ABSTRACT

This very practical book guides museums on how to create the highest quality experience possible for their visitors. Creating an environment that supports visitor engagement with collections means examining every stage of the visit, from the initial impetus to go to a particular institution, to front-of-house management, interpretive approach and qualitative analysis afterwards.

This holistic approach will be immensely helpful to museums in meeting the needs and expectations of visitors and building their audience. 

This book features:

  • includes chapter introductions and discussion sections
  • supporting case studies to show how ideas are put into practice
  • a lavish selection of tables, figures and plates to support and illustrate the discussion
  • boxes showing ideas, models and planning suggestions to guide development
  •  an up-to-date bibliography of landmark research.

The Engaging Museum offers a set of principles that can be adapted to any museum in any location and will be a valuable resource for institutions of every shape and size, as well as a vital addition to the reading lists of museum studies students.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

Meeting the demands placed on the twenty-first century museum

part Section 1|67 pages

Museum audiences: their nature, needs and expectations

part Section 2|45 pages

Operating for quality

chapter 3|19 pages

Stimulating the visit

chapter 4|24 pages

Visitor services: operating for quality

part Section 3|54 pages

Learning in museums

chapter 5|34 pages

Museums and lifelong learning

chapter 6|18 pages

Use of museums by schools

part Section 4|112 pages

Planned to engage

chapter 8|28 pages

Interpretive master planning

chapter 9|27 pages

Concept development for museum galleries

chapter 10|23 pages

The engaging museum