In this talk, Cathy Sigmond explores how formative evaluation supports the process of creating audience-centered exhibitions. Cathy covers the ins and outs of formative evaluation for exhibition development, from core principles to strategies for doing formative evaluation in all types of museums. 

In this article, Katie Chandler and co-authors Jen Kretser and Stephanie Ratcliffe explain how early audience research and evaluation shaped The Wild Center's strategies and messaging as it developed a new exhibition focused on climate change solutions.

In the fall of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Kera Collective did a small pro bono study for the Museum Education Division of the National Art Education Association, and the results were published in the Journal of Museum Education the following year. The study was initiated as layoffs were occurring across the museum field. We suspected that more museum educator jobs were being cut or reduced than other positions in museums, so we sent out a survey to educators to gather data. Our suspicions were confirmed. You can read the full results in our article but suffice it to say the data indicated:

Lina Bhatti wrote a blog post for the Association for Art Museum Interpretation (AAMI) where she delves into her experience at a folk museum in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Matters of Experience is a podcast about the creativity, innovation, and psychology driving designed experiences and encounters. In this episode, Cathy Sigmond chats with hosts Brenda Cowan and Abby Honor about how we use data and insights from human-centered research to help museums connect with their audiences and shape great visitor experiences.

This article, co-written by three art museum educators and Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) coaches, explores VTS’ potential as an anti-racist teaching tool.

Using data collected from museum educators, Stephanie and Amanda document and contextualize what they consider incongruous, detrimental impacts on museum education due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this article, Amanda and Stephanie share the results of two large-scale research studies that examined the impact of art museums’ field trips on K-12 students (pre-pandemic) and discuss how art museums’ teaching supports student empathy and creative thinking.

This case study contains insights and considerations for museums interested in starting and sustaining a diversity-focused fellowship program.

Stephanie Downey and Emily Skidmore’s book chapter in Enhancing STEM Motivation through Citizen Science Programs details the “who,” “what,” “how,” and “why” of evaluating citizen science programs for youth.

In this article, Cathy Sigmond describes the principles that underlie formative evaluation, showcases the range of ways museum practitioners can integrate formative evaluation into the exhibition development process, and considers how we might evolve and strengthen our traditional approaches to formative evaluation.

Cathy Sigmond breaks down Amber Case’s eight principles of calm technology and explores how museum professionals can apply them to designing museum experiences – both analog and digital – that best serve visitors.

This article highlights key findings of our research, focusing on emerging approaches to digital experiences for children in museums, as well as visitor and stakeholder perceptions of and concerns about digital experiences.

This article describes critical appraisal, a method applied by us to help a museum’s education department make data-driven decisions about programming.

This article explores how the National Museum of Natural History and Kera Collective analyzed 10 years of museum evaluation to build the institution’s accumulated knowledge by identifying and understanding trends over time.

This article presents the results of audience research at a children’s museum in Philadelphia. The research focuses on understanding the parental role in a children’s museum experience.

This article describes how the statistical procedure K-means cluster analysis can be used to deconstruct the complex nature of museum visitors.