• Flickr – Visitors posted images of the collection from their visits to the museum
  • Shows how visitors see the collection
  • Allows personal expression

From the images submitted, several were selected and converted into a video promoting the museum from the perspective of the visitor.

 

Art Share

Application created for FaceBook

 

What can you do with ArtShare?

 

You can select works from the collection to display on your individual profile. But then, because social networking is about connecting and seeing what others contribute to the social fabric, anyone can also use ArtShare to upload their own work and share it with others. You can use ArtShare to select a wide variety of work, then each time your profile is loaded a different work will be displayed at random from your selections.

 

Institutions can join artshare and upload images that correspond with current exhibitions or upload spectacular images from the collection not in conjunction with a current exhibition.

 

Objectives Achieved:

 

• Community
• Openness
• Trust
• Value
• Giving

 Click – www.brooklynmuseum.org/click

 

Click! is a photography exhibition that invites visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process.

 

Steps:

 

1. It begins with an open call—artists are asked to electronically submit a work of photography that responds to a theme established by the museum.
2. An online forum opens for audience evaluation of all submissions; as in other juried exhibitions, all works will be anonymous. As part of the evaluation, each visitor answers a series of questions about his/her knowledge on the chosen topic.
3. The project culminates in an exhibition either at the Museum or online, where the artworks are shown according to their relative ranking from the juried process. Visitors will also be able to see how different groups within the crowd evaluated the same works of art. The results are then analyzed and discussed by staff on online communities, and crowd theory.

 Project is based on the theories of James Surowiecki in the book The Wisdom of Crowds.

 

How to get curators blogging

 

Getting curators involved in blogging is a difficult process, everyone is busy. One solution to this is to keep all of the content directed to one person who then posts it so that curators are not responsible for keeping up with the technology.

 

Recommendations: 

• Establish word counts
• Ask that they write in a personal voice
• Involve younger members of staff
• Work with a teen advisory group and interns

Ladders of Participation – Social Media and Museum Audiences

Lynda Kelly and Angelina Russo

 

Given the rise of social networking it has become imperative for museums to understand not only who uses the internet but also how and why they are using it. The following information provides examples of on-line participation and classifications.

 

Audience Research and Classification:

 

What are they doing online?

 

• Watch videos – 46%
• Social networking sites – 36%
• Forums – 39%
• Read customer reviews – 32%

Creators:

Creators typically use the Internet as a personal development tool. They are the finders of information which they then share with others. They spend the most time of the web and are passionate about it. They recognize that knowledge is power and feel that it is important to leave a record of their opinions, activities, etc.

 

Creator

• Two-dimensional relationship with net
• Passionate people
• Recognize knowledge – power
• Value the importance of being published and contributing to the whole

Commentators:

Commentators tend to have one track minds and are primarily interested in feeding that need for information on their chosen topic. They see the web as a place to give and take and openly acknowledge the gratification that the instant access to information that the web provides has given them. They tend to stay within a set of sites and are not interested in exploring beyond those bounds.

 

Commentators

• Two-dimensional relationship with internet – give and take
• A fuel for their personal passion
• Tend to collect a few websites centered around their passions

Joiners

Joiners utilize the internet for work, study, and general organization of their day to day lives, but their primary interest is in socializing. This is accomplished through sites like MySpace, Bebo, and FaceBook. They have a high level of trust in the net and are optimistic to a fault in regards to technology. Primary use of the internet is with social networking sites that allow them to keep in contact with family and friends.

 

Joiners

• Two-dimensional relationship with the net – quite shallow
• Motivation is for socializing – upload photos

Spectators:

Spectators have a very basic relationship with the Internet with their key interest being in efficiency. Banking, movie times, restaurant menus, etc. are about the extent of their online involvement. They have a distinctive lack of trust in the internet, specifically security.

Spectators

• One dimensional relationship with net
• Lack of trust and experience in working with applications on the net

Physical environment engages the senses and the virtual environment engages the mind…

 

Use of social media

• Flickr
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Survey Monkey
• Mail Chimp

Social networking sites serve as a venue for exploratory visitor feedback:

 

·        Post suggestions for exhibitions and get user feedback before investing resources in the creation of the exhibition either virtual or physical.

 

The result of the use of these social networking sites is evident in several different types of experiences:

 

·        Cognitive experiences: gaining knowledge

·        Introspective: imagining reflecting connecting

·        Social experience: sharing information and opinions

 

Social experience:

Social sites are an amazing gateway for research into museums as places to build extend strengthen the museums identity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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