Walk-and-Talk Interviews with Visitors at the Denver Art Museum
Client: Denver Art Museum | Location: Denver, CO
We conducted walk-and-talk interviews at the Denver Art Museum to explore how visitors respond to the museum’s intentional interpretive work to amplify voices traditionally excluded from museums.
OVERVIEW
The interpretive team at Denver Art Museum (DAM) is committed to interpretive strategies that present multiple perspectives. They aim to amplify voices that have been traditionally excluded from museums, thereby encouraging visitors to recognize that there is not just one “right” way to look at or think about an artwork. The DAM interpretive team brought us on to explore the efficacy of their interpretive strategies to help them make strategic decisions.
APPROACH
We conducted “walk-and-talk” interviews with visitors. The method allows visitors to experience the museum’s interpretation in relation to the artworks in the presence of an evaluator who witnesses and deconstructs the meaning making experience through conversations with the visitor.
We recruited visitors in the museum’s lobby and invited them to participate in a 30-minute interview with us about the way the museum presents information. Visitors were paid $30 for their time. During conversations, we took visitors to approximately 5 different spots in the museum that use different types of interpretive strategies. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for qualitative analysis.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
We found that DAM visitors enjoyed the variety of interpretative strategies being used. Visitors valued the inclusion of multiple perspectives and voices. However, they were sometimes confused about whose voice was represented via the interpretation and why. For example, sometimes visitors wondered why certain community voices were selected. Visitors felt they lacked sufficient information to understand why the museum valued hearing from a specific voice about an artwork.
Findings suggest DAM should be encouraged to continue experimenting with perspectives, voices, and communication styles with mindfulness towards contextualizing why a community voice has been invited.
Read more about our approach to walk-and-talk interviews with visitors here.