The impact of experiential variables on patterns of museum attendance: The case of the Noord-Brabant museum

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, museum attendance has grown steadily. Increasingly, participation rates are being viewed as indicators of the success and legitimacy of policy in a given field of culture. Consequently, museums have become more interested in gaining insight into factors that affect museum attendance. This paper focuses on variables that shape patterns of attendance of those who are already museum-goers. It is assumed here that assessments of the experience visitors have with museums serve to explain variations in patterns of attendance. Variables measuring museum experience range from the preference for a museum's collection of modern art to specific titles to rebates on admission prices. Very probably, such variables mediate between socio-economic background variables and outcome measures such as frequency of annual museum attendance and choices of specific shows, i.e., a show documenting important events of World War II and a show presenting neo-classical sculpture. The research is exploratory in nature: it identifies a number of experiential variables and assesses their effects on patterns of attendance and selections of those who are already museum visitors. Data were collected at a Dutch provincial museum with an archeological and an art collection.