Investigating a Quotation

“Experience in the degree in which it is experience is heightened vitality. Instead of signifying being shut up within one’s own private feelings and sensations, it signifies active and alert commerce with the world; at its height it signifies complete interpenetration of self and the world of objects and events. Instead of signifying surrender to caprice and disorder, it affords our sole demonstration of a stability that is not stagnation but is rhythmic and developing” (18).

So what is experience according to John Dewey?

1) Experience is an increased sense of living, seeing the world as valuable.

2) Experience is active; it means exploring the world.

3) Experience means an integration of oneself with the people, things, and events in the world around them. It is a give and take situation.

4) Experience is a form of stability through the constant growth of oneself.

What do these definitions of experience help us to understand about the world of museums? Primarily, it helps us to gain an understanding of what our visitors should be doing within our exhibits and programs. First, we must cultivate within our visitors a sense of wonder and excitement with the information about the world that we are presenting to them. Second, we need to offer them opportunities to experience these feelings through physical, mental, and emotional exploration of the content we are providing. Third, a relationship must be formed between our visitors and what they are experiencing. Together, these three steps allow us to set a standard of behavior for our patrons, one in which continuous growth is the core principle.

This process is not an easy one to fully complete. I would say that museums do a wonderful job at getting individuals excited and inquisitive. They do well at promoting exploration. However, they aren’t always particularly successful at creating enduring relationships between visitors and the content presented—ones that bring the visitor back for more. If museums focused more intensely on making these connections, the possibilities would be endless and the results remarkable. I would love to see us get to the point where step four would be a consistent product of museum experiences.

My last comment concerns the nature of this process. I find it to be a cyclical process. As our visitors form this “stability of constant growth” within themselves, they are more apt to see the world as a laboratory of learning, a place swarming with exciting avenues of exploration. Once this mindset is in place, exploration begins, and thus the cycle repeats itself. What does that tell us about museums? It tells us that our influence can be more widespread than first thought.