Photo by Gene Pittman

Why do we go to museums?

I ask this question of myself and of the general public, and to anyone who has ever gone to a museum. In particular, I am interested in why people attend art museums. What compels us? What do we hope to see? Do we aim to learn while we are there?  What is a good museum experience?

I am an artist, active supporter of the Twin Cities art community and part of the educational staff at the Walker Art Center.  I know why I attend museums as an interested artist and advocate for the arts, but I ask the question again as someone within the museum. Why do people come through our doors? For the art? For the programs? Why do they come back?

Between my assorted projects at the Walker Art Center, I have been conducting research with the aim of not only bolstering group visits, but also planning for content-driven visitor experiences. In other words, I have been interested in how we get the word out about our offerings and how we fashion these offerings so that the visitor’s experience is successful. As it turns out, this is an up-and-coming area of research, one that expands traditional marketing and audience development strategies by incorporating aspects of psychology. As wild as that sounds, it seems appropriate to dig into the cognition that occurs when people make decisions rather than putting effort into appeals, persuasions, or coercions. To get people in the doors, let’s to stop telling them why they should come and start asking them why they do.

I’d like to share the position of Dr. John H. Falk, author and leading researcher on museum visitor studies, who recently appeared as a guest speaker for the webinar ‘Identity and the Museum Experience,’ hosted by experienceology.com. Falk researches the factors that compel visitors to attend museums. He posits the notion that museum-going is a leisure experience; it’s something we choose to do outside of work and an activity that we take part in outside our domestic essentials. Calling museum-going a leisure activity, Falk seeks to define what brings people to museums over other leisure activities, or if not over, what need does museum-going fulfill.  Knowing this ‘need,’ perhaps museum professionals could tailor museum experiences to create more successful visitor experiences — guided by an understanding of what expectations we are to meet.

How would this perceptual study take place? What sort of data would support this research? Traditional strategies analyze an existing audience by identifying ‘types of visitors’ using attributes such as age, income, region, family/individual, frequent/infrequent, etc.  This sort of fixed data is often collected for audience break-downs, assessing diversity goals, or to inform marketing efforts. However, it  does not point to predictable factors that might reveal the reasons people visit and why they might come back. Falk is more interested in the ephemeral data, as in What motivates people to come to museums? What are people’s relationships to museums? “What brought you here this day, this time,” or “why and how do people like to spend their leisure time and money?”

‘Who you are’ and ‘why you do what you do’ Falk acknowledges are both a part of your identity and he systematizes these into ‘big’ and ‘little’ identity attributes. ‘Big’ traits tend to be stable, such as your ethnicity and income, and while this info may be helpful, it doesn’t necessarily predict why you go places, or why you may have enjoyed your experience. Falk calls your interests your ‘little’ identity traits, i.e. you like to snowboard or enjoy jazz music. These ‘little’ identities, Falk believes, determine why people go to museums and therefore it’s these ‘motivating identities’ that seem most pertinent to study.

To collect information Falk initiated cued and un-cued visitor surveys to collect qualitative data. Abandoning the traditional approach which sorts visitors into types (age, income, region, etc.), Falk examined the data for patterns and discerned five new categories that correspond to visitors’ ‘little’ or ‘motivating’ identities.   While visitors’ reasons for coming were not the same every time, they tended to exhibit a dominant motivation.

The following lists each motivational identity and characterization as a visitor:

Explorers—Explorers come because attending museums interests them and appeals to their curiosity. If you asked them if they like art they would say ‘yes;’ if you asked them if they came for something in particular, they would probably say ‘no,’ they ‘just like art and know what they like when they see it.’ They do not have concrete learning goals, like ‘I’m going to go to the MIA to learn everything I can about Expressionism,’ but they like to know new things. [I imagine this to be the type to read didactics and labels, but might not know names and contextual references.] This type could really be anyone. Exlporers’ goal is to satisfy a curiosity. They may or may not know how to use the space.

Facilitator—Facilitators come because of someone else. They are perhaps bringing a friend or a group of people—possibly youth or students—because they think that the visit would benefit the other party or parties, not because of a personal need. Their personal need is to make a good experience for others.

Experience Seeker—An experience seeker is a person who is checking off a list of things to do, whether personal or as a tourist. They want to see the thing that is iconic of that place, they want to do ‘what you’re supposed to do in that city or area.’  They may need to see the museum’s highlights to feel satisfied.

Professional/Hobbiest—This category includes teachers, educators, museum professionals, artists, and people in related fields.  Their goals may range by their particular role as a professional or hobbiest; a photographer may attend with the goal in mind to take pictures or to learn about photography through exhibits.  An art educator may be interested in the art as in their field of interest, or they may be planning a lesson, etc.

Rechargers—Rechargers find the museum a place to ‘get away from it all,’ to decompress, and their visit is almost a spiritual one. They tend to avoid crowds or sensations and are fairly self-sufficient. A successful visit for them will leave them with the feeling that they have gotten away.

Falk continues, noting that our identities are expressed and satisfied though these activities and therefore we can infer that visitors come to museums motivated by reasons to satisfy this aspect of their identity. The studies that he composed were not IF-THEN (if I like ‘X’, then I go to museums for these reasons). Instead Falk investigates the  intrinsic potential in a person’s interests, how they compel a person to spend time in certain ways to satisfy aspects of their identity. If an institution is aware of this then they can play a better role supporting these needs and interests. By inferring why the visitor is there, a museum professional can better support the visitor experience and satisfy that person.

I would hope that opening institutions to the discussion of ‘what motivates visitors’ may help attract new audiences by creating experiences that fulfill visitor needs and marketing with these motivations in mind.  These practices would encourage return visits and facilitate a stronger relationship between visitors and the museum. By finding out why visitors are coming in we can better predict how they will continue to use institutions for their needs and how they can have positive experiences in that space.

I’m not accepting Falk’s findings as the definitive word in understanding why visitors spend their leisure time in museums, but I do feel that it is a fresh stance which reverses older practices that surmised ‘why you should come’ as opposed to ‘why you do come.’  Falk’s motivational categories feel very relevant and I found myself thinking about why I do what I do in my leisure time.  When I attend an art opening I am a Professional/Hobbiest; when I browse at a thrift store that’s my time to recharge; when I saw comedian Gallagher play with Metallagher last month I was an Experience Seeker—had to see what that was all about!

How do these categories resonate with you as museum-goers? Do they feel accurate or off-base? Do you see yourself fitting into one or more categories when you go to the art museum? What about in your other activities?

I’d love to hear from you—not only your response to Falk’s ideas on identity motivation, but more importantly: Why do you go to the museum?

Contributor Bio:

Jehra Patrick works as Program Assistant to Tour Programs at the Walker Art Center where she develops and implements strategies to increase sales of group tour programs and oversees the volunteer Information Guide program, which enhances visitor experiences through creating a customized, welcoming environment.

In addition to her role with Tour Programs, Jehra also works as Program Assistant to the McKnight Fellowship for Photographers and is an active studio artist.

Links to:

Dr. John H. Falk CV http://oregonstate.edu/dept/sci_mth_education/people/faculty/john.php

Books by Dr. John H. Falk http://www.amazon.com/John-H.-Falk/e/B001IOBG5U

Experienceology.com http://www.experienceology.com/

Learn.walkerart.org http://learn.walkerart.org/tour.wac

Mnartists.org http://www.mnartists.org/

Mnartists.org/McKnight Fellowship for Photographers http://www.mcknightphoto.org/

The holidays are over! Sorry about that everyone. I hope we all enjoyed the frenzy of shopping, cooking, eating cookies, fudge, ham, and other coma inducing foods while sitting around watching pro-football. And then there’s the presents. They’re either really great or massively dissapointing!

If you’re like me, you just want to get it over with. You suffer through January, cross off the days on the calendar in February, and then as March slogs along, little signs of spring appear. It may be something small. Like finally being able to see litter under the mountains of snow and ice. But still, a hopeful sign. We here at the Walker aim to make Minnesota winters educational, fun, and a great indoor experience! Nothing says that like our newest/oldest public program called The Inquisition. It was a game created in 1940 by then director Daniel Defenbacher and it’s goal was to challenge experts knowledge of modern and contemporary with the big questions (Who cut off his ear?)

We’re bringing it back for the tough, cold Minnesota winter months and we want you to join us and contribute a question! Click on the fabulous video above for all the information, or submit your question for our experts by clicking on this little link right here walkerart.org/inquisition. If you’re question is chosen, you are guaranteed a ticket to the January 7th Inquisition. If not, you should come anyway. Prizes will be given out, tough questions answered, and egos bruised!

Hope to see you there!

From the moment I stepped into the Father/Son Art Show (June 18-July 23) at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, the concept of the show (and the innovative pieces in it) intrigued me.  The basic premise of the exhibit is that four professional artists/dads (Irve Dell, Michael Kareken, David Lefkowitz, and John Schuerman) would display their work alongside that of their sons, ages 5-9.  The result is a great tribute to the artistic efforts of these fathers and sons, but also highlights the work of young artists in a way that I’ve never experienced before.

According to the Star Tribune article on the exhibit, the intent of the show was not to elevate the children’s work to that of ‘professional’, but rather to “celebrate the relationship between creative dads and their kids.”   While I know the aim was not to force the children’s art to seem ‘professional’, the part that fascinated me most was that oftentimes the artwork seemed just that. Had I not known the ages of the young artists, there were some pieces I likely would’ve thought was an adult artist trying to capture raw, un-tapped emotion in his/her work. I think most people appreciate the unique beauty of children’s art, but viewing it on a refrigerator leaves a much different impression than when hung on a gallery wall.   In a very healthy way, this exhibit forced me to reflect upon my own prejudices and assumptions about ‘good’ art and ’skilled’ artists and admit that the work created by the hand of a child is able to impact me just as much as the work of a world-famous masterpiece.

As talented as the artist fathers are, one thing that training and technique try in vain to match is the expression of a child. Oftentimes the uninhibited creative nature of children’s artwork is underappreciated and overlooked.  It seems so ironic that adult artists spend years of their life chasing after the level of expression that came out so naturally when they were younger.

Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying, “Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”  To that, I say, “Paint on!”  Creative ability lies within each of us.  It’s possible one’s greatest sense of artistic growth may come from looking backward rather than forward.

Father/Son Art Show, courtesy Minnetonka Center for the Arts

Father/Son Art Show, courtesy Minnetonka Center for the Arts

Father/Son Art Show, courtesy Minnetonka Center for the Arts

Hyperbolic models crocheted by Heather McCarren, Anitra Mehring, Christine Wertheim, and Margaret Wertheim

The interview was conducted by Margaret Wertheim, who along with her sister Christine Wertheim, make up The Institute For Figuring, an LA-based educational organization that conducts projects, makes publications and curates exhibitions aimed at illuminating the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of math and science. Soon after the 1997 crafty breakthrough, the IFF teamed up with Dr. Taimina to further explore and elaborate on her methods of crocheting hyperbolic space, while sustaining a feminist conversation about craft, gender, and labor. Through public workshops around the world, the IFF and many curious crocheters have continued to hook together these symbolic forms, including the ones found in The Quick and the Dead.

If you have further questions on the subject of non-Eucilidean space, the physics of snowflakes or any other wonder of figuring, the IFF will be here on Thursday, July 30 to answer them. For their engagement at the Walker, Margaret and Christine will lead a workshop on how to crochet hyperbolic forms that is open to all skill levels. Yarn and hooks will be provided, although participants are welcome and encouraged to bring their own. The lesson takes place from 5 to 6:30 pm in the Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab. After the workshop, everyone is welcome to continue working on their crocheted objects at the IFF’s lecture, at 7 pm in the Walker Cinema, where they’ll discuss their various projects, including their ongoing effort to draw attention to the plight of the world’s coral reefs through crochet.

Crocheted Coral Reef

Stephen Kaltenbach uses a delightfully familiar symbol of a culture’s time passing in his piece Time Capsule (OPEN AFTER MY DEATH) from 1970. The directive of the work found in the title addresses another monumental subject tackled by this exhibition: our own inescapable ends.

These two fundamental notions–the nature of time and the inevitability of death–are key forces in the life and career of Dr. Ronald Mallett, a theoretical physicist who will speak at the Walker in July in conjunction with the exhibition.

Dr. Ronald Mallett

When he was just ten years old, Mallett’s beloved father died of a heart attack. A year later he stumbled upon a comic book based on H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, the famous science fiction tale of time travel originally published in 1895. Inspired by the seemingly magical ability to travel backwards in history, Mallett formed a secret plan that he hoped would one day allow him to reunite with his father. Decades later, as a tenured professor in the physics department at the University of Connecticut, he has developed his childhood dream into a working theory of time travel.

Using Einstein’s theory of relativity which states that energy equals mass, Mallett’s machine uses circulating lasers to create loops or warps in time.* It’s a bit much to explain here (especially for a museum educator with a high-school physics education such as myself; this article does a better job), but luckily you can get it straight from the source.

On Thursday, July 9 Dr. Mallet will take the stage to give a lecture on his theories, including a basic introduction to scientific thinking on time-space. He’ll also read from his memoir, Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality and will be available to sign books.

Join us for an evening steeped in the mysteries of the universe via science and art. Gallery admission is free on Thursday nights from 5 to 9 pm–come early to discover the shapes of time found in The Quick and the Dead.

*It would be disingenuous to end this post without mentioning that Mallet’s time travel experiments are currently limited to sub-atomic particles, although he believes that with enough funding and research, human time travel can happen in this century. Now if someone can just figure out a sure-fire method for human cryopreservation we’ll all be back to the future!

Arty Pants activity

I took both O and J to Arty Pants today — technically, J. is a bit young and O. is a bit old, but they both had a great time. There were two activities — one was a “magic” watercolor painting (you draw with “invisible” white crayon, then paint over it to make your drawing magically appear –see O.’s painting of the “textures of the world,” above). For the other, kids used felt shapes to make versions of minimal sculptures.

Oskar was very hesitant to play with the felt at first — but Christina, the WAC staffer who worked with him in the gallery, had really good ideas for getting him started experimenting. Here’s what she did:

- First, she had O. use the felt shapes to make an arrangement that was just like the Judd sculpture (6 dark blue boxes, six dark blue pieces of felt).They got up, and counted the sections of the sculpture together.

- Now that he had that down, and had made something just like the sculpture, she started giving him random pieces, “Here! Add this in!” By this time, he was warmed up, and the variation made for a good twist.

- My favorite thing she did: they scooped up all the felt compositions, and she said, “Okay, I am going to close my eyes and count to 25 — make something!” This was great: no time to worry about what to make, or whether it was perfect — just make something, and quick! Then they looked at it together (he made a tower), and they added windows and a door, and a few things just to finish it a bit more.

The Norae Shanty is based on Korean karaoke rooms called “ Norae bangs” (song rooms). The Norae bang (pronounced “ nō–rāy–bŏng”) is essentially a scaled down version of a karaoke bar, a small room with karaoke equipment and comfortable seating that groups of people rent by the hour. These bangs provide participants with simultaneous visual, audible, and emotional experiences. Yet unlike the sometimes competitive and embarrassing nature of the karaoke bar experience, the norae bang provides up to a dozen participants a cheerful and supportive environment for a more comfortable exchange. Ice fishing and ice house culture is similar to the bang phenomenon in Asian urban centers. Bangs, like ice houses, serve as a retreat, a small and isolated space for groups to participate in a shared activity away from the stress of everyday life. The Norae Shanty was developed to provide new and intersecting populations with the opportunity for soulful exchange.

To preview a list of tunes you can sing and to learn even more about his Norae Shanty check out Mike’s website.

First Amendment Arts is proud to present “ Dessert,” the collaborative art of 6-year-old CohenMorano. Much like the title of the show, the art has no grand illusions to be anything but a sweet feast, but for the eyes rather than the taste buds. When asked about why he named the show as such, he simply replied, “ Dessert is really good.”

From the age of two (with a little help from dad, Gangsta Rap Coloring Book artist Aye Jay), Cohen’s watercolor paintings have traveled the globe to a “ Who’s who” of modern art, spanning graffitists, fine artists, printmakers, tattoo artists, as well as clothing and toy designers. Once in the artists’ possession, they have carte blanche to do whatever they wish to one of Cohen’s watercolors before shipping it back to eager little hands.

What has come back has been nothing short of stunning, from Barry McGee’s intricate pen work, Shepard Fairey’s iconic stencils, Chris Ware’s animals on parade, to Mark Ryden’s interpretive use of negative space. With the number of pieces now well over one hundred, artist Jack Davis (of Mad magazine fame) called Cohen “ another Ralph Steadman.” Other artists involved in the show include Juxtapoz regulars Bigfoot, Kaws, and Gary Taxali, Ego Trip’s Brent Rollins, rappers Rammelzee and Z-Man, gig poster giants Art Chantry and Frank Kozik, and Burlesque’s own Aaron Horkey, Todd Bratrud, and Mike Davis. While these collaborative pieces will not be for sale, this is a very rare opportunity for Twin Cities art enthusiasts to come see work from all of these artists in the same place at the same time.

When not painting or drawing, Cohen is your average 6 year old. He loves going to kindergarten, watching cartoons, eating mac and cheese, and everything Star Wars. This last October, Cohen was asked to design a skateboard for Foundation’s limited edition “ F Art” deck series, and his work has been featured in recurring blog entries on the respected art website http://fecalface.com

The show will run from June 16th through July 17th, 2007.

We will have an opening reception on June 16th, 6-10PM (note: no late night afterparty) with music from DJ Mike the 2600 King.

Both Cohen and Aye Jay Morano will be in attendance.

We will also be serving a giant array of desserts, so come hungry!

First Amendment is located at 1101 Stinson Blvd at the corner of Broadway and Stinson in NE Minneapolis.

(612) 379-4151

http://firstamendmentarts.com

Gallery hours:

Monday – Friday: 12 – 5PM

Weekends: by appointment

Some other links of interest:

http://www.mumblemagazine.com/407lilcohenmorano.htm

http://www.foskco.com/fartdeckprogram

Sankai Juki, aParis based Butoh company will performas part of the Walker’s dance season, Friday, November 3, 8 pm at Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus. Image: Joel Saget/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

Writing for the New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, asks if “Is Butoh’s Big Season Good for Butoh?” As I eagerly await the Minneapolis appearance of the Paris based company Sankai Juku at the Northrop on November 3rd,the article serves as a timely reminder of the breadth and diversity of this ineffable and visually stunning dance form.

Excerpt:

“People tend to think of Butoh in terms of aesthetic markers: white body paint, shaved heads, slow movement gained through intense muscular control, and a way of manipulating the body that is at once beautiful and grotesque, tragic and absurd. Influenced by German Expressionism, it tends to be imagistic rather than narrative. But while these elements often appear, defining Butoh in stylistic terms is dangerous. There is the beautiful, highly stylized theatricality of Sankai Juku, or the mad kineticism of Mr. Kasai, or the creaturely abstractions of Yumiko Yoshioka. Like contemporary American dance, Butoh is no one thing, but it always has, at its center, a fragile transformative spark. You can’t always describe it, but you know it when you see it, and you know when it’s missing.”

Susan Weil, Ziggurat, 1986

In other news, I recently did an interview with Susan Weil. At first, when I was asked to do the interview I had never heard of her work, but it turns out she was a friend and contemporary of Pollock and de Kooning and had a major influence on the work of Robert Rauschenberg, who she married back in the 50’s. When I discovered all this and saw her amazing contributions to abstract and figurative painting, I thought it was outrageous that her work has garnered so little attention after all these years.

The last straw was when her name didn’t appear on a Wikipedia search, so for the first time I was compelled to write my own Wikipedia article. You can also check out the interview above to hear Weil’s own thoughts on how women artists have been overlooked over the years. Best of all, she’s still doing incredible work today.