Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience

by John H. Falk

Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs. He identifies five key types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. Through an understanding of how museums shape and reflect their personal and group identity, Falk is able to show not only how museums can increase their attendance and revenue, but also their meaningfulness to their constituents.

Genres: Museology, Nonfiction, Museums, Art, Professional Development, Research, Art Design

301 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[anna b · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple model that makes sense and so much to be done for experience.

[Elsbeth Kwant]

Very insightful. First: Falk presents museums as 'free-choice learning environments'. This is a very helpful concept, as it also goes for library environments, and gives a note of combining the useful with the pleasant, which is a powerful idea since ancient times. In the second place Falk navigates expertly around Scylla (it's all about the museum or exhibition) and Charybdis (it's all about the visitor). It's about the interplay between both in terms of building a persons identity. It's interesting to think about ways in which this combination is useful for digital experiences as well, which is exactly what the colleague who recommended it proposes to do...

[nini · Rating 4 out of 5]

i forgot to write the review when i finished the book but it was an interesting read especially for the lifespan the model connects to — 🥝

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has the potential to change the way museums think about and interact with their diverse visitors.

[Melissa]

There are some interesting chapters, as an academic book i didn’t find it was necessary to read front to back.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read for museum people. These identities make sense for aligning visitors and experiences.

[Samir · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's more functional than fact. More utility to be thumbed through (over many months) than a holiday read.

[Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly groundbreaking model for thinking about how people experience exhibits. This is a must-read for museum professionals and anyone interested in identity-based engagement and self-efficacy.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting at the beginning, but becomes repetitive in the last 80 or so pages.

[Mills College Library]

069.15 F1914i 2009

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing content, terrible writer. Just say it already.