A part of it: Understanding infrequent art museum visitors’ feelings of belonging during their visits

Authors:

• Hannah Sutton, Master of Arts in Museology
• Chair: Jessica Luke
• Meena Selvakumar
• Merilee Mostov

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Abstract:

For some visitors, a trip to a museum can be an intimidating experience. Feeling unwelcome, stripped of agency, or uninitiated by environments and experiences can have negative impacts on feelings of belonging. Belonging – a personal, emotional feeling of attachment or being “at home” – is tied closely to an individual’s emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. The purpose of this study was to understand infrequent art museum visitors’ feelings of belonging during their visit to an art museum. This study employed a descriptive survey design using semi-structured interviews conducted in-person at three large art museums in the US. One hundred and nine infrequent art museum visitors – defined as those who visited an art museum three or fewer times in the previous five years – were interviewed. Participants generally felt positive feelings of belonging across three dimensions: people-fit, place, and context. Participants pointed to two key factors that influenced their feelings of belonging, including connections, or conversely a lack of connections, with art based on their interests and identities, as well as positive or negative interactions with other guests and museum staff. The results of this study address belonging in museums in a new group – infrequent visitors – and add to what is known about infrequent visitors’ perceptions of and relationships with art museums.