ABSTRACT

In November 2019, the Smithsonian hosted the Transatlantic Seminar for Museum Curators and Educators: Museums as Spaces for Social Discourse and Learning. The program brought together German and American museum professionals and was co-sponsored by the Leibniz Institution, the Smithsonian Institution, and Fulbright Germany. A keynote presentation on “Why People Choose not to Visit Art Institutions. Non-Visitor Research—Methods, Quantitative and Qualitative Results” generated a robust discussion among the symposium participants. In this essay Antje Kluge-Pinsker and Barbara Stauffer, two symposium participants, reflect on non-visitors in their respective countries, including how non-visitors are defined, why people don’t visit museums, and what museums can or should do about non-visitors. While some of the language and thinking are different, the essay reveals that many of the dynamics behind non-visitation are the same in both countries, including preconceived notions, a sense of exclusion, and barriers to access. These point to areas of joint investigation in which both countries can learn from each other.

摘要

2019年11月，史密森学会举办了博物馆馆长和教育家跨大西洋研讨会：博物馆作为社会话语和学习的空间。该计划汇集了德国和美国的博物馆专业人士，并由莱布尼兹机构，史密森学会和德国富布赖特基金会共同赞助。关于“为什么人们选择不参观艺术机构的主题演讲”。“非访问者研究-方法，定量和定性结果”在座谈会参与者之间引起了激烈的讨论。在这篇文章中，两名专题讨论会参与者Antje Kluge-Pinsker和Barbara Stauffer回顾了各自国家的非游客，包括非游客的定义，人们为什么不参观博物馆以及博物馆可以或应该对非游客做些什么。访客。尽管某些语言和思维方式有所不同，但本文揭示出，两国互访的许多动力是相同的，包括先入为主的观念，排斥感，和访问障碍。这些都指向了两国可以互相学习的联合调查领域。