Month: July 2022

Sir John Soane’s Museum is a relatively small museum, but there are many valuable exhibits and heritage items inside. Is one of the greatest English architects, who built and lived in it two centuries ago. Because of the narrow space inside, the staff started giving out transparent plastic bags to everyone outside. We were asked to load everything in and were specifically instructed not to record but the photo is acceptable.

I found that everyone was very quiet and serious when they went in, and although there were no other staff to watch over them, they did not take anything out of the bags. I think that dictation to visitors at the entrance of the exhibition hall would be one of the effective ways to enhance the social contract in the museum. Moreover, the provision of plastic bags also effectively keeps visitors’ belongings from touching the artwork. Maybe small museums that do not have as many visitors can learn from this approach to effectively improve the quality of their visiting experience.

After the first intervention, I discussed the process and feedback with a professional curator. We agreed that it was unlikely that we could completely change a person’s habits and behaviours, but with some slogans we could try to guide and remind them, to prevent other participants’ experiences from being ruined in advance.

I am also curious about what curators usually do to help enhance the visitor’s experience. He said that different exhibitions have different approaches, for example, some have interactive installations to allow visitors to immerse themselves in the exhibition, while others have static olfactory and tactile experiences to give visitors more than just a visual experience. He suggested that I should go to more art exhibitions of different nature to see how they improve the experience and atmosphere in the exhibition.