Museum Professionals Research Articles

Exploring Design Aspects of Online Museums: From Cultural Heritage to Art, Science and Fashion

Abstract The article presents a perspective on online museum design by conducting a systematic review. The study aims to synthesize key findings related to online museums, focus on issues related to design as well as identify priority areas for further research in the design of online museums. The systematic review process followed the guidelines outlined in the PRISMA 2020 recommendations to select relevant articles. A search was conducted in the Web of Science database with the specific topic of “online museum design.” A total of 148 publications published between 2019 and 2023 were identified and selected for the review. A keywords map was generated based on the bibliographic data of the selected articles. By conducting a systematic review of publications from the Web of Science database, the study identifies five clusters of research in online museum design. These clusters cover topics such as visitor behavior, accessibility, authenticity, immersive technologies, and technology adoption. The findings highlight key aspects of design that impact user engagement, cultural heritage, virtual reality, and the intersection of technology and tourism. The review also includes a case study of online museums representing various types of artifacts, including historical and cultural heritage, art, science, nature, clothing, and museums for children. Overall, the systematic review provides valuable insights for researchers, practicing designers, and museum professionals involved in creating and curating online museum experiences. Further research involves a review of publications using other scientific databases, as well as using the term “virtual museum” for a wider coverage of publications in this direction.

Comparing the negotiation of attitudes in audience-sensitive art exhibition labels: how they engage visitors of different age groups

Abstract This article examines how audience-sensitive art exhibition labels engage visitors of different age groups – children and adults – from an appraisal perspective. The potential of evaluative language and emotionally charged expressions in enhancing visitor engagement is increasingly recognized by museum professionals, while it has received limited in-depth exploration in the research literature. A corpus of 56 audience-sensitive labels from an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia was compiled for a comparative analysis of how they negotiate affect, judgement, and appreciation meanings. The findings reveal that both sets of labels frequently employ positive and inscribed appreciations to evaluate the qualities of the artworks. However, there are notable differentiations regarding the realizations of attitude types, subtypes, polarity, mode, appraisers, and the appraised triggers/targets. This article contributes to our understanding about the use of evaluative language in art exhibition labels for children and adults, offering insights into audience-sensitive label writing practice in the art museum context.

Unveiling Hidden Histories: Disability in Ancient Egypt and Its Impact on Today’s Society—How Can Disability Representation in Museums Challenge Societal Prejudice?

The representation of disabled individuals in museum spaces worldwide has sparked substantial debate in recent decades. It has become increasingly evident that disabled people’s lives and experiences have been overlooked, under/misrepresented in museum narratives, or as museum professionals and academics have highlighted, ‘buried in the footnotes’ of history. Museums can either challenge or continue such exclusion through their actions. This marginalization of disabled people from our present museums narratives contributes to the perpetuation of prejudice and systematic biases that reinforce their exclusion in contemporary society. Nevertheless, the call for change has never been more pressing. Museums, as ‘agents of social change’, are required to not only address the absence of disabled people in their narratives but to combat prejudicial ideas about disability and drive societal changes to support social inclusion. This paper intends to use the recent movement of disability representation to envisage how national museums in Egypt can challenge societal prejudice by representing disability narratives from ancient Egypt in their exhibitions. The historical perspective of disability in ancient Egypt is a compelling example for illustrating social acceptance and the level of inclusion for disabled individuals in contrast to the negative stereotypes prevalent in contemporary Egyptian society. By adopting the new emergent approach of ‘Representing Disability’. Egyptian museums can stimulate discussions on disability issues and advocate for social change while connecting disabled individuals with a history that acknowledges their contributions and existence. The paper employed qualitative research methods to answer the following research question: what impact do representations of disability from ancient Egypt have on the way national museums engage with societal discourses about disability? Please note the article includes images of human remains.

Museums in Action: How Museums are redefining their Role in European Projects

An innovative and detailed analysis of the role of museums in European Union-funded projects is presented in this article, based on a thorough search of the European CORDIS database. The study explores how museums have transformed from being passive custodians of cultural heritage to becoming dynamic and multifunctional actors in European research and innovation. Through a systematic analysis of European projects funded in the 2007-2022 period, the article highlights the growing participation of museums in various EU programs, the varied roles they assume-from beneficiary partners to associate collaborators-and their impact in key areas such as education, research, digitization and technological innovation. This research provides both quantitative and qualitative insights into museums' involvement in shaping European cultural identity and policy development. The paper is of particular interest to policy makers, museum professionals and cultural heritage researchers, offering a unique perspective on the evolving role of museums in the European context and future opportunities for collaboration and funding.

Designing the Virtual Museum with Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Abstract In the 2020 video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the player builds the collection of the impressive Animal Crossing Museum (ACM). Exploring the visitor experience of this video game museum’s art wing from the perspective of museum professionals allows for the discovery of inventive ways to deepen connection with museum patrons in the virtual space. The ACM is more successful at engaging visitors than traditional virtual museums. It meets visitor needs by offering an immersive, interactive experience, and depends on direct action from the visitor to expand and grow its collection and space. By taking lessons from the player interaction design of the ACM, virtual museums can be designed to meet the psychological needs of visitors and build long-lasting relationships between the visitor and the institution. From the text, this essay proposes seven lessons for designing virtual museums: start with visitor experience at the center of virtual museum design, allow the visitor to collaborate on the creation of the virtual museum, make the virtual museum a habit with intermittent rewards and increased access over time, build social interaction into the virtual museum, add an avatar, show off curator personality, and address colonial roots of museums.

Food as Folklife: Public Folklore Practice in the Museum and Archive

This article examines folkloristic methods for collecting and presenting foodways in museum and archival settings. Drawing on the author’s experience as a public folklorist and exhibit curator, the article offers two case studies on foodways collection and presentation. The first case study explores the Smithsonian Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage’s annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., in which the author presented in 2023. The second case study highlights the Kentucky Folklife Program of Western Kentucky University’s exhibit, “A Culture Carried: Bosnians in Bowling Green” (mounted at the Kentucky Museum 2017–2019). As the then-folklife specialist for the Kentucky Folklife Program, the author served as a co-curator for the exhibit and associated programming. Through these case studies, the article aims to provide concrete ideas and methods for documenting and presenting foodways for museum professionals and archivists.

Some Remarks on the Development Potential of Ethnographic Museums in Poland

The reflections presented in this text are based on over thirty years of experience, ten of which were spent as director of the Andrzej Wawrzyniak Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw. If a museum—nowadays called ethnographic—is to fulfil its mission of showcasing the richness of the world and the diversity of human thought and activity, it must continue to evolve. It should engage in extensive networks and partnerships, both formal and informal, to build trust between itself and its various stakeholders. Moreover, it must participate in public discussions and processes. Such a museum should be grounded in professionalism, courage, and respect. Museum professionals, in turn, must always set high standards for themselves, recognising that freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin.

Using extended reality technologies in modern museums

This study explores the nature, core features, and evolution of extended reality (XR) technologies in the 21st century, focusing on their potential in the museum context. It examines academic research and representative examples of cultural heritage enhancement from international museum practices. The specific characteristics and properties of each technology within XR’s broader scope, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality, are identified and analyzed. In addition, the study explores designs or case studies of these technologies’ application in the museum environment, including the emerging Metaverse, which blends VR and AR within the same broader conceptual framework. Furthermore, the study examines why these innovative technologies resonate with museums and assesses their impact on relational communication between modern museums and the public, particularly younger audiences. It also highlights limitations or obstacles to their widespread adoption of XR technologies in museums, while outlining future prospects for their integration. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive overview of XR’s use in museums, focusing on how these technologies enhance cultural values. It offers reflection and suggestions for authors and museum professionals regarding the design and implementation of XR technologies in modern museums.

Professionelle Improvisation. Doing (Summer School) Museologie

Lioba Keller-Drescher (Munster) and Birgit Johler (Graz) have been organising the Summer School Museology at the LWL-Freilichtmuseum Detmold since 2021. In the spirit of research-based learning, the museum becomes a place and object of research for a week. The participants work on theoretical and practical issues concerning the collection, develop curatorial and educational concepts and present the results to the public at the end of the week in the form of an exhibition. In this way, the programme is geared equally towards the need for practical training and young talent in the museum profession, as well as bringing university and museum closer together. The professional improvisation that such a format requires is intended as an impulse for the development of teaching formats in times of AI. Using three posters and six photographs, Jan C. Watzlawik (Dortmund) conducts an interview with the two organisers on the genesis, programme and practice of the Doing Summer School Museology.

Discursive AI Infrastructures: Envisioned and Overlooked Museum Futures

ABSTRACTPrompted by recent innovations, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being discussed across the museum sector regarding its implications for institutional roles and practices. However, AI in particular, is an ambiguous term, a ‘black box’ which is capable of containing and reflecting numerous values and ideals (Crawford, 2021). This paper positions discourse around AI as a ‘discursive’ infrastructure, capable of not only embodying ideals but also shaping and justifying certain institutional practices and roles. This paper thematically analyses 115 pieces of grey literature produced and shared by professional governance bodies in the museum sector from 1995–2023, mainly across Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In doing so, it identifies four preliminary themes encompassing shifts in discourse over time which give shape to a contemporary discursive infrastructure. This prompts timely critical reflections of museum professionals and stakeholders on both imagined and overlooked public roles, responsibilities, and practices of the museum in relation to AI.

‘Providing a Layman's Guide to the Scheme’: Museum Computing, Professional Personas and Documentary Labour in the United Kingdom, 1967–1983

Abstract Between the 1960s and early-1980s the museum sector in the United Kingdom (UK) was rapidly professionalised and systematised. A crucial moment in this transition was the creation in 1967 of the Information Retrieval Group of the Museums Association (IRGMA), and the subsequent launch of its system for the machine encoding and communication of museum catalogue records. The rise of IRGMA marked an inflection point in museological practice and the normalisation of computerised work within the UK museum profession, a moment when the desire for a ‘layman's guide to the scheme’ began to give way to new professional personas and forms of documentary labour. This article asks how cultures of museology and professional labour shifted in response to IRGMA. It argues that between the late 1960s and mid-1980s both the implementation of and the debate around computerised cataloguing disrupted the function of UK museums and how museum professionals imagined their labour. And by tracing the emergence of these cultures and their intersections with professional identity and labour practices, this article seeks to tease out the ways museum history can resonate with wider narratives of labour, expertise and technological innovation in contemporary British history.

Short but meaningful: visitors’ experiences underlying time spent looking at artworks and labels

ABSTRACT For more than a century, the timing and tracking (T&T) approach has been widely used in museums. Museum professionals tend to find the average time visitors spend in front of artworks ‘too short’. This implies to consider mediation devices as a hindrance that could distract even more visitors’ attention from artworks. However, when visiting an exhibition, what happens when a visitor looks at an artwork which is systematically accompanied by a label of almost equal or even greater size? In 2019, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille (France) opened the temporary exhibition Le rêve d'être artiste (The Dream of Being an Artist) where each artwork was accompanied by a large label seeking to encourage and guide visitors during their visit by asking questions, telling anecdotes, or providing information to be found in the artwork. The museum wanted to know whether the labels were read, and in what proportions; what effects reading the labels would have on the visitor’s relationship to the artworks; and whether the time spent reading and focusing on an artwork changes over the course of the exhibition. To answer these questions, a study initiated a dialogue between T&T observations, and visitors’ physical, cognitive, and emotional activity reported by visitors themselves through a stimulated recall interview. This article highlights visitors’ relationship to the artwork via labels such as guiding, reducing ambiguity, answering questions, explaining the exhibition’s approach, and triggering interest in artworks a visitor might otherwise have missed. Eventually, the authors argue the pitfalls of trying to infer the visitor experience from solely observing viewing patterns and measuring time spent looking at an artwork. Therefore, the study breaks with the tradition of T&T alone in museums and calls for qualitative indicators of experience.

Museum-audience interaction within permanent exhibitions of natural history museums: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT This article reviews the ways in which research into natural history museums has focused on interactions of visitors with permanent exhibitions. The review covers research articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 1990 to 2022. It analyses six aspects of museum-visitor interactions: (1) the conceptualisation, by exhibition curators, of interaction with visitors; (2) the mediation, by museum educators, between museum and audience, through supervised teaching and learning; (3) the interpretation, by visitors in their meaning-making process, of permanent exhibitions; (4) the influence exerted by exhibition qualities on museum-audience interactions; (5) the presentation of subject-specific content; and (6) the institutional mission and social impact of natural history museums, as reflected in their permanent exhibitions. This systematic literature review seeks to help researchers and natural-history museum professionals in their conceptualisation and development efforts, as they work to develop influential permanent exhibitions.

Inclusive intangible cultural heritage safeguarding in museums: professionalism vs. ethnic attribution in a Western Balkan setting

ABSTRACT In recent efforts to bridge cultural theory with politics to prevent identity-based conflicts by advocating inclusive safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), we used academic insights on identity construction to formulate policies that utilise ICH safeguarding as a catalyst for reconciliation and development. We focus on a case study from Montenegro's Pljevlja, examining historical shortcomings in ICH identification and safeguarding, with a particular emphasis on the potential role of museum professionals in mitigating societal issues. Tamburica-playing emerges as a prime example of an ICH element that can bridge divides between communities separated by ethnicity and religion yet sharing (while contesting) many mutual ICH elements. Our approach scrutinises the role of regional museums in this transformative process and suggests potential solutions for professionals facing dilemmas of professionalism versus ethnic attribution. While offering a promising outlook, we conclude further comparative testing of this model in post-conflict societies is needed.

The Museum Profession

In The Profession, our staff sits down with scholars at work in a variety of settings, in the academy and beyond. In this issue, we discuss the pitfalls and possibilities of the museum profession as described by current museum professional, Tara Young, in her new book, So You Want to Work in a Museum (2019). Between the freedom that an alt-ac job can provide to the difficulties a museum job holds, we pull back the curtain of this job field, the successes of current professionals working in a variety of museums, and the challenges they have overcome to be part of another educational community.

From Entrepreneurial Origins to Professional Museum: A Practitioner’s Perspective on Field Hockey’s Sporting Heritage at The Hockey Museum, England

Founded in Woking, England, in 2011, The Hockey Museum (THM) set out to achieve something unprecedented. That is, the bringing together of objects and archives that collectively chronicle the national history and development of field hockey in England, the country from which ‘modern’, codified field hockey originated before spreading globally. Formed from the personal collections of its founders and heritage material from the defunct English Hockey Association, THM has since adopted an increasingly international collecting and research remit courtesy of the involvement of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and grown rapidly in scale and professionalism. Its collection is a unique and culturally significant sporting and social history resource – the only museum for field hockey in the world. Drawing on case studies of other museums and the wider historiography of sport museums and sport heritage to contextualize THM’s evolution across three temporary premises, the author explores the entrepreneurial genesis of THM’s founding, including formative, short-lived iterations in the 1980s, before looking to the future. Addressing an identified gap in the available literature, the author examines how THM’s journey and the people involved in its development have fashioned an unusual, seemingly contradictory sport museum operating model, that is worthy of documentation and practitioner introspection.

Museum Professionals’ Perceptions of Chemical and Biological Hazards and Risks in Museum Work Environments in Finland

Limited research has explored museum professionals’ perceptions of workplace hazards and risks, despite the presence of various health threats in museum work environments. This study aims to identify perceived chemical and biological hazards and contributing factors in Finnish museum workplaces. Utilizing data from two surveys and qualitative content analysis, it uncovers a range of perceived hazards, often linked to collection storage facilities, historical buildings, and museum collections. Mold, indoor air quality, and dust are central concerns. While recognizing chemical hazards in collections proves challenging, accident-related and ergonomic hazards receive broad recognition. Workplace hazards are perceived to be rooted in systemic and cultural factors, encompassing haphazard management, recurring themes of neglect, limited safety knowledge, and negative attitudes. Enhancing workplace safety in museums necessitates a comprehensive approach, including support and education for leaders and other professionals, improved work practices and storage facilities, and increased budgetary support.

Virtual Reality in Samarkand’s Silk Road Museums

This study explores the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies to extend the reach of museum exhibitions in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, by developing virtual exhibits through collaboration between Lublin University of Technology and local museums. The study involved creating a virtual exhibition of 3D-scanned artefacts from three Samarkand museums. An exploratory survey was conducted with museum professionals and Generation Z individuals to assess VR’s complementary role to traditional exhibitions. Findings. The survey revealed broad acceptance of VR as a supplementary tool, with 79% of professionals endorsing it. Generation Z participants showed high engagement, with VR enhancing their interest in traditional visits. VR technologies significantly improve access to Silk Road heritage, providing an immersive, interactive experience that traditional methods cannot offer alone. The findings underscore VR’s potential to attract diverse audiences, particularly tech-savvy younger generations. Integrating VR into museum exhibitions can enhance cultural heritage dissemination, support educational initiatives, and foster a greater global appreciation for Silk Road artifacts. Future research should explore long-term impacts on visitor behavior and museum attendance.

Following community guidelines in publishing Native American archaeological collections online

ABSTRACT Multiple sources of pressure are impacting museum professionals who steward Native American collections as they decide what should be made available to the public. This includes sharing imagery of collections through online portals – a cornerstone of the Open Museums movement, but something many Native American communities have concerns over. A systematic program reviewing the archaeological collections from North America held at the National Museum of American Indian provided an opportunity to reach out to source communities to discuss what should be made publicly available online. Examples are provided along with a broader description of this outreach, resultant changes, and how similar projects might be needed at other museums.

Professional identity of public librarians, archivists and museum professionals in five European countries

PurposeThe purpose is to investigate the professional identity of public library, archive and museum (LAM) professionals in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Norway and Sweden.Design/methodology/approachThe data have been gathered through the administration of three questionnaires. A comprehensive analysis is conducted to explore the variations in the professionals’ perceptions of their professional proximities to the other LAM professions and other related professions, considering demographic factors such as age, education, gender and immigrant background of participants.FindingsThrough a lens of micro- and macro-professional identities, the findings underscore both clearly perceived role separation between the LAM professions and notable points of convergence, suggesting opportunities for collaborative efforts. The implications of these discoveries are discussed, offering a foundation for future research endeavors.Originality/valueThe study highlights the professions perceived to have the most and least similarity to LAMs based on questionnaire responses, providing valuable insights into the interplay between various professional domains.