Ayse HuntFollow

Faculty Advisor

Kotsis, Kriszta

Area of Study

Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Publication Date

Summer 2018

Abstract

What motivates an art museum’s digital strategy? This study investigates why art museums utilize interpretive digital technologies in their exhibitions, with a focus on how digital strategies impact visitor engagement. To answer these questions, I visited seven art museums in the United States—in Washington, Oregon, and California, specifically. At each location, I collected observational and qualitative data through interviews with members of staff including curators, interpretive media specialists, and museum educators. Additionally, I toured each site and reviewed any related online content.A comparative analysis of the seven museums revealed a diverse number of approaches to digital strategy even amongst similar institutions, with a greater level of digital integration in special exhibitions. This trend is indicative of the economic realities that force museums to pick and choose where they integrate digital content, as the process of producing in-gallery technology is time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly. The concentration of efforts in special exhibition galleries suggests a hierarchy of digital integration, privileging special exhibitions over the permanent collection within the physical space of the museum. Although mostmuseums in the study have websites that allow virtual visitors to engage with the permanent collection, the striking lack of digital interpretive materials for permanent collections in the physical gallery spaces de-emphasizes the importance of these works to visitors who enter the museum without prior knowledge. This leads to notable differences of access to information where visitors with less knowledge of art history are disadvantaged, entrenching pre-existing social and educational divisions.

Publisher

University of Puget Sound

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