Towards an Understanding of Temporary Exhibitions Through Visitor Research

Over the last four decades, the practice of temporary exhibitions has been growing rapidly. However, the effort and expense involved have led to a debate about their future and a critical view of their contribution to the museum’s sustainability. With this background, understanding the market for temporary exhibitions and audiences’ attitudes towards them is fundamental to strategic and effective planning. Though museums have substantially developed the field of audience research, there is no systematic knowledge of visitors’ perspectives and behaviour when it comes to temporary exhibitions. This paper seeks to address this lack of knowledge by studying the latest temporary archaeological exhibition of an established museum, known for its engaging shows. In order to arrive at a better understanding of visitors’ approach, it looks, through a research questionnaire, at the relation of temporary exhibitions’ audiences to the regular visitors, what visitors consider as the distinctive features of the Museum’s shows, and how they explore the exhibition. The research findings are analyzed as insights in themselves, and interpreted in the context of existing knowledge. A deeper understanding of how exhibitions work for audiences can lead, it is argued, to more informed choices both from a curatorial and a marketing point of view.