Understanding Visitors’ Perceptions of American Art and Interpretation for the Baltimore Museum of Art’s American Wing
Client: Baltimore Museum of Art | Location: Baltimore, MD | Funding: Terra Foundation for American Art
Ahead of a full reinstallation of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s American Wing, we helped the BMA understand audience perception of the Wing’s new and older labels.
OVERVIEW
In 2024, we partnered with the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) to learn how visitors make meaning from interpretation in their American Art Wing, particularly whether visitors’ experiences aligned with the BMA’s interpretation goals and which interpretive strategies visitors found most welcoming, understandable, user-friendly, relevant, and/or thought-provoking.
Ultimately, the study aimed to inform planning and research for a full reinstallation of the BMA’s American Wing. The American Wing houses newer and older approaches to interpretation at the BMA; thus, for the study, it was important to understand what feelings and messages these interpretive strategies evoked for visitors, as well as which strategies best engaged visitors and helped enact the BMA’s mission to create “a museum welcoming to all.”
APPROACH
We used two methodologies for the study:
Walk-and-talk interviews: We conducted walk-and-talk interviews with invited Baltimore community members and walk-in visitors. These in-depth interviews allowed us to ask, in the moment, why participants thought and felt a certain way about complex topics like usability, inclusion, racial representation, and definitions of America. For the interviews, we guided participants along a pre-determined route, pausing to ask about their thoughts on the American Wing’s interpretation.
Standardized exit surveys: To contextualize walk-and-talk interview data on a broader scale, we also administered 5-minute standardized exit surveys to walk-in visitors.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Walk-and-talk interviews and survey data showed that visitors read most or, at least, some of the labels and gallery text they encounter. They wanted to learn more about artwork that interests them, and they turned to gallery text to do so—and as survey findings indicate, when survey participants reflected on the Wing’s interpretation, they felt it was easy to understand. When asked about their preferred learning styles, both interviewees and survey participants liked engaging with text and multimedia (particularly videos) to learn more about artwork.
We also found that most interviewees appreciated thematic groupings by chronology and the Wing’s mix of objects (different styles and media, artists from different backgrounds). They felt this curatorial and interpretive approach effectively reflected a full, diverse story of American art history. However, interviewees also had important concerns for thematic groupings when placing artists often left out of the historical canon next to artwork that exemplifies Eurocentric philosophies and artistic traditions.
Our research provided the BMA with detailed insights into visitor and community perspectives on the Wing’s current interpretation and potential areas for improvement, contributing to the further development of the American Wing’s interpretive practices.
