Background

We conducted a contextual inquiry with S, a Williams College junior. Though S is not an art-history major, (she studies french and psychology) she is intimately familiar with the WCMA collection because she works there twice a week as a gallery guide. In this role, she sits in the exhibits, greets people, answers questions and occasionally gives museum tours. She was inspired to apply for this position after she spent the summer before freshman year of college visiting museums with her friend who had intensively studied art history where she realized that her lack of knowledge about art allowed for her to have a freer museum experience in which she could use her imagination without getting bogged down in history or artistic technique. She hopes in her job to help visitors who feel intimidated by the art use their imagination freely to enjoy the works. Though she loves museums, she admitted that after thirty minutes in WCMA she reaches her “museum limit.” When asked what would increase her museum tolerance, she said that more interactive galleries would probably lengthen her visits. We met S in the lobby of WCMA, asked her some preliminary questions and then visited the Medieval Gallery together.

Tasks

After our preliminary discussion, we walked with S up to the Medieval Gallery. We asked her to go to any part of the gallery that she was interested in and she took us to a case near the back that featured three intricately decorated piece of enamel lying next to a fourth that was covered up. S said that she liked this piece because the curator is intentionally forcing visitors to imagine the appearance of the covered enamel. She said that she always takes visitors on their tours to view this work and noted that many neglected to do the mental work to engage with this piece when they freely wonder the gallery. She said that she often feels like visitors on her tours are not actively pushing themselves to engage with the artworks and she enjoys prompting them with questions about what they see and what it might mean because she feels like it offers them a richer experience. Then we asked S to view two paintings that she was less familiar with and questioned her about her thought process as she viewed these works. Her comments were mostly observations about the painting’s appearance; She admired the texture of the clothing in the painting and contemplated the meaning of the figure’s stoic facial expressions. She did not pause to read the plaque saying that she often finds that reading about art before she looks at it inhibits her experience.

Problems and Future Changes

S was easy to talk to and seemed comfortable describing her thought process in the galleries. As we performed the contextual inquiry, we realized that there was a problem embedded in our process. By asking S questions about her thought process as she looked at the art works, we were insuring that she engaged with the works actively. On our next inquiry, we should think of ways to give our interviewee tasks that will make them interact with the galleries more naturally to see if it is a more passive experience. This might involve letting them wonder for a couple of minutes without asking them questions or simply moving with them through the gallery and letting them direct the conversation. Then we can make them interact with the gallery actively (by asking them questions as they look at the art) and then ask them to reflect on the difference between these two experiences. Because our contextual inquiry with S felt very natural, comfortable and useful we don’t plan to eliminate any steps from our procedure. Rather, in the future we want to add one more task that enables us to learn about a more passive gallery experience. This would help us get a clearer sense of the kinds of engagement that promote a richer museum visit. In our future inquiries with an art history student and Williamstown parent we will explore this procedure for comparing active and passive gallery engagement.