- "Museum education is a specialized field devoted to developing and strengthening the education role of informal education spaces and institutions such as museums."
The creation and implementation of strategies to engage visitors and create an emotional connection with the museum's content.
Visitor Studies: A field of research that focuses on understanding visitors' motivations, experiences, and behavior in museums and other cultural institutions.
Audience Development: Strategies for attracting and retaining diverse audiences, building relationships with communities and stakeholders, and increasing participation and engagement.
Interpretation: The process of making meaning and communicating ideas in museums through exhibits, labels, audio guides, and other media.
Design thinking: A human-centered approach to problem-solving that involves empathy, experimentation, and iteration.
Digital engagement: The use of digital technologies and platforms for enhancing visitor experiences, communication, and interaction.
Evaluation: Methods for assessing the effectiveness and impact of museum programs and exhibitions.
Community Engagement: Efforts to involve local communities in museum planning, decision-making, and programming.
Participatory approaches: Methods for promoting active engagement and contribution by visitors, such as co-creation, co-curation, and crowdsourcing.
Accessibility: Addressing the needs and preferences of diverse visitors, including those with disabilities, through inclusive design and programming.
Relevance: Creating exhibitions and programs that reflect and respond to contemporary social, cultural, and political issues, perspectives, and debates.
Interactive Exhibitions: A type of exhibition that requires active participation from the visitors. Visitors can touch, play with, experiment and manipulate the objects in the exhibition.
Digital Exhibitions: Exhibitions that include digital or technological aspects, like digital screens and projections, virtual reality, interactive installations, etc.
Participatory Exhibitions: Visitors are invited to take part in activities, workshops, and events that go beyond simply viewing the exhibition.
Collaborative Exhibitions: Exhibitions that are created in collaboration with the community, other organizations, local artists or experts.
Socially Engaged Exhibitions: Exhibitions which purposefully address social or political issues, encourage visitors to enquire social justice topics, and create awareness.
Community engagement programs: Programs that aim to engage the visitors through outreach and community-building events.
Educational programs: Programs that educate the visitors about the exhibition and the topics that it represents.
Interactive Tours: Guided tours that involve interaction with the exhibits, either through a hands-on approach, or by using technology.
Social media engagement: A range of social media platforms are used to communicate with the visitors and allow them to share their experiences online.
Live performances: The inclusion of live performances such as concerts, theater, dance, etc., that enhance the overall experience of the exhibition.
Sensory exhibitions: Exhibitions that use all five senses to immerse visitors in a multisensory experience.
Immersive Exhibitions: Exhibitions that create an immersive environment, through the use of sound, light, videos, and artwork, which allow visitors to step into the exhibition world.
Mobile tours: Audio, video, and multimedia tours that visitors can use through mobile phones or tablets.
Family Programming: Programming including interactive exhibitions and other educational programming which children and their families can enjoy together.
Artistic collaborations: Exhibitions that involve multiple artists collaborating from a wide variety of disciplines such as visual arts, music, film and more, to create a unique and diverse show.
- "In a critical report called Excellence and Equity published in 1992 by the American Association of Museums..."
- "...the educational role of museums was identified as the core to museums' service to the public."
- "As museum education has developed as a field of study and interest in its own right..."
- "...efforts have been made to record its history and to establish a research agenda to strengthen its position as a discipline in the wider work of museums."