WHAT VISITORS WANT TO KNOW: THE USE OF FRONT-END AND FORMATIVE EVALUATION IN DETERMINING LABEL CONTENT IN AN ART MUSEUM
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Authors
Mackinney, Lisa Hubbell
Issue Date
1993
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
1. Theses (Museum Studies) 2. Museum labels--Evaluation. 3. Art museums-- Visitors.
Alternative Title
Abstract
The field study for this thesis used input from adult and teen museum visitors to determine label content for an art exhibition. It included four components: 1) front-end interviews to determine visitors' desires for information about the art objects, 2) formative interviews to develop interpretive labels for those objects, 3) unobtrusive observation, and 4) exit questionnaires.
On the basis of data from the front-end interviews, an interpretive label was drafted for each object. These labels included identifying information, quotations from the artists, and other information that addressed visitors' questions and interests.
Label drafts were shown to visitors during the formative interviews. A cycle of interviews and revisions continued until responses indicated that the labels gave visitors enough information to answer their basic questions, and still left something to the imagination.
Observation before and after these labels were mounted showed significant increases in the time spent by visitors and in the percentage who read any labels. Questionnaires administered to a control group and an experimental group showed a significantly more positive response to the interpretive labels than to the identification labels and introductory panel.