Triangulation Strategies and Images of Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

BAKUAKA SORI-.N, IN (‘C)I.I.ABORATION WIY'H GAIL I,c)KL), JOHY Nrcrcs AND

HUGH SIYNCLK

Introduction

Customer feedback, determining client expectations, and evaluating how well expectations arc met have become critical issues for museums to understand.’ Visitors have expectations for their experiences in a museum setting. Prior to their visit, people consider specific activities they plan to do on their own, with family or friends, and have images and expectations for the type of milieu in which they anticipate browsing during the few hours they have to spend. These expectations are often based on past experiences in the setting, and on word-of- mouth reports of temporary exhibitions bv others who have visited. Media coverage of museums on TV and radio, and-in newspapers and magazines with popular culture forms such as videogames, movies and cartoons (e.g., of dinosaurs or mummies), also convey many images related to museum visiting.

Spalding (1993) 1 x leves that in a good muscum visitors are provided with 1’ opportunities to get really interested in specific subject matter, whereas in a great museum understandin;: flows between objects and people.2 We know very little, however, about how the publics who visit museums integrate the new information gained about the arts and sciences into their existing beliefs and knowledge. Lewenstcin (1993) sees visitors as active creators of meaning.3 This implies that individuals arc able to add new information acquired during a museum visit to the understandings and expertise they have already from previous life experiences. One way to explore this active meaning-making and understanding is to find out about the imaged cspectations of children, young people and adults prior to their museum visits, and associations they have with past experiences after their time in a setting.

A Multimethod Approach to Audience Research

The usual wa>r in which we find out about customers or clients who visit a museum setting is to conduct some sort of survev. Museum visitor surveys can i be used to determine beliefs, opinions, attitudes, understandings and behaviour in individual settings. Observation and interview help to make sense of what people do and what they think about their visit experience. Patton (e.g.,Patton, 1980; Patton, 1986)-m evaluation researcher and evaluation consultant to many educational and human services projects internationally-points out that we

32 Triangulation Strategies and Images of Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

cannot observe behaviours that took place at some previous point in time, situations that preclude the presence of an observer, or how people have organized the world and the meanings they attach to what goes on in the world. We have to ask people questions about those things.

How then does an evaluator or researcher decide what questions to ask museum visitors? What information can be collected which will help evaluators to understand effectively and efficiently the nature of the visitor experience? Different types and methods of data collection, and the use of several evaluators collecting hata, contribute to a mixed-method evaluation design. A mixed- method approach provides procedures for collecting descriptive and interpretive data, using both quantitative methods designed to collect numbers and qualitative methods used to collect words and behaviours (Caracelli and Greene, 1993). In this paper three audience research projects are used to clarify how multi-method strategies work, and to demonstrate their effectiveness for determining visitor expectations and meaning-making related to a museum visit. A Visitor Audit at the Tate Gallery in London and the front-end evaluation for The Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition developed for the National Library of Canada were projects undertaken by Lord Cultural Resources Planning and Management Ltd.” A front-end evaluation for a new exhibit area being developed at the Ontario Science Centre, called Kidscience, was part of a research partnership between the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the science and technology centre itself (S orcn et al., 1993; Soren et al., 1994).

Triangulation Strategies

The term ‘triangulation’ began to be used by social scientists in the late 1950s and early 196Os, to describe a multi-method approach to research (Campbell and Fiske, 1959; Webb et al., 1966).’ Evaluators working with more naturalistic and qualitative approaches have considered triangulation techniques as an important way to control bias and establish validity (Patton, 1980; Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Smith and Kleine, 1986; Eisner, 1991). Patton suggests, for instance, that the point of triangulation is to study and understand when and why there are differences in findings generated when different methods are used to collect data. Caracelli and Greene provide examples of how quantitative results can be used in a triangulation framework to corroborate qualitative findings. Mathison (I988), a specialist in program evaluation and qualitative research methods, believes that the value of triangulation as a technique is that it provides more and better evidence from which researchers can construct meaningful explanations about the social world. Denzin (1978) was the first researcher to explain how to triangulate. He differentiated among data, investigator, and methodological triangulation strategies.

1. Data Triangulation

Data triangulation techniques include collection of data over a prolonged period of time and under different circumstances. In the museum setting this may include collecting data at different times of the day/evening, week, month, or year. The same situation may be analyzed from the point of view of the casual visitor, a tour, a school program. The experiences of different casual visitors can

BAKUAKA SOKhX 33

be examined, such as families, singles, ethnocultural groups, or people who are physically challenged. In addition, the evaluator/researcher can seek additional data collection sources to try to understand the nature of the visitor experience in a setting. Documentation on an exhibition and development meetings, visitor comment cards, previously commissioned or initiated research and evaluation projects, and past demographic, attitudinal and behavioural data collected in the museum are some of the sources that can provide invaluable insights into the situation.

For example, for the July 1993 Visitor Research component of the Tate Gallery Visitor Audit, visitor patterns related to issues such as decision-making, rooms visited, texts read, works looked at, group gestures and conversations, and use of the Tate Plan and other orientation materials were recorded. Observations were made during approximately 50 hours, over IO days, in meeting areas and rooms throughout the Tate Gallery. Visitors were observed and interviewed in as many different areas of it as possible, both outside the Gallery-at the gates and in the grounds-and, inside the Gallery, in a variety of rooms and special exhibition areas. In addition, visitor comments which had been written to the Tate Gallery, or given to staff at the Information Desk since January 1993, were collected. Specific visitors were profiled to show the range of experiences for individuals and groups who visited different areas of the Tate Gallery during the week of observation and interviews. They were also intended to be representative of the different identified market segments being studied in the Visitor Audit. Market segments included: first-time visitors, infrequent visitors (1 or 2 times a year), frequent visitors (3 or more visits a year); all age groups including families with young children, visitors 18-29 years and over 55 years; residents or local visitors and tourists.

2. Investigator Triangulation

Investigator triangulation provides multiple perspectives on data being collected, by using several investigators to collect data. Either a group of outside evaluators/researchers-a combination of ‘outsiders’ and ‘insiders’-or an in- house team alone can be involved in the triangulation process. In the formative evaluation study of Kidscience at the Ontario Science Centre (OSC), both insiders and outsiders were involved in the research. Insider experts included teachers, hosts and volunteers at the OSC who responded to an invitation to discuss Kidscience, and participated in a focus group which was videotaped and observed by Kidscience Project Team members. The outsider experts were researchers from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and included Soren, Weiss, and three graduate assistants.”

3. Methodological Triangulation

In methodological triangulation the evaluator uses multiple methods to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Staff with different perspectives or ‘key informants’ (e.g., administrators, subject matter specialists, designers, educators, paid and unpaid staff, people at information areas, security guards) can be interviewed to enlarge the view of visitors being observed and surveyed. Different programs being offered to focused visitor groups are also interesting to

34 lirzangulatrnn Strategies and Images of Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

observe in order to compare how curators, museum educators or docents present the galleries to different publics and how these guided experiences relate to casual visitor experiences. On a small scale, in the front-end evaluation for The Canadian Science Fiction (SF) Exhibition, a target visitor survey was distributed to SF fans and readers at the Merril Collection in Toronto, National Library of Canada (NLC) exhibit users, and Ottawa SF fans and readers. Representatives of these market segments were also interviewed in four focus groups, two held at the Merril Collection and two at the NLC. Several discussion points were explored through written answers and focus group interviews. Questions focused upon Canadian SF awareness and preferences, and ideas for the exhibition and complementary programmes.

On a much larger scale, the Tatc Gallery staff and the Visitor Audit team jointly developed an observation and interview schedule concentrating on qualitative data collection. A visitor observation sheet, visitor interview cards related to visitor orientation and understanding with an accompanying coding sheet, and an open-ended question sheet to explore visitor expectations and motivations for visiting the Tate Gallery were created. Over two one-week periods in July and October 1993, 90 visitors were interviewed and 450 individuals and groups were observed throughout the Tate Gallery complex and in its interpretive programmes. A mini-survey was also developed and administered to 274 Tatc Gallery visitors (from July I and October 30) to provide quantitative information about motivation for a visit, wayfinding throughout the Tate Gallery and satisfaction levels, as a context for the more descriptive and interpretive data. Security and Information Office staff were consulted about their observations of visitor experiences. In addition, each visitor participating in the Audit was also asked to fill out a background information sheet for basic demographic information about visitors. Finally, three focus groups with 28 regular visitors in different age groups (18 to 30 years, 35 to 55 years, 55 years and over) were conducted to find out more about how, when and why people visit the Tatc Gallery, and the effectiveness of the information and interpretive materials being provided for visitors.

Visitor Images and Associations

There tend to be two fundamental assumptions upon which the value of using triangulation strategies are based. First, it is assumed that any bias that is inherent in any one source will be cancelled out when several sources of data, investigators and methods of collecting data are used. Second, there is an assumption that when triangulation is used as a strategy, different data types are collected independently. These data types are then comparcd for convergence on a single perspective about the situation being investigated (in this case, the nature of the museum visitor experience). Triangulation as a strategy- provides evidence for the researcher to make sense of the social phenomenon being studied. However, the strategy, itself, does not always do this conclusively. Possible outcomes of triangulation may be that data converges towards a valid claim about what is being studied. Alternatively, inconsistencies, ambiguities, and/or contradictions may be out- comes from the multiple sources of data (Mathison, 1988).

In museums, triangulation strategies may provide convergence, evidence that there is a single truth about visitors expectations, or responses to exhibits and

BAKL~~HA SOKI,U 35

interpretive materials. More likely there will be inconsistency among the data collected, and ambiguity in terms of visitor perceptions, or data may even be contradictory, with opposing views of the situation being studied. This range of response provides a much richer palette of the nature of the experience for a variety of publics visiting a museum setting and contributes to a better understanding of the meaning visitors make related to the time they spend in a setting. Moreover, when several sites are compared on similar variables, findings can increasingly reflect the diverse range of lifelong learning experiences which individuals may encounter as they visit a variety of museum settings over their lifetime.

In the following sections there are highlights of the range of response of different publics who may visit the Ontario Science Centre’s Kidscience or the National Library of Canada’s Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition, or have visited the Tate Gallery. Data, investigator and method triangulation strategies have all contributed to an understanding of visitors’ expectations and their images of art and science museum settings.

Kidscience at the Ontario Science Centre

In a front-end evaluation for a new exhibit area being developed at the Ontario Science Centre (OSC), called Kidscience, children under 8 years, parents, childcarc workers, teachers, and OSC staff were asked questions related to their motivations for coming to Kidscience, general expectations about the space, and preferences related to the exhibit ideas of the Kidscience Project Team. The evaluation strategy identified the attitudes of potential visitors about a space for children of 8 years and under, as well as the images people had for what they wanted to do, see and learn about in this space. One group of questions related to the individual’s images of a science ccntre, scientists and science. Many of these images are drawn from memorable expericnccs that people have had, such as media images, or personal experiences with scientists who have had a powerful influence on their lives.

In Kidscience there is much potential for reaching and influencing children at a very young age, as well as the people who live and work with them. Young children and adults talked about their expectations, and two to eight year-olds drew pictures about things that they most wanted to experience. When individuals of all ages were asked about what they expected to do, see or learn in Kidscience, the word that most often surfaced was ~HPZ. When asked further about the meaning of fun, individuals used words such as hands on, playing, enjoying, exciting, magical, adventurous. Some added words like wonder, awe, curiosity, fascination, discovery, and cvcn love of learning and understanding. Although triangulation stratcgics indicated that a fun experience is paramount in a science and technology museum setting, what do people really mean when they say fan? Certain words used to elaborate on a fun experience indicate that some people expect to learn and be challenged as well.

If I say ‘science ccntrc’, what do you think of? The most common responses to this question related to trying things out, fun and enjoyment, learning a lot, and having a stimulating, exciting, interestin g time. People considered a science centre to be a place where there are experiments and inventions, all aspects of science, explanations of things around us, and the experiencing of science first

36 Triangulation Strategies and Image3 of Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

hand in a fascinating world. People’s images were often based on previous visits to the OSC as they associated a museum with such things as the Centre’s long escalators down into the valley, water fountains, computers, space, the big steel ball, and astronomy, lasers, gadgets and buttons, nutrition, robots, magnifying glasses, binoculars, magnetism, and the arcade. A science centre is seen as a place that has lights, people, shows, the earth, ‘a reason to get out of the house’ with ‘something for all’ in which there are ‘new ways of thinking’.

Children (7 and 8 years old) who participated in a focus group discussion about Kidscience thought of a scientist as someone who ‘works on stuff’, wears a white coat, looks like a doctor, does projects for people and makes things, and studies about the land and the earth. Adults surveyed in the Kidscience study thought of scientists as people who participate in scientific research or discovery, are inventive and questioning, try to learn more about the laws of science, find out what it is to explore and discover things, use a lot of theories, and ‘find the fountain of youth’. They ask questions about the nature of reality, ‘things they don’t understand like why the moon is up there’. They ‘explore the unknown searching for answers to alleviate problems and improve situations and productivity’, and help us understand and look for explanations.

This person is often seen as a male or fatherly figure who wears a white lab coat and glasses, is very intelligent and admired, mature-middle aged and older, with grey hair and bald. Scientists are thought by some to be ‘mad scientists’, ‘crazy guys’, ‘half 1 oony and half scientist’, ‘ so educated he looks goofy’ with his hair ‘standing up on end’. They arc associated with magicians, Eureka, school teachers, and people who spend a lot of time in a laboratory with apparatus, beakers, ‘hovering over a microscope’, with bubbly test tubes and potions, animals and rats, and computers. The scientist is seen by others to be an individual ‘dedicated to working in science’ and pursuing something he really wants to do.

Inventions, exploring, creating and manipulating things, dissecting frogs, fish, cow’s eyes and rats are specific activities of science cited by. those questioned. Most people described science as having to do with experimenting-making something happen, discovery, changes, and drawing tentative conclusions based on one’s findings and evidence. Questions arc asked about reality (e.g., why and how things behave the way they do, why a cake rises), and the way nature is defined. In science one studies, searches, and draws possible conclusions, proving and building on facts, coming to conclusions about how things are made, and investigating our environment. In a more negative vein, a few people commented that science has to do with something in school that they were not good at or interested in, tests, boring teachers, ‘not fun’, and they always have to ‘get over that attitude’.

These images of science centrc, scientist and science provide some insight into the range of children’s and adults’ expectations when they visit a science and technology centre. What happens, though, if these expectations are not met when they visit Kidsciencc? How might people integrate into their previous understanding of the scientist an experience with a young, charismatic female host in a white lab coat who is not poring over bubbly test tubes? Clearly, previous images, and even deeply-rooted misconceptions about scientists, would have to be modified in order to accommodate this new reality. In Kidscience, the OSC could take advantage of the opportunity to influence children early in their

B+,KRA~L~ SC)KI,N 37

lifelong learning, in terms of their conceptions of science and scientists, and expand notions about what fun experiences might mean.

The ‘Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition’, National Library of Canada

‘The Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition’ opens at the National Library of Canada (NLC) in Ottawa in May 1995, and a concurrent mini-exhibit is planned for the new Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy facilities in Toronto. Feelings, interests, and expectations of users of NLC exhibitions and science fiction (SF) fans and readers were assessed in the front- end evaluation and audience research for the exhibition. This is expected to be a significant literary event and an effective initiative toward reaching important new audiences for the public programs and exhibitions of the NLC. The questionnaire and focus group evaluation strategy highlighted potential visitor expectations and motivations, as well as images people had for SF, Fantasy, Canadian literature, and the NLC.

1. Expectations for the Canadian Science Fiction E?chibition

As in the OSC Kidscience study, potential visitors were asked both in a questionnaire and in focus group discussion what they would like to see, do and learn about in a Canadian SF Exhibition. The NLC setting will also be transformed into a science and technology milieu, but the expectations and images for this SF exhibition are quite different from what was anticipated for Kidscience. ‘The Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition’ will likely bridge the arts and sciences. Focus group discussions often confirmed expectatrons mentioned in the questionnaire, but elaborations also indicated the extent to which different SF groups have inconsistent and contradictory ideas about a Canadian SF exhibition. The challenge for the exhibition design team has been trying to satisfy the diverse expectations of SF fans and readers, and NLC exhibition users.

Active, participatory exhibits typical of science museum exhibits were most often mentioned as an expectation across groups in a written questionnaire. Specific suggestions for exhibits included access to information such as the genre of SF, an overview of the field and history of its development (‘how long it’s been around’), examples of early modes, the 1980s boom in SF, maps and representations of SF and Fantasy Worlds (fictional and universes), directions of current writers, writing techniques and plotlines. SF fans and readers were also interested in the use of futuristic means to communicate which are ‘a call’ to the imagination, future developments for the genre, historical items of SF and fandom (‘who’s done what’), and manuscripts of books, special effects, colour, and bright graphics (e.g., pulp covers). People wanted to experience ‘more real than fiction’ exhibits (e.g., Canada’s role in space, space habitats), hands on stuff, easily accessible items to draw in the uninitiated, memorabilia displays (e.g., pictures of conventions, obscure trivia), science-oriented and informative displays, slides and visual material in astronomy computer exhibits, and art and costuming displays showing how ‘life imitates art’.

A Merril Collection Friends focus group represented SF Readers who actively use an SF library and have a quite sophisticated knowledge of SF and the Canadian SF community. This group felt strongly that the greater the emphasis

38 Triangulation St?-atcgies and Imagc~s of‘ Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

on the written work, the more adult in orientation the exhibition would be. If it is more graphic/visual or interactive, and there is a strong focus on TV and film, animal fantasy, graphic novels and comics, the exhibition will be of greater appeal to younger audiences. There should be models and dioramas of future and fantasy settings from SF. Kids could ‘build their own future’ (e.g., with space Lego) and represent the importance of place and structures to SF stories (what would it be like to live in . ..?). perhaps in a workroom off to the side. There should also be SF art and poster displays; there is a strong visual tradition here. Displays should be visual and colourful, for example use gold book covers. There should be a performing space for a movie festival, plays (‘kids love plays’), and authors readings (‘a reason to hang around on weekends’).

An Ad Astra focus group was representative of a classic, grass-roots SF fan/ enthusiast group, with a broad interest in different forms and expressions of SF. This group believed that the exhibition could attract all ages with lots of interactivity. There should be live programming to support the exhibits, such as SF writers workshops, ‘meet the creators’, and ‘create your own SF art’ with an artist on hand. Displays could have great SF costumes, SF and fan collectibles, and old publications and fan&es. These fans envisioned a room where various groups can talk to the public, and clubs, groups and conventions can advertise. There could be a computer programme like an SF simulated city, or different societies taken from SF set up and visitors put through different scenarios to see how societies develop. Introductory multimedia walkthrough experiences would enable visitors to see two authors develop different sides of the same story, and compare the stories with their own. Events and characteristics that made Canadian fandom unique should be highlighted, since many fans are not even aware of these.

Individuals in a National Library of Canada users group actively use the NLC and attend its exhibitions. People felt that SF is a very attractive subject-more colourful than most exhibits at the Library. They, themselves, will be interested in learning about SF plots and structure and are curious, as non-fans, about how ideas arc developed using advanced technologies. People suggested that a futuristic workstation on a space ship could be done simplistically with a space environment and another world around each bump. A theatre for acting out SF could just be a podium, or a stage with imaginary, futuristic scenery; part of the exercise could be to use imagination to SW behind the backdrops. A play could be written out and read, and should be very visual. A software producer or company could be challenged to create multi media displays using ‘smart technologies’ so that, for instance, lights would turn on when someone enters the space. Images, words or movies could be called up if laser discs and CD Roms are used and would allow bigger access to a varietv of short selections. For example, there could be a scene in Mario Brothers in which visitors are invited to create a combination of words and images, and print out their story at the end.

The fourth focus group was an interesting combination of Ottawa area SF fans and readers. This was a very well read and reflective group of individuals who had interests in a variety of SF media and were avid convention organizers and attenders. They had quite different ideas, such as using a three-dimensional sculptural object, like a flying saucer with an ordinary (Illinois) license plate which could be parked out in front of the NLC for those who know SF (from The Day the E~th Stood Still). A time-line could be developed related to what

BAI<IMK:\ SCII<I~T, 39

was written and when it happened (e.g., in 1969, birth control implants, home computers). Scientists could speak on space travel, DNA research, and virtual reality. These SF fans and readers felt that visual images attract, toys and games arc popular (to feel like ‘I’m a child again’), and art pieces should be displayed. There could be Canadian SF TV shows like Prisoner of Gravity, an analysis of Stavlost or Way of the Worlds, and videos of costume shows and masquerades. Saturday morning activities for kids could include build your own robot, alien or starship, and teens (13-16 year olds) could build a film set, or act out characters (e.g., Superman, not a Star Trekker). In display cases, there could be old books and fanzines, photos of more notable writers and artist promoters. Music should be continuously playing in the background (e.g., Crash test dummies, electronic music, ‘filkers’ or SF folk singers), and there could be a name-that-song contest related to SF songs in the media and movies in Canada (e.g., in Superman).

2. Images Related to Canadian St Fantasy, Canadian Literature and the NLC

Futuristic, interstellar time travel, space travel in starships or spaceships, future science, cyberpunk, UFOs, robots, aliens, mutants, sexy women, and classic 1950s flying saucers were images for individuals in each group except the Merril Collection Friends. Generally, SF was thought to be associated with alternate reality, advanced social structures, and ‘high tech in the street’. In contrast to the SF world of space travel and aliens, Fantasy, as one Ottawa SF fan/reader described it, ‘goes beyond the boundaries of reality, encompassing things that can never be’. Associated with Fantasy are elves and unicorns, half humans, pixies, the Sidhe, mythical creatures, dragons, magic, and swords and sorcery-all creations of the ‘fanciful imagination’. Fantasy is considered to be entertaining, but totally improbable fiction that has a magical, non-technical slant. The Fantasy world was described as one that is ‘faint and far-the horns of elfland blowing’, and ‘a picture of ideal and unreal worlds’. In Fantasy one can be wonderfully transported out of reality bv dreams and magic, fairies and witches, sorcery or psionics, the Sidhe, trolls, barbarians, and ‘men and women with long hair, little clothing, armed with spears and not smiling much’.

Generally, Canadian literature was perceived to be serious and heavy, elitist and arrogant, introspective and depressing, often reflective and questioning. It was described by an SF reader as ‘anything good written by Canadians, preferably although not necessarily set in Canada’. An Ottawa SF fan/reader commented that stories ‘explore both the inner and outer life of Canadians’. Characterization is more important than plot, and Canadian literature tends to be more literary than commercial. An Ad Astra member thought of Canadian authors as thinking persons writin g about ‘distance - a feeling of being shut out’ and survival. A lack of publicity means that people are not aware of Canadian literature; it is a government financed art. In contrast, Canadian SF authors are considered to be ‘very good, cutting edge, inventive, interesting’. The National Library of Canada was associated with a depository of Canadian work, national documents , government papers, legal documents, the Canadian ‘Library of Congress’, the Government Department that keeps all Canadian literature (e.g., manuscripts and books), and a national archives (rather than ‘a living collection’) in Ottawa. A library is thought to house books, history, geography, and bookworms. It is thought to be ‘a place where they store old books’, which

40 ikangulation Strategies and Images of Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

is very quiet and peaceful, ‘a good place to spend a couple of years reading’. A few even considered the National Library to be a boring place with bad air and dusty books, not often heard of and out of the way.

Data and method triangulation indicated that the NLC is a rather unlikely place for an SF fan or reader to frequent. However, ‘The Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition’ has the potential for demonstrating to its visiting public that not all Canadian literature is serious and heavy, deeply introspective and depressing, but rather at the cutting edge, inventive and interesting, and that there is a unique Canadian SF genre. The exhibition may help to transform the bookish and dusty image of the NLC to one that is dynamic with lights, colour, interactive and social experiences where people can use their imaginations and senses. Furthermore, ‘The Canadian Science Fiction Exhibition’ could help to transform the public’s perceived image of SF fans and readers from ‘weird trekkies’ to creative people who have something important to say about socio- technological projections and fantasy worlds which can sometimes be useful escape as we try to survive in difficult times. This front-end evaluation for ‘The Canadian SF Exhibition’ is informing the development of exhibits and programs so that they will appeal to the interests of a variety of specialist and enthusiast audiences-from academics to Star Trek fans.

The Tate Gallery

Observations and interviews undertaken during the July I993 Visitor Audit at the Tate Gallery (Soren 1993) were the main method for learning about visitors’ expectations of the Tate Gallery, and offer considerable insight into the experiences of publics who visit this world renowned art museum. People were interviewed either before their visit, or after they had experienced a particular room, or after they had completed their visit and were about to leave. Combined with the other data, investigator and method triangulation strategies, the July 1993 Audit provided a valuable insight into how individuals and groups experience the rooms of the Tate Gallery, what they look at, read and discuss with friends and family, and suggested ways in which visitors’ time at the Tate Gallery could be made even better than it already is. People’s images of the Tate Gallery before they come for a visit, and the associations individuals have with other experiences after visiting the Gallery, are particularly useful for under- standing what the experience is like for visitors representative of different market segments when they come to the museum. Images and expectations for this art museum visit are also strikingly different than those anticipated for an experience at Kidscicnce in a science and technology centre or an SF exhibition in a national library.

1. Images 0f the Tate Gallery

Visitors often come to the Tate Gallerv because thev have been told that it is the museum to see in London. Past or previous visits, ‘time spent here already’, was the most common reason given for people’s expectations for their visits to the Tate Gallery by both local visitors and tourists. Some had not seen the Tate Gallery for a few months or several years while an Austrian art student and a Japanese visitor had returned after being at the Tatc Gallcry the previous day.

BAKBAKA SOKPU 41

Past visits, word-of-mouth, and the Tate Plan are used to spread the word about the Tate Gallery, and make it a ‘must see’ museum in London. Friends in London told a Vancouver visitor that he should stop by; friends told a Swedish woman to go to the Tate Gallery; friends told an American mother and daughter that they must be sure and come; teens from New York were told by friends to come to the Tate Gallery-it is ‘by far the museum to see with a collection of nice works’-and since they were visiting London for a month they decided to see first the Tate Gallery and then the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the National Gallery. A guide from Israel had recommended the Tate Gallery to an Israeli visitor, and a tour guide in London had suggested that an American grandmother and her friend visit the Tate Gallery.

A local couple waiting at the gate for the Tate Gallery to open on the Sunday afternoon commented that ‘Wherever you go you hear about the Tate and since it’s the “newest” gallery in London you expect it to be modern’. A Flemish visitor had a sense of the schema because his wife brought him the May edition of the Tate Plan. Pictures in a magazine had given him an image for ‘the new part’ (the Clore Gallery). The Austrian art student reported that ‘Everybody said, “You have to go”. It’s like “‘Go to the Louvre”. I had to find out for myself’.

Some people’s images of the Tate Gallery prior to their visit were based on what a museum looks like, a generalized image of art because they had been around art galleries before, or on the past few museums seen in London. Two women from Hampshire had based their image on the Tate Gallery, Liverpool which they had seen from the outside, and commented that Tate Gallery, St. Ives had a modern image also. Two visiting Londoners walk by regularly but one ‘had designed the interior differently in her mind, as more austere’. Another London couple had read a lot of publicity related to ‘controversial things like the bricks’, a work by Carl Andre in the sculpture collection, while a British architect had read architectural material related to the Tate Gallery buildings. Once people have reached the Gallery they are very satisfied with their Tate experience and they have reported warm and inviting images and associations that will entice them, their friends, and their families to visit or re-visit the museum. The Tate Gallery was imaged by them as a place where they felt ‘at home’, and where ‘people are friendly’. The Gallery was described by locals and tourists-more frequent and less frequent visitors-as a place which is pleasant, restful, relaxing, bright, airy, and inviting. They find the Tate Plan useful and effective as providing orientation to rooms, and take it away, retain it, and use it to spread the word when they return home.

Visitors to the Tate Gallery were asked about their image of it in terms of how they had imaged the Tate Gallery prior to their visit, and what their image was based upon. From first time visitors the most common response to this question was an expectation that the building or architecture of the Tate Gallery would be more modern (‘not stately’), with a larger Modern Collection of twentieth century paintings and sculptures on display. Some said they were surprised when they saw the interior of the building, for instance the modern galleries and new floors, because they found the exterior of the building older and more austere. An Austrian art student had expected ‘a modern gallery done for people who understand Modern Art’. Some people specifically imaged the physical space, both outside and inside the Tate Gallery. A woman from Cologne had expected

42 Einngi4lation Strategies and Images of iMUSeUm as Sites for Lifelong Learning

a nice building on the Thames, with a garden and park around it, and relaxing because it was not in town. An Israeli woman expected a nice building with big rooms, and ‘everything different in atmosphere’ to the museums in Israel. A mother and son from New Zealand who associated the Tate Gallery with ‘the best of art’, wcrc ‘overawed’ and found it ‘fantastic, not just the work exhibited, but the building’.

A local actor interviewed, who visits several times each year, has a ‘fascination with the form, the sense of vastness, and reverberations from rooms that echo’. He likes the building very much, ‘particularly the free classicism of the architecture, the enormous domed roof, and the large stone staircase coming up to the rotunda’. Hc loves the large open plan for rooms in the older galleries, but finds the ‘new feel’ and acoustics ‘dead’ in the Clore Gallery which houses the Turner Collection because of the carpeting, and that ‘the shipwrecks don’t work in bright light’. American and Japanese tourists visiting for the first time pronounced themselves pleasantly surprised that the building was not over- whelmingly large; the ‘small size is very good’ because ‘you can spend small time’. On the other hand, one teenager from New York expected a smaller building bccausc of its name: Tate ‘Gallcry’; she found it more like her image of a museum than a gallery.

People also had widely differing specific images of the Tate Gallery collection. Three tourists expected a collection of Impressionists, while a London couple imaged small Rodin sculptures thev had seen in past visits. Two students from Oxford pictured the Turner Collection because of the Clore Gallery, and they as well as a local group of young pcoplc intcrcsted in the Modern Collection were pleasantly surprised to see so many Pre-Raphaelite works. An Austrian museum- goer imaged it as being ‘about different styles of art’ but felt after his visit that he would have liked to see ‘more comparisons of styles, why a work is here and not elsewhere in the Tate Gallery’.

Generally, people had positive ‘good’ images prior to their visit, or as one visitor from Dublin commented, ‘The Tatc Gallery is one of my favourite places in London’. An elderly, gentleman visiting it as part of an Open University assignment stated, I m terribly proud of the Tatc Gallery as a Britisher. I’d like it to be four times bigger, like the Pompidou Centre in Paris’. A woman in the Clore Gallery who was attending a lecture commented that for her the Tate Gallery was a happy memory which was ‘the first thing she seemed to turn to when she felt well enough’ to attend lectures after being ill for several years. She had often attended lectures over the years, 5 or 6 times each vear, found them extremely well presented, and learned a lot from them as a person who hadn’t studied art in depth. In contrast, an American grandmother who was a novice museum visitor, imaged an intimidating place where she would spend her time in the coffee shop while her friend ‘who had studied art and knew art went about the gallery on her own’. She was pleasantly surprised, had found herself fascinated as she wandered, and now thought that ‘art history classes would be interesting’. However, a few visitors had no prior expectations. A young Parisian in a wheelchair had no image and hadn’t known what he could explore. A five-year-old waiting to go in on Sunday afternoon thought the Tate Gallery was enormous; she imaged a ‘big building with paintings and that has something on top’ which she and her mother decided was a unicorn.

2. Tate Associations

People were asked what their visit to the Tate Gallery reminded them of, made them think of, or made them think that. Individuals picked up on whichever wording of this notion worked for them. Responses were unique and covered a wide range of personally meaningful experiences and associations with past experiences. In most interviews, people responded in terms of other institutions and personal experiences which reminded them of their Tate Gallery experience or specific moments during their visit to the Tate Gallery.

Quite unlike images and expectations for Kidscience or the SF exhibition, people associated their Tate Gallery experience with ‘quiet places we have known’ like a cathedral, church or library in which experiences tend to be ‘reverential’ and where there is ‘respectful silence’. Other modern art galleries are noisy, but not the masters areas at the Tate Gallery which tend to be quiet. A father with his daughter in the Clore Gallery was concerned about the quiet: ‘Why so quiet? Why are galleries always so quiet?’ The Tate Gallery reminded them both of a lot of other galleries which are ‘very, very quiet’. Three young Britishers visiting the Modern Collections commented that the ‘hushed tones’ there were like a library or church, a place where you ‘wouldn’t dream of bringing children’. They would bring children if there was chatter and the level of noise was higher but being at the Tate Gallcry was ‘being alone with what you are looking at’. Th ey f ound that they ‘felt guilty walking on the tiles’ (another sculpture by Carl Andre) because there was ‘the echo of a cold building’.

Several visitors compared the Tate Gallery to other specific museums and institutions they had visited (none of which were science museums), or artworks they had seen. The woman from Cologne associated it with a museum she visits in Bonn, in that the exterior of the building and lighting are similar. She was quick to point out that there is no other basis for comparison, however; the museum in Bonn is ‘awful’. The American grandmother found that her visit made her think that ‘when I was in Paris in 1984, I did the Louvre in 45 minutes. Now I want to go back’. One of the New York teenagers thought of the time she went to the Washington Art Museum to an Andrew Wyeth exhibition because it was set up the same way, compared to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is ‘huge, you can’t do tt in a day, it’s too much’. A couple visiting the Blake Exhibition both responded that the Tate Gallery reminded them of the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania because it is small, easy to go through, ‘and you can pick things and enough different things’. The Tate Gallery made them think of an Academy because it has a stately feeling of importance; it is meant to be appreciated, inviting and liked, while it is very academic and works are nicely hung.

The students from Oxford were reminded of particular paintings they had seen, such as those of Blake and Matisse. The Japanese visitor found that the Pre- Raphaelite paintings made her think that she wanted to read William Morris’ poetry and Greek and Roman mythology. She also wanted to see Bacon’s work because a Japanese writer, Oe Kenzabur, liked Bacon. The Parisian in a wheelchair thought of the metal sculpture he had seen in Gloucester and the geometric contrasting colours he had painted in visual art class at school. The Tate Gallery made an architect visiting the Clore Gallery think of ‘Regency England, the age of buildings in London’. He also thought of the Menil Museum

44 Triangulatmn Strategies and Images of Musc~umr as Sites foT Lifelong Learning

in Houston, Texas, with its warehouse upstairs and rehang downstairs, and complex lighting. For several people, their experience at the Tate Gallery was frankly nostalgic, and made them think of their own life experiences. One senior associated Barbara Hepworth’s work with ‘a fortnight making love in St. Ives’. When the English actor is around Blake he thinks of ‘when I act on stage - maybe the acoustics make me think of that’. A London woman was aware of teenage visitors and people in their 20s and felt that, ‘If I had had that when I was their age, how much more I could have learned and know now; how different my life may have been’.

In a few cases, the Tate Gallery experience made people think of some sort of other feeling, such as surprise, wanting more, or inspiration for their own work. One of the Hampshire women was surprised at the colours in paintings. The architect with his young family found the Tate Gallery visit ‘more relaxed and less stuffy’ than’he had expected. William Scott’s work and ‘the insect next door of brown made with white’ (maybe Alan Davie’s Birth o-f Venus) gave the Austrian art student a few ideas that she wanted to try, like how to make volume just with lights. The Open University group thought that they would remember the Tate Gallery for how much they learned and how much fun they had, and wanted ‘to do, see, and come to the Tate Gallery more often’. The man from Dublin commented, ‘the Tate Gallery reminds me of the Tate’.

These images of the Tate Gallery prior to a visit, and associations with past experiences after a visit, provide considerable evidence that its visitors have high expectations and that people are quite open-minded about their experience in the art museum. Images and associations also give insight into unique memories and meanings individuals will take away from their time at the Tate Gallery, and images visitors may share which will encourage others to visit it too.

Conclusion

The multimethod research and evaluation strategies described provide insights into the understandings and expertise that people at all stages of lifelong learning bring to their visits to different museum and exhibition settings. People’s images of each setting’s physical space and objects displayed, prior to their museum visit, give clues to expectations visitors have and their motivations for visiting. Furthermore, during a visit to a museum setting, children, young people and adults are often able to make associations and connections with past lifelong experiences (Soren, 1990; Soren, 1991; Soren, 1992). By asking about these images and associations we begin to understand how expectations about museum visits are shaped, whether a visit has confirmed past conceptions about the setting or the subject matter on display, and if past conceptions have been challenged, and misconceptions corrected.

Broudy (1987) d escribes images as deriving from sensory patterns-visual, auditory, olcfactory, kinacsthetic and tactile. Metaphors, or figures of speech, are used to create images out of sense qualities. Broudy explains that out of the sensations of the eye, car, touch, and smell, the mind can form patterns of feeling. ‘It can endow inammate objects with qualities that, strictly speaking, belong only to persons’ (op. cit., p. 14). Broudy bclicves that these images of feeling connect

BAKHAKA %tu:N 45

the cognitive and emotional aspects of life and learning. In our early years, apparently, we develop primitive, but nonetheless full-blown theories to help us make sense of the world and guide us through our adolescent and adult years. Gardner (1991) believes that early mindsets never really disappear, and that we continually revert back to our earliest conceptions, and misconceptions, throughout our lives.

Asking people about their images of a museum setting prior to a visit helps museum managers to obtain clues about the audience conceptions and misconceptions of the site itself, and the subject matter presented. Visitors’ associations with previous experiences can provide insight into meanings created by people and the fresh understandings they may take away with them. Images will be added to each visitor’s memory bank, and associations can be made as individuals continue to visit or revisit museums, as well as attend other events throughout their lives. Exploring how images are con- firmed and challenged in informal educational settings like museums can help those who are planning for audience experiences to understand ways in which customers or clients can use their time in a setting to gain lifelong learning related to the arts and sciences.

Footnotes

1. For example: Hewson (1992) discusses the area of client focus and client satisfaction as a new and central thrust in the federal government of Canada; Koster (1994) describes how reduced budgets, customer feedback, new competition, the quality movement and new technologies arc areas that the Ontario Science Centre has been considering in its strategic planning.

2. Julian Spalding, Director of the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, believes that the sole aim of muscums-of collecring, prcscrving, and exhibiting things-is to communicate. Since a museum only becomes a museum when the people visiting it become interested in the objects displayed, a muscum should accordingly be judged on how well it communicnrcs.

3. Lewenstein argues that when WC focus on the publics who visit science museums, we simply don’t know how members of the public mesh new information about science into theu- existing beliefs and knowledge, but that audiences who visit science museums are active creators of meaning.

4. Gail Lord of Lord Cultural Kcsources Planning & Management Ltd. was lead consultant in the Visitor Audit at The Tate Gallery (Lord Cultural &sources, 1994; Soren, 1993). John Nicks and I-lugh Spencer of Lord Cultural Resources Planning & Management Ltd. were lead consultants in the front-end analysis for The Canadian Science Fiction exhibition (Soren 8r Spencer, 1993). Barbara Sorcn was an associated consultant in both projects.

5. Triungdution is a technique used bv surveyors to establish the distance between points. Patterson and Bitgood (1988, p. 43) cite cxarnplcs of how this ‘triangulation’ technique may bc used to examine interactions between audience and museum objects: Whyte (1980) used the rerrn to discuss how some person or object promotes interaction between viewers who otherwise wouldn’t interact, for example, street performers and sculptures in urban plazas, or zoo visitor-s and the animals they see: Scrrcl (1981) elaborated on the latter example by showing how interactions wcrc promoted Lvhen new exhibit labels were installed at the Brookheld Zoo.

6. Research assistants were Wendy Kelly, who has expertise in measurement and evaluation, Erminia I’edretti, who is a science educator interesrcd in the area of science and technology literacy, and Janet Thompson, who specializes in science and technology centres and helped design a front-end e\ aluation study for an integrated science thematic gallery at the Indianapolis Children’s Musc~~m.

46 Triangulatzon Strategies and Images of Museums as Sites for Lifelong Learning

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