Building Bridges

Toward a More Visitor-Centered Encyclopedic Art Museum

Full interactive interpretive label here.

Date:

Spring 2012

 

Location:

Theoretical

 

Responsibilities:

Researched

Wrote

Developed

Curated

Designed

 

Through Exhibition Phase:

Design Development

Description:

As we better understand how visitors learn and engage with collections, it is becoming clear that the museum must shift in response to new intellectual experience needs. Building Bridges: Toward a More Visitor-Centered Encyclopedic Art Museum proposes two additions to the art museum’s mode of operation. The first is the introduction of an Experience Developer to the project team, whose focus is on the needs of the visitor, the museum, and the community at large. The second is the application of a new visitor typology to the development and design of art museum interpretation. The IPO typology is based on research done by the Smithsonian, which suggests visitors intellectually engage with an object through several categories: Ideas, People, and Objects. Interpretation based on this typology will lead to more engaging and thus meaningful experiences for the art museum visitor. These concepts were applied to the creation of an in-gallery interactive interpretive label and a small exhibition created through visitor participation.