Our museum audience

Playing on my mind today were many thoughts about community engagement and its effects on the design, development and display of exhibitions and subsequently, public programs. We have talked during our field school about strategies for and benefits of community engagement, but there is one community that we have not yet considered in detail. That community is that of our museum audiences. I would like to discuss the effects of community engagement on our audiences and raise some discussion points about our relationship with this very valuable museum community.

I have learnt and seen over the past few days that community engagement can have many benefits, including the ability to give life to museum objects as I discussed in my previous blog post. A snapshot of some of the other benefits that we have discussed over the past week include:

• ·       capturing and sharing intangible cultural heritage,

• ·       adding authorative and personal voices to an exhibition,

• ·       providing a platform for to spark conversations and debate,

• ·       increasing the relevance of museums,

• ·       increasing the accessibility of museums,

• ·       increasing and diversifying museum audiences,

• ·       acknowledging and making relevant the stories of different peoples,

• ·       and the use of the museum space for social justice and social activism.

It is without a doubt that community engagement is extremely valuable. One of the most memorable benefits that we have discussed this week is that community engagement can empower a community. It does make me think hard each time Graeme asks us this question ‘can museums develop better communities?’ – I want to say a big ‘YES’ but I also want to carefully consider my answer before making such a bold statement. I think museums can provide many skills and resources to a community and can also act to bring a community together – if community engagement is done well. However, this is beyond the scope of my blog post today, I want to focus on the effects of community engagement on our museum audiences.

The question I want to ask is are our museums audiences equipped with the skills, abilities, knowledge and experience to understand our museums and outcomes of our community engagement? In the same thought is the question, do our audiences understand the idea of multiple narratives, juxtaposed objects, conflicting stories and engagement platforms? I ask these questions because we have discussed that museums have transformed from ‘being about something to being for somebody’ (Weil, 1999). If museums exist to serve the public, are we providing them with the exhibitions, objects, activities, narratives and knowledge that they can interpret, connect with and understand?

It is not my intention at all to downplay the competency of our audiences, but rather to start a conversation about the intentions of our community engagement and the outcomes reflected in our museums. I am sure we have all had museum fatigue at some point, and although curators can get very excited about their exhibitions, if they don’t hit the right chord with our audiences they can be misinterpreted, confusing and/or overlooked.

Museum audiences connect with exhibitions and objects that they can develop a relationship with. The initial trigger of this relationship starts from a personal connection, a familiarity with and prior experience of an aspect of the display. It is from this point that a relationship can build to incorporate new understandings and even to challenge the viewer. The important point we need to consider is our ability to ignite this relationship with enough fuel to trigger a lengthier connection than just one glance.

I want to propose that we place a greater emphasis on considering our audiences in our community engagement discussions. It is not only important to consider the expectations and outcomes for our museums and for the communities we are working with, but also to understand the outcomes of this work for our most valuable community, our audience.


Weil, Stephen. "From being about something to being for somebody: the ongoing transformation of the American museum". The MIT Press 128(3) (1999): 229.