Taking a Mini Break from Dewey: AAM’s Webinar, “Understanding Life Stages of the Museum Visitor”

Today I was able to take part in “Understanding Life Stages of the Museum Visitor,” a webinar sponsored and organized by EdCom of AAM. Many things covered in this session reflected research I have already read about in the Center for the Future of Museum’s white paper “Museums and Society 2034.” Instead of going over things I have already pondered and processed, I will re-cap some of the most interesting tidbits of the webinar.

1) Majority Minorities: We all know from looking around us that the demographics of the world are ever changing and doing so at a rapid pace. Currently, 9/10 of the museum population happens to be Caucasian. What is interesting to note is how in 25 years the population of the United States will be 50% Caucasian and 50% “Minority groups,” meaning that museums need to broaden their audience base quickly in order to not see a drastic decline in attendance numbers in the years ahead.

This really caught my attention. Can you imagine 50% of the American population perhaps not speaking English as their native language? Given the way that most museums currently to not do too well truly integrating minority groups into their membership bases, how much worse could it be in the future? We need to be making the necessary changes now not to accommodate but to serve these soon to be majority minorities.

2) Who are we falling short with?
Out of all minority groups, it has been discovered that both African Americans and Hispanics are the most under served demographics within the museum-going population. This doesn’t bode well for the future, for which researchers suggest that the Hispanic population will be the dominant minority group.

3) Museum Advocates vs. Core Visitors
The distinction made between museum advocates and museum core visitor was perhaps the most interesting segment of the webinar. Although both groups are repeat visitors/members of the museum, they have different motivations, expectations, and levels of personal engagement with the museum community and within their own interactions with museum galleries. Given the fact that I am working on understanding how to evaluate museum advocacy for my internship at the Denver Art Museum, the topic of museum advocates surely struck a chord.

Researchers from Reach Advisors, Inc. described museum advocates in the following way:

a. They love to come to the museum often.

b. They have a high level of curiosity, and serve to nurture this quality in their children as well.

c. They are different from core visitors in terms of age (mostly older), but have no other socio-demographic differences worth mentioning.

d. They have “omnivorous museum-going habits,” and are what you might call cultural consumers.

e. They have active social lives.

f. They are socially and environmentally aware.

g. They tend to be more philanthropic, and donate their resources to the museum due to that motivation.

h. They are significantly happier with museums.

i. They visit museums to fulfill their own self-interest, curiosity.

The two main points that I would like to pull out from the list above are that 1) museum advocates go to museums to fulfill their own self-interest, curiosity 2) they desire to nurture this quality in their children. I find it interesting that this group of museum-goers has a characteristic key to museums retaining them as avid supporters: a passion for learning. Although they are not a fully self-sustaining population, in many ways they are; they have an inherent drive that continues to bring them through our doors, and they have the future of their children as a top priority. Interestingly, the researchers from Reach Advisors, Inc. suggested that in order for museums to create more advocates within their visitor bases they must begin to build family audiences. This ensures that advocacy isn’t generational but extends throughout a family’s history.

4) The Magic of 7 Year-Olds

Researchers noted that the median/mean of the earliest museum memory for visitors is roughly the age of 7. 2/3 of these memories include one or both parents, and ¼ of the memories were categorized as school field trips. This tells us a lot of important things, but the most intriguing to me is that 2/3 of meaningful experiences happened with a least one parent present. There is some sort of magic of 7 year olds, but there is even a greater magic in what they can accomplish emotionally and intellectually with a family member present.

The researchers also defined these museums where these magical moments occurred as “Sticky Museums,” or museum that serve to stick in the minds of their visitors. 1/3 of the earliest museum memories for 7 yr-olds happen at natural history museums. Apparently, these memories generally concern “static exhibits that promote internal creativity/imagination.” Less than 5% of these memories were hands-on activities. INTERESTING! So, this suggests that there needs to be a balance between interactive components and static, large-scale museum exhibits/components. Maybe static components aren’t the most educational but they are the most memorable! This is NOT a plug for including more dioramas in your museum…

5) Moms and Dads

Only 1/3 of moms bring their spouses with them when they visit the museum. This is another scary statistic given the fact that many women are becoming the primary bread-winners in their homes and many fathers are staying home to take care of their children. If dads aren’t going to the museums with their wives and kids now, they certainly will not choose to take their children voluntarily without their spouses.


Overall, this webinar brought to my attention several statistics that are key indicators of where the shifts are occurring in our museum visitor population. Unless we gain a grasp of our visitors, we serve without purpose, understanding, and a sense of reality.