Evaluating Visitors’ Experiences in Vesterheim’s Folk Art Galleries
Client: Vesterheim | Location: Decorah, IA
We conducted an exploratory evaluation to help Vesterheim align their interpretive strategies in the Folk Art Gallery with its intended audience outcomes identified through a recent Audience Impact Strategy process.
OVERVIEW
From 2022-2024, we partnered with Vesterheim to establish their intended audience impact and build audience-centered thinking habits needed to succeed. In looking at the current interpretive work in the museum against their desired audience impact, Vesterheim hypothesized that the interpretation in the 2nd Floor Folk Art Galleries does not adequately support Vesterheim's audience outcomes. They wanted to test this hypothesis in an exploratory evaluation to help them consider how to align interpretation with the desired audience impact.
APPROACH
We conducted two phases of evaluation. The first phase explored visitors' baseline experiences in the folk art gallery dedicated to Wood and Its Decoration. We conducted interviews onsite with visitors in the gallery. The second phase explored member and volunteer perceptions of the same folk art gallery and their responses to additional interpretive text. We conducted interviews with members and volunteers remotely via Zoom.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Visitors found various aspects of the folk art gallery interesting, with the majority commenting on the craftsmanship and artistry, particularly demonstrated in wood carving and word working. Similarly, members and volunteers described the wow-factor of the craftsmanship and artistry on display in the gallery.
In looking at visitor experience per the desired audience outcomes, the evaluation showed that the gallery currently supports the outcomes heightened wonder and enhanced well-being. These two outcomes are ones that participants felt are naturally cultivated in viewing the artworks (heightened wonder) and in the context of a museum experience (enhanced well-being). However, there is more work Vesterheim must do to support the outcomes of deepened understanding of immigration and sense of connectedness.
Based on visitor, member, and volunteer feedback, we worked with Vesterheim to generate a list of potential interpretive strategies Vesterheim might consider in the gallery. Overall, the evaluation suggested that even small, low effort changes may have a great effect in how visitors experience the gallery (i.e., rewrite the introductory panel). There are more labor intensive remediations to the gallery that may be considered in the future (i.e., new curatorial selection of objects and exhibition design).
