The wrong and the right road for museums

Authors

  • Kenneth Hudson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/nm.3710

Abstract

Every year the organisation responsible for the European Museum of the Year Award organises what it calls its Prestige Lecture. In 1993 it took place in Utrecht, in 1994 at both ends of the Channel Tunnel, and in 1995 in Barcelona. The 1995 lecturer was Michel Van Praët, Professor of Museology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. In the course of his lecture, he made a very significant observation. When planning the complete reorganisation of the Grande Galerie at his museum, a process for which he was responsible, a good deal of research was carried out into the behaviour of visitors at other museums. One result of this was to show beyond doubt that there was a direct connection between the number of people who were in the museum at any one time and the frequency with which visitors stopped to look at objects and displays. The more visitors, the fewer the stops, and vice versa. 

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