(workshop in the exhibition ”Under the Paving Stones, the Beach”, TorsdagsLounge on the 10th of Nov. 2011)
Abstract: The challenge of attracting and engaging new groups is a central discussion topic in today’s world of museums. Especially the low number of young people between 15 and 25 voluntarily visiting the museums is worrying considering the risk of losing the museum visitor of the future. This paper focus on the work of the Learning and Visitors Services Departments at the cultural complex Brandts into a place that young people actively choose to visit as a leisure time activity.
Contact information:
Brandts Brandts Torv 1 5000 Odense C Denmark
Phone: +45 65207025 / +45 65207080
E-mail: leslie.schmidt@brandts.dk / lise.kapper@brandts.dk
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From user surveys to action in the museum -how can we attract and engage young people?
Leslie Ann Schmidt, Lisa Kapper
From user surveys to action in the museum How can we attract and engage young people?
1. Introduction
Danish museums and science centres offer a wide range of activities and projects that invite to interaction and participation inside the museum and on digital platforms for social
communication1. One of the target groups for many projects is the young visitors2. According to the National User Survey3 this group is underrepresented in the museums and new ways of thinking and organizing the museum experience is an important step if the museums want to attract young people. It is a challenge to develop new projects and activities that combine the central elements of an experience4 and at the same time offer opportunities for social interaction and informal learning. Like any other age group the young is far from a homogeneous group and their motivation for a visit and the museum experience is the synthesis of the individual’s identity related needs and interests (Falk 2009: p. 36). The second challenge is to communicate that a museum visit could satisfy those needs and interests. This paper intends to discuss how we as a museum can attract young visitors in their leisure time.
Many young people visit museums as a part of a formal learning programme and most museums consider that the contact and corporation with schools, educational institutions and teachers is a useful way of reaching the young visitors (Jørgensen 2012: p. 13). Consequently the museum experience takes place within a formal learning context and from a market communication aspect the teacher plays the role as the gatekeeper. According to the DAMVAD survey very few
museums are in contact with young people and involve them in the planning of the interpretation (Jørgensen 2012: p. 1). During the school visit the pupils/students might discover the
1In a best practice publication “Unge og museer” the Heritage Agency of Denmark describes 21 projects and activities that target young users.
2 The DAMVAD survey covers the age group 15 – 30 years. Dream´s survey works with the age group 13 – 23 years and the two surveys at Brandts cover the interval 15 – 25 years.
3 The National User Survey has been initiated by the Heritage Agency of Denmark and has been carried out at all national and government-approved museums on a yearly basis during the period of 2009-2011.
The survey uses quantitative methods in the form of questionnaires handed out by the participating museums in an individually calculated frequency depending on the number of visitors.
4Pine & Gilmore are the “fathers” of the experience economy. They have identified four types of experiences, with the richest being those that combine aspects of all four realms: entertainment,
educational, aesthetic and escapist (Pine and Gillmore 1999). The report Reach Out describes models for analysing and methods for co-operation with users in innovative projects (Arffmann et al. 2008).
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opportunities for fulfilling their individual interests and needs and they might just experience the museum as a nice place to visit even in their leisure time. However, this tends not to be the case as shown in the national surveys. In this paper we will discuss how we can transform the museum into both a physical and virtual place that young people will visit in their free time and we will look into the potential at Brandts for that development.
This raises a number of central questions. How do we as a cultural institution communicate and market Brandts towards a specific target group? What ways of communication can we use in the actual museum visit to ensure that the leisure visit differs from the educational programmes, and how can we transform the institution to respond to the young visitors needs and wish to build relationships, which is a central purpose for their appearance in the museum? (Scott 2007: p. 182, Moos and Lundgaard 2012: p. 55 - 58)
Qualitative surveys performed at Brandts in 2010 provided us with a framework for developing a strategy and an action plan for 2011 and 2012. Another survey in late November 2011 gave us a first respond to the action plan. Our challenge is communication, to involve the young people and recognise them as “stakeholders” and to ensure that the young profile does not end up as a short time project experimenting with branding, communication and participation driven by
enthusiastic staff in the learning and visitors department (Simon, 2010: p. 345-346). The aim is to develop a sustainable profile, integrated into the organisation and core functions.
2. A short introduction to Brandts
Brandts consists of Mediemuseet, Museet for Fotokunst and Kunsthallen Brandts - situated in an old industrial building complex in central Odense. Altogether the three institutions show
approximately 22 exhibitions a year. They share a learning centre, bookshop, ticket sale, foyer and auditorium and most visitors do not distinguish between the three institutions but focus on what to experience. By combining the three institutions the house is united under a common brand name Brandts. The Learning and Visitor Services Department at Brandts believe that an institution showing photography, contemporary art and media exhibitions has a lot to offer young people. Photo and media are part of young peoples every day lives and for many they are ways of expressing themselves. MedieMixeren5 with studios and digital activities offers a great deal of
5 Mediemixeren in Mediemuseet opened in 2010. The target group for the analogue and digital activities is the young users. Co-production and participation are key issues and the setup encourages the users to explore and make media productions and experience authentic setups. www.mediemixeren.dk
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participation and social interaction on digital platforms. Kunsthallen Brandts employs an
international focus on contemporary visual art and features interactive exhibits on a regular basis.
The whole area surrounding Brandts offers many opportunities for leisure activities aimed at all ages: museums, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, music library, shops, out door concerts, a concert hall, pubs, nightclubs and a cultural activity centre for citizens and students.
Brandts has a great potential as a place to visit in young peoples leisure time. The location provides easy access and many young people already visit the area as a part of a leisure/social activity. Brandts offers a late opening with free entrance every Thursday evening, a time where students are free from studies and jobs, and with no costs this opportunity ought to attract more visitors. However, in 2010 we found that the number of young visitors was far too low and the need for a survey and strategy was obvious.
3. Results and recommendations from user surveys
When it comes to location and content Brandts might be a privileged institution, but we are still facing the same difficulties attracting visitors under the age of 30 as the main part of Danish museums according to the National User Surveys conducted in 2009 and 2010. These challenges have led to a greater focus on explaining the low number of young museum visitors. During the last couple of years a number of surveys focusing on both the young museum users and the non-users have been published in Denmark.
In May 2011 DREAM6 published a report7 based on a quantitative survey focusing on young Danes between the age of 13-23 and their use of mass media and museums. The purpose of connecting the daily media usage and the occasional museum visit was to paint a picture of young people’s everyday culture and define the museum visit within this context.
The overall conclusion of the report was that young people do visit museums, although not entirely voluntary – only 15 %, the so-called Enthusiasts, enjoy frequent visits to all types of museums. In comparison to this 31 %, the so-called Foot Draggers, state that their last visit to a museum took place more than one year ago and was primarily in an educational context. As a rule, the higher level of education the more frequent visits (Kobbernagel et al, 2011: p. 10).
6 Danish Research Centre on Education and Advanced Media Materials
7 ”Unges medie- og museumsbrug: sammenhænge og perspektiver”
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When it comes to media young people are not surprisingly an all-round generation, who enjoy media in a broad sense. The need for communication, information and entertainment forms the core in their use of electronic media, which - among other things - on a daily basis include texting (86 %), visiting social websites (74 %) and TV watching (64 %). Only 22 % are daily book readers and an even lower number of young people (12 %) will read a newspaper. The higher level of education, the greater the share of book readers (Kobbernagel et al, 2011: p. 13). Young people on a higher educational level also tend to be more active in producing media content and sharing it.
During 2011 the research based consultancy DAMVAD together with Center for Museologi (University of Aarhus) conducted a survey based on qualitative methods and case studies in three Danish cities, Randers, Roskilde and Odense in order to delve deeper into how young people experience and perceive museums. The survey had its focus on the relations between museums and young people. The results showed the importance of the museum letting young visitors feel welcome and providing an informal, yet engaging environment that caters for the need of both knowledge and a social space. But the museums face difficulties in meeting these needs because of an inability to promote their offers, a lack of understanding of the target group and challenges in working with user involvement (Jørgensen et al. 2012: p. 62-65).
The results of these national surveys have been interesting to compare with our own knowledge.
However it is Brandts´ in-house conducted surveys that form the backbone structure for our strategy and action plan. An early survey in 2009 looked into who were actually visiting Brandts on Thursday evenings. The conclusion was, that local students in Odense would be a potential group to reach and to encourage to participating in activities. How to reach that group was the subject for the next survey conducted in autumn 2010. It concluded that the non-users were moderate users of activities such as cinema, theatre and concerts, but perceived museums as old-fashioned and dull (Gelvan og Jensen 2010: 41). They also had little knowledge of what Brandts had to offer and they had difficulties distinguishing between Brandts and the institutions in the surrounding area (Ibid.: 43). But the participants - especially the older part (20-29 years) of the target group - showed a budding interest in art and visual culture and had suggestions on how to alter the image of Brandts. They recommended events as a way to create an informal setting for interaction between Brandts and the visitors and among the young people themselves (Ibid.: 56).
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4. From user survey to action plan
Before forming a strategy we had to discuss and look for answers to a number of questions8. Why focus on young people and why choose this specific target group9? What are the consequences of a communication strategy towards this specific group and would they respond to our effort to establish a platform for social and learning experiences where the latter should distinguish clearly from our formal learning programmes developed by the educational centre? How could we involve the young users in this process, identify their various needs and interests and finally develop a strategy that covered more target groups and used various ways of communication:
- market communication including social communication platforms,
- communication with the visitors during and after their visit to Brandts and finally - communicate inside the organization and share our ideas and experience?
The knowledge we gained from the survey in 2010 enabled us to pinpoint and qualify our goals and form a brief strategy. We wanted to:
- increase the number of young people that visit Brandts in their leisure time - increase their participation and establish relationships
- increase the knowledge of Brandts through their network
- stress the opportunities for buildings relationships at Brandts – with Brandts as well as other visitors.
In the surveys we had consulted the users about how to communicate, but before emphasising on marketing we needed to analyse and discuss the experience we offered to the young visitors. One of our challenges was to form an action plan to be implemented within the existing budgets. We already had a list of activities and added some new:
- Thursday evening – free entrance from 5 -9 pm
- events, two annual events in partnership with Studiebyen Odense10
- 6 smaller events planned in co-operation with a focus group or external partners
- the visitor as a co-producer, - an annual competition including workshops,
8Priorities in the organization are central questions. The action plan would raise the costs without an extra income to cover the spending. The strategy was initially regarded as a part of our marketing and
interpretation and was developed by the Learning and Visitors Services Department.
9The target group was defined after the survey in 2009 and covered students from the university, upper secondary school, educational institutions providing creative programmes and young people who use the surrounding area in their leisure time.
10 Studiebyen Odense was founded by Odense Municipality in cooperation with the city’s higher education institutions as a service for their current and future students.
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events and exhibition of the participants´ works
- formal and informal co-operation with educational institutions
- experience with formal and informal learning processes in our educational programmes11
When developing a strategy for 2011 and 2012 in a complex organization we needed to identify a number of key areas that we found essential and within our reach as a Learning and Visitors Services Department. We decided that market communication, user involvement, young visitors´
various interests and needs, front staff and attitudes, documentation and sharing our experiences inside as well as outside the organization had to be taken into account. We were also aware that this strategy was a first step and that we were heading for the potential users not worrying too much about learning aspects or social responsibility.
Communication:
In our strategy we considered the external communication as market communication. Events were a central key to reach new visitors and the users who knew Brandts already had a potential as ambassadors. Furthermore the communication with the visitors inside Brandts should respond to the young people´s needs and at the same time challenge them with new ideas and interpretation.
By scaffolding activities and platforms for social interaction we would initiate communication as a shared process involving other visitors and forming networks of contacts. Facebook allowed stories and productions from workshops to be shared and provided us with a platform for marketing new events and activities. Our partnership with Studiebyen Odense gave us a great opportunity for announcing events on all the social communication platforms they used. Flyers and posters produced in coorporation with our focus group or interns were spread inside Brandts, in the neighbourhood and places where the target group meet. All groups within the age 16 – 25 visiting the educational centre were informed about the events and encouraged to participate.
User involvement and visitors´ various interests and needs:
Before forming a focus group we involved two students in the project. They started in February 2011 as interns and used their own experiences and all the knowledge they could gain from fellow students and friends. The purpose was to involve them as important discussion partners in
11In our educational programmes we work with three-hour workshops: introduction to the topic, visit to exhibitions, introduction to the participators´ own work, their production and finally the presentation of their works and response from fellow participants and the museum educator. Some works are published and shared on YouTube and our website.
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our work with marketing through social networks and to challenge our traditional ways and bounds. Facebook communication was discussed intensively and an informative and yet informal profile was established. Brandts´ official Facebook page did not fit into their needs and we wanted to avoid a conflict with the “official image”. As we already had a second page – “Inspired by Brandts” with a reasonable activity and mainly young people and educators, we decided to use that. The profile is used for communication about our annual art competition12 and events related to that. However, it also turned out to be useful for the new events, for sharing stories and photos from events and comments.
A number of permanent activities at Brandts invite the user to participate13 and the majority of those target the young users. As mentioned earlier we have the annual art competition “Inspired by Brandts”, every second year we run a documentary film project – Young Docs, all year round Mediemixeren offers fun, entertainment, learning, authentic media productions and social networking - all activities that require a high level of involvement and will fulfil some users needs. From the surveys we learned that opportunities for socializing, invitations to involvement and activities they could share with others played an important role for their motivation for visiting. That forced our educators to rethink the learning concepts and form new ways of participation at the events, which would give an introduction to art photography or contemporary art and information about topics and simple activities in an informal setting. A well reflected scaffolding of these activities was discussed in the planning process and simple technology ensured the presence of the activities and productions on Facebook instantly. Finally some users just wanted a social platform and a meeting place that was cosy as well as cool. Lounge settings were established with music, light and serving of beer and sushi. In June we used the roof terrace for an informal award ceremony and a more quiet arrangement took place with tea and cupcakes in a sensorial setting.
12 Inspired by Brandts is an annual art competition for people studying arts, photography, crafts and media on part-time courses. Winners and other selected works are on display at Brandts in November. Brandts is running the competition in partnership with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
13 Simon´s definition of the participatory museum: a place where visitors can create, share, connect with each other around a content. She describes four models for participation: contribution, collaboration, co-production and hosted projects (Simon 2010: p. ii, 184 -189).
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TorsdagsLounge on 24th of March 2011 Sansebar on the 16th of February 2012
Front staff and attitudes:
Important information is generated in the front staffs´ daily communication with visitors. We realised that a shared language and knowledge would qualify the discussions and enable us to find new ways and accept risk taking. A full day course in the educational centre for all front staff
Important information is generated in the front staffs´ daily communication with visitors. We realised that a shared language and knowledge would qualify the discussions and enable us to find new ways and accept risk taking. A full day course in the educational centre for all front staff