Research

Interpretation is the way that we connect people to our heritage, so we need to understand both people and heritage.

People

People comprise our current visitors, but also new audiences – the people we would like to connect with, who might not already visit the museum. We might be able to connect with them through a new subject or by using a different interpretive method. In order to understand what people are interested in or need to connect, we need to undertake audience research. The best place to start is the AIM Success Guide: Understanding Your Audiences.

We need to know what current visitors like or don’t like. This information can be obtained through surveys or by chatting to visitors in the museum. A focus group can help to gain more nuanced responses and answers to specific questions. To learn about new audiences, we need to ask and listen to a wide range of views. Ideally, this should be done early on in the planning process, and at regular points through the design stages. This can also include people with particular needs or interests.

Co-curation takes audience engagement further and invites people to come on in and help us design and interpret our collection. True co-curation is about giving equal control and decision making – it’s a bit like inviting someone into your living room and letting
them rearrange your furniture! Obviously, you need to work with the participants beforehand to agree how much autonomy you can or want to give. A great way to start is to invite people to take part in writing new labels for objects, giving their unique perspective or story, to create the text for graphic panels or work with exhibition designers to design new display spaces. Derby
Museums use a toolkit called Human Centred Design which provides ideas and new ways to involve people in the design process.

Heritage

The heritage we are interpreting includes museum collections, history, built heritage and intangible heritage. Before we start interpretation we need a good understanding of the heritage and summary of the history. Research for this can involve volunteers
and potential audiences, specialists and people with contemporary knowledge. Understanding museum collections will involve review of documentation and information about the collections and could include producing a statement of significance for specific objects or groups of collections.

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