Art Museum Visiting Series #1
Whitney, Morgan Library & Museum, MoMa, Frick Collection, The Met
Published in
6 min readOct 27, 2016
Whitney Museum of American Art
- Date Visited: Sep 19 2016 [Mon], 5:00–5:45pm
- Purpose of Visit: Field research
- Overview: Was there for near the closing time and it was gloomy and raining outside that the gallery space was really quiet.
- Visitor Demographic: Mostly tourist/foreigners. Lots of old couples(mostly white, in their 50–60s). Only a few came by themselves. Don’t really see any young people — it is a weekday during work hours.
- Visitor Behavior: Talking selfies, photos, reading materials on the wall. Looking at the phone, sitting down. Talking to friends/family.
The Morgan Library & Museum
- Date Visited: Oct 11 2016 [Tue], 3–4pm
- Purpose of Visit: Field research
- Overview: It is a smaller more unknown museum in NYC. It was quiet but was a multi-purposed space with where people can sit and chat and carryout meetings. Free audio guide was available for the permanent collection that most people used it.
- People: 3 types of visitors: young tourist couples(speaking other language than English and carrying huge DSLR),old couples and people who are visiting alone.
- Visitor Behavior: Taking pictures, talking to friends, listening the guide.
- Others: I saw lots of ladies inside gallery space, assuming because the special exhibition was about Charlotte Brontë. Busiest during the free admission hours — Friday evening. Mostly first time visitors rent out audio guide. Many asks for different language options.
“I am not an artist. I am not good at making art but I admire it. So I chose to be around it.” — Marilyn, Museum Volunteer
Museum of Modern Art
- Date Visited: Oct 11 2016 [Tue], 7:30–8pm
- Purpose of Visit: Premiere viewing hours for corporate members
- Overview: Very pleasant experience because MoMA is usually really crowded all the time.
- People: Lots of big groups and couples relaxed quiet dating
- Visitor Behavior: Lots of conversations
Whitney Museum of American Art
- Date Visited: Oct 13 2016 [Thu], 10:30–11:30am
- Purpose of Visit: Brunch date with a friend
- Overview: Even though I was there not long after the door opening, it was pretty packed with children and tourists.
- People: Saw many children groups coming from schools. Saw a couple of people in wheelchairs. People in docent tour groups. A few mothers with children on strollers.
- Visitor Behavior: School children in groups, sitting down on the floor listening to the guide. People listening to docents. People taking photos.
“I visited an art museum recently but I couldn’t stay there more than 20 minutes to enjoy the exhibition because my child started running round artworks and wanted to touch them and I was afraid to ruin the valuable artworks. … I wish art museums had some space for children — who like to walk around but don’t yet know how to behave in museums — to play while the parents look at artworks close by.” — Jackie Kook, a mother of 16month old girl
The Frick Collection
- Date Visited: Oct 25 2016 [Tue], 4–5:30pm
- Purpose of Visit: Field research
- Overview: The reason why it is called a collection instead of museum is that all the artifacts are carefully collected by the Mr. Frick. The collection is mostly made out of old paintings, sculptures and furnitures. The presentation of these artifacts is very unique that there are no big labels nor glass cases that it give a feeling as if a person is visiting Mr. Frick’s house instead of an art museum. Due to the specific setting of this space, children under 10 is not admitted. The museum is really quiet.
- People: families, old couples, tourists, visitors who come by themselves
- Visitor Behavior: 8/10 uses audio guides. Conversations amongst groups and to the partners. No photos allowed in the gallery space that I saw very few people staring at their phones. Saw some people taking notes. Most people stroll around. Stay in front of artworks longer while listening to audio guide.
- Talking a museum security: She is very proud to work there because she thinks it is very different from most of the other art museums in NYC due to their special ambience with they way they present the artworks and quietness in gallery space. They have allowed taking photos in the gallery space for awhile in the past but have banned it again because many visitors didn’t like it and saw how the level of engagement dropped(people stayed shorter time). She recognizes some returning visitors who are more likely don’t use audio guide, instead make the experience more conversational with the people they come with.
“Not all the visitors use audio guide. Some people prefer conversations. … We have lots of returning visitors … they are mature in looking at art, the old master paintings.” -Michell, museum security
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Date Visited: Oct 26 2016 [Wed], 11–1:30pm
- Purpose of Visit: Museum Hack Un-Highlights Tour (2hr)
- Overview: I’ve been to the Met and heard many people saying how overwhelmed they were when they entered the museum and didn’t know what to do. Because I was with a very small tour group—an English father and son tourist, a lady and I—I didn’t get to look at what sort of people are at the museum and how people are behaving, but have experienced the museum with a new storytelling.
- People: Lots of tourists, lots of private tour groups, lots of student groups.
- Visitor Behavior: small number of people used audio guide. many people taking photos (DSLR and smart phone), starting at phones.
- Thoughts about the tour: The tour was highly interactive. The guide, Kevin, tried to engage with the group by asking lots of questions and making the tour participatory by telling people to go find their favorite piece, etc. The stories told by Kevin was not all about how the curators would talk to you about—how to view art from academic stand point of view—but more of personal interests and behind/hidden stories such as how the most expensive acquire have done and why, how the Egyptian temple room got placed in the North wing, etc.
“I hate people when they go to museums and stare at an artwork and be like, ‘this is a master piece!’, I think it is bullshit unless they can really explain it why”. -Kevin
“I’ve done a lot of tours offered by different museums, but I like the ‘humaness’ of this[tour]”. -Pricilla
“I usually listen to audio guide, so I can hear the stories behind the artwork”. -Joann, a visitor from New Zealand
