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Learning From Kids: Connecting the Exhibition Process to the Audience
Author(s) -
McRainey D. Lynn,
Russick John
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
curator: the museum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.312
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 2151-6952
pISSN - 0011-3069
DOI - 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2009.tb00343.x
Subject(s) - exhibition , appeal , doors , visual arts , visitor pattern , process (computing) , sociology , multimedia , media studies , art , engineering , computer science , political science , law , structural engineering , programming language , operating system
When the Chicago History Museum re‐opened its doors on September 30, 2006 after a 21‐month‐long renovation, the debut included a new interactive history gallery for families. The exhibition, Sensing Chicago , was designed primarily to appeal to and communicate effectively with eight‐ and nine‐year‐old children. Since this was a new target audience for the museum's exhibition program, the team followed a course for this project that departed from the museum's typical exhibition development. The process was informed by audience research that has broadened our understanding of how a collections‐based history museum that traditionally caters to adult audiences can create meaningful and memorable experiences for children. This article focuses on one aspect of the research, a three‐month concept‐testing phase conducted by in‐house staff, which provided the team with useful information that, in turn, impacted the development and design of the gallery.