Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience

John H. Falk is a leading figure in free-choice learning, museum research, and science education in the United States. He holds the position Sea Grant Professor of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University. He is founder and President Emeritus of the renowned research firm, Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis, Maryland and has worked at a variety of other key positions in the museum world, including 14 years at the Smithsonian Institution. Falk earned a joint doctorate in Biology and Education from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly articles and chapters in the areas of biology, psychology and education. He co-authored with Lynn Dierking of The Museum Experience, Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning, and Lessons without Limit: How Free-Choice Learning is Transforming Education; co-authored with Beverly Sheppard the volume Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions; and has edited numerous books including Free-Choice Science Education: How We Learn Science Outside of School, and In Principle-In Practice: Museums as Learning Institutions.

John Falk's determined focus on the visitor's experience continues to transform our understanding of the relationship between museums and their audiences. Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience demonstrates that Falk remains the leading voice in the field of museum learning. For the first time he moves beyond theory and proposes a model that museums can use to explore how to serve their visitors in more meaningful ways. -Nannette V. Maciejunes, Columbus Museum of Art John Falk's most exciting work reframes frustrating old questions in new ways that bring immediate clarity. In this important book, Falk shifts the old issue of visitor segmentation away from stable traits to ephemeral dispositions. His new formulation shows us visitors who actually seem to belong to the same species as ourselves, and whose differences relate to understandable differences in the ways that they perceive and use exhibitions. -Jay Rounds, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Museum Studies, University of Missouri St. Louis, and former editor of the Exhibitionist Journal This book should be read by anyone serious about visitor experiences in museums. Falk reconceptualises the field from a wholistic perspective using the 'lens' of visitor identity and motivation. The model he proposes will shape and inform the nature, design and understanding of visitor experiences in free-choice learning environments. -Roy Ballantyne, University of Queensland, and editor of Visitor Studies Journal "Falk (Oregon State), a researcher in the field of museum functions, chooses an important time to present a model to enhance the effectiveness of all kinds of museums. The world economic scene is rather grim and traditional sources of support unreliable. He offers a work in progress, a theoretical model (the Museum Visitor Experience Model), to help visualize the relationships between museum and visitor, emphasizing the types of experience, not visitors. He believes these experiences should 'extend, confirm, and reinforce the visitor's existing beliefs,' rather than communicate new information. These arguments present a major challenge for museums in the 21st century. Recommended." CHOICE "Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience is a call to action; Falk's new book is inspiring. After closing the back cover, as a visitor researcher, I wanted to immediately locate the instrument, get out on the museum floor, and try it out with visitors. Real-life, real-time applicability is what I believe sets this model apart. It becomes a usable tool in the museum professional's toolkit with a focus on fluid predictability, not segmentation... In addition to presenting a typology of visitor needs, Identity is a mantra for visitor-centered understanding and practice in museums. In fact, his model can be seen as a vehicle by which to re-examine the public value of museums." -Kathleen Tinworth (Denver Museum of Nature & Science), Museum Anthropology

• Part I - Theory, 1. Introduction: Museums and Their Visitors, 2. The Museum, 3. The Visitor, 4. The Visit, 5. Satisfaction, 6. Memories, 7. The Museum Visitor Experience Model, Part II - Practice, 8. Theory to Practice, 9. Attracting and Building Audiences, 10. Making Museums Work for Visitors, 11. Institutional Value and Accountability, Notes, References, Index, About the Author