Re

search

at the

IMA

Ind

ianap

olis M

use

um

of A

rt: Ind

iana, U

SAFu

nd

ed

by th

e V

SG A

lison

Jame

s Pro

fessio

nal D

evelo

pm

en

t Bu

rsary and

New

castle U

nive

rsity

Jen

nife

r Locke

j.l.locke@

new

castle.ac.uk

@im

pre

ssion

ist6

Introduction•Invited to the Indianapolis M

useum

of Art in June 2015•Conducted PhD fieldw

ork within the

Department of Interpretation, M

edia and Evaluation

•Conducted interviews, exam

ined planning/strategy docum

ents and analysed displays

•Prior to this I knew very little about

visitor studies-despite my previous

role as a museum

learning officer!

Introduction

Indianapolis Museum

of Art

Curators made

all decisions

Old Exhibition M

odel

•M

ore collaborative process•

Visitor-centred•

Strong emphasis on research

and evaluation•

Core teamincludes:

•Curator(s)

•Interpretation Specialist

•Evaluator

•Designer

•Exhibition M

anager

New

Exhibition Model

•A

ud

ien

ce re

search

and

evaluatio

n h

as b

eco

me

cen

tralto the exhibition developm

ent process; used before, during and after exhibitions

•Evalu

ation

info

rms eve

rythin

g: exhibition concepts, content, types of interpretation and interactives, even titles and graphics

•M

etho

ds: front-end, form

ative, prototype testing, visual identity testing, title testing, rem

edial, sum

mative

Image credit: IM

A

Role of Evaluation

Front-end: Indiana bicentennial

Prototype testing: printm

aking interactive

Image credit: IM

A

Results

Image credit: IM

A

Image credit: IM

A

The Alison James Professional Developm

ent Bursary

•The process is straightforward –

not at all com

plicated (application + reference)•Up to £500 aw

ard•Really great opportunity! •Covers travel, conference registration fees or

other related expenses•M

ore information on the VSG w

ebsite

What I took aw

ay from the experience…

•Gained a very good understanding of ap

pro

ache

s to e

valuatio

n

•Had the opportunity to go ‘b

eh

ind

the

scen

es’

at a US art museum

and see how they w

ork•

Learned about organizational change and saw

first-han

d how

one institution is changing their approach to developing exhibitions

•Sparked a stro

ng in

tere

st in visito

r stud

ies and

audiences•

Visited an area of the US that I had never been to and visited other m

useums/galleries

Get In

Tou

ch:

Jen

nife

r Locke

j.l.locke

@n

ewcastle

.ac.uk

Twitte

r: @

imp

ressio

nist6