The Visitor Studies Guide

Lee Davidson is Associate Professor in Museum and Heritage Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has been teaching Visitor Studies to postgraduate students for more than 20 years, as well as doing projects with the local heritage sector and her own research on visitors at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and touring exhibitions in France, Canada, and Mexico. She is co-author, with Leticia Pérez Castellanos, of Cosmopolitan Ambassadors: International Exhibitions, Cultural Diplomacy and the Polycentral Museum (also available in Spanish).

List of figures; List of Tables; List of boxes; Acknowledgements; INTRODUCTION; PART I: INTRODUCING VISITOR STUDIES – Chapter 1: Visitor Studies past, present and future; Chapter 2: Contexts, purposes, and problems; Chapter 3: Theory; PART II: VISITOR STUDIES IN PRACTICE – Case Study 1. Pride, Belonging and Identity: Pacific peoples and museums in Aotearoa New Zealand; Case Study 2. Públicos de proximidad: Researching local publics and their relationships with Casa Histórica — Museo Nacional de La Independencia (Tucumán, Argentina); Case Study 3. Relationship-Building through Evaluation: Engaging with families in designing a children’s exhibition at Saint Louis Zoo; Case Study 4. Participatory Practice in a Mexican Museum: Engaging visitor voices to create spaces for connection and dialogue after a global pandemic; Case Study 5. Empathy-Building Through Free Nature Play in an Urban Park: Saint Louis Zoo Preschool, US; Case Study 6. Building Theory on Person-led Tours for Adults: A study of German museum guides; Case Study 7. Visitor Preferences, Meaning-making and the Whole-visit Experience; Case Study 8. Working with AIM: A systematic framework for visitor engagement and impact at Te Papa, Aotearoa New Zealand; Case Study 9. Museum Visitor Empirical Studies in China: A systematic review of an emerging field; PART III: A GUIDE TO VISITOR RESEARCH PRACTICE – Chapter 4: Designing and doing research; Appendix: Resources for Visitor Studies Practice; List of Contributors; Index.