Given the current popularity of the immersive exhibitions, museums are tempted to introduce immersive environments into their exhibition rooms. But, because of the high production costs of these environments, they hesitate and want to ensure their effectiveness.
We started to test this effectiveness by focusing on two major effects of the physical immersion: 1) the enrichment of the visitor's experience, revealed by the increase in the number of works treated; 2) the intensification of the experience, revealed by the increase in the number of times a psychological immersion is experienced in front of an object.
The results show that physical immersion has neither of the above positive effects.
This finding led us to return to the abundant information gathered from visitors, and this time to attempt to answer the following two general questions:
1. Why physical immersion did not have the expected positive effects?
2. Did physical immersion have any positive effects? If so, which ones?
Gathering information from visitors
Context
Three rooms in a Canadian fine arts museum presenting respectively 31, 30 and 29 European works (paintings and sculptures) from the same period, 1850 - 1900. All rooms are hung in a "white cube" style, except for one where the works and visitors are immersed in a summer's night. This context is produced by an installation projected onto the ceiling and upper walls of the room.
Sample
Thirty adults of both sexes, aged 25 to 64, with at least a bachelor's degree or equivalent, and visiting museums less than five times a year.
Information gathering methods
The following three methods were used:
1. Obtaining the meaning making production of each visitor while she/he is strolling the three rooms through the Thinking Aloud Technique;
2. Once the tour is over, with the researcher on her/his side, the visitor returns to each of the three rooms. He then identifies and comments on the works of art in front of which she/he has been psychologically immersed;
3. Finally, the visitor answers a series of questions about her/his own experience of psychological immersion and its benefits.
The proposed paper uses the information generated by the methods previously described to answer the two general questions presented above.
Museums have been important sites for civic education since the late 18th century, when the Louvre was transformed from a royal palace of the kings to a public museum for the people (Bennet, 1995; Duncan, 1991). Museums’ early attempts at civic education were mostly manipulative for the interest of the ruling and elite classes, functioning as political propaganda for nation-state image building (Duncan, 1991), the promotion of ideal citizenship models, the regulation of lower-class citizens, and the making of disciplined and engaged citizens (Bennet, 1995). It was not until the end of the 20th century that museum scholars began to call out the hidden agenda of “what is a good citizen/culture” embedded in museums, and called for critical examination and application in museums (Gurian, 1991; Duncan, 1991). Since then, museum practitioners and scholars have been making attempts of civic education especially for culturally disadvantaged people.
Located in Manhattan Chinatown, New York City, the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) is an example of such civic education attempts. Started as a community-based organization in 1980, MOCA has been dedicated to saving and collecting disappearing Chinatown artifacts and life stories of Chinatown’s past and current residents. Since 2009, MOCA has expanded its audience and narratives beyond the Chinatown community to include all Chinese in America and people from all kinds of immigrant backgrounds. In terms of purpose and goal, MOCA envisions “visitors re-entering the world as moral advocates, active historians, and community stewards” (MOCA website, retrieved on 01-25-2024).
Taking the form of a case study of MOCA, this study used two data collection methods: 1) documents of exhibitions, collection, and education; 2) interviews with educators, curators, and collection staff. The study conducted triangulation of multiple sources of data to increase construct validity.
Framed by Cultural Citizenship Education (Kuttner, 2015) and Constructivist Museum Learning (Hein, 1998), the study revealed five civic education strategies in MOCA’s exhibitions. These include constructing counter-narratives to mainstream American history, expanding the definition of civic agency to include informal civic engagement, providing cultural entry points into civic learning, homemaking for the civic expression of Chinatown and Asian American communities, and finally, emphasizing MOCA staff’s personal civic agency.
Art with You (AWY) is developed in partnership with Dementia Singapore as a pilot study to design, trial and evaluate an arts engagement programme for caregivers and their loved ones living with dementia.
By creating a dementia-friendly programme that is evidence-based, we aim to support families with persons living with dementia and contribute to local research on the efficacy of arts interventions on their overall health and well-being.
This presentation shares the findings of the impact of the AWY Programme, which has shown positive outcomes on participating persons living with dementia, family carers, and volunteers.
Outcomes of the study include:
- Highly positive mood and engagement observed in persons living with dementia, as they had many opportunities to (a) engage in discussions about the artworks and when they were making their craft products, (b) creatively express themselves (c ) chat with their carers and museum volunteers.
- Positive gains in caregiving experience after participation in the programme, where the shared positive experience increased family carers’ patience and understanding towards their loved ones and built stronger bonds between the pair. The programme served as a temporary respite for some carers.
- Shifted societal attitudes and perceptions towards dementia amongst volunteers after participation in the programme. Particularly, they grew more comfortable interacting and working with persons living with dementia, and felt fulfilled having participated in
meaningful activities, alongside families impacted by dementia.
For more information about Art with You, please visit: https://www.nationalgallery.sg/art-with-you
To review the research report, please visit: https://www.nationalgallery.sg/sites/default/files/Art%20with%20You%20Final%20Report.pdf
The object label is often the first source of information given to the public by the museums. Over the years, they have adopted a traditional format with the information given as well as the format of the text. Regularly criticize both by museum professional and visitors, they are nonetheless an important part in interpreting the object. The object label can convey different meaning, depending on the context and can add a layer of alternative interpretation to the object. This is particularly important when the label act as the introduction to an unfamiliar artefact, one that might not be familiar to the visitor, or to an artefact that comes from a different culture. Therefore, can the label serve to introduce and encourage new understandings for the visitor?
To answer this questions, we will analyse the content of label accompanying an object from the First Nations, exhibited in 5 different museums in Quebec, each with different orientation. We will look at the information provided by the museum to help accompany the interpretation by the visitors. We aim to reflect on these questions : (1) Does the label guide the visitors toward an alternative interpretation, or does it stop any comprehension of what is in front of the visitor? (2) Does the type of museums influence the content of the label? (3) How can we make the label more accessible to alternative interpretation?
Jacobi, Daniel. Les musées sont-ils condamnés à séduire? et autres écrits muséologiques. Collection Les essais médiatiques. Paris: MkF éditions, 2017.
Dupont, L. « L’Objet matériel, moyen de communication en muséologie. ». Rabaska, 4; 2006, 15–37.
Grassin, Anne-Sophie. « Le « jonglage » des visiteurs entre œuvres et cartels : de l’étude d’un comportement à l’application d’un principe muséographique. », Les Cahiers de l’École du Louvre [En ligne], 20; 2023,
Reitstätter, L., Galter, K., & Bakondi, F. « Looking to Read: How Visitors Use Exhibit Labels in the Art Museum ». Visitor Studies, 25(2), 2022, 127–150.
Dudley, Sandra H. ed. Museum materialities: objects, engagements, interpretations, London ; New York: Routledge, 2010.
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