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FAQsA good place to start for information about audience research, the work of AMARC and museum visitors.
Who visits museums in general?Museum visiting is not evenly spread in the population. However, audience research shows that the demographic characteristics of museum visitors has remained fairly stable, both over time and across studies that have been undertaken in many different countries. AMARC has prepared a detailed paper outlining general characteristics of museum visitors.
Who visits the Australian Museum?Up to 400 000 people visit the Museum's College Street site each year. Of these 45-55% visit as family groups, 15% come alone and 15% visit with a spouse/partner, with around 15% of visitors being school groups. Seventy per cent of the Museum's visitors were born in Australia, and most live in the greater Sydney region (65%). The majority are aged 35-49 years (28%), 25-34 years (22%) or over fifty years (25%), and 50% have tertiary qualifications or above. It is important to note that these demographic characteristics vary greatly depending on time of year, programs offered and competitor activity. For example, the Museum's tourism profile has been increasing since 2000, with 17% of visitors in November, 2001 being from overseas,18% in January, 2002 and 24% in January, 2003. Some exhibitions and programs appeal to specific audiences. For example the Body Art exhibition attracted a younger audience of people visiting as couples or singles and Kid's Island consistently brings in children under five years of age, and their carers, outside of school holiday periods. AMARC has also collected a wide range of information about specific audience groups through its extensive research programs. What do people want from a museum visit?Through analysing a number of evaluation studies conducted by AMARC we have found that people have a range of needs and requirements from their visit, outlined in this paper. What do people do when they visit a museum?Audience research has a long tradition of studying visitor behaviour relating both to the whole-of-visit as well as specific exhibitions. This paper summarises both the literature and results from AMARC studies into visitor behaviour. What is audience research?Audience Research, also known as visitor studies, evaluation or market research, is a discipline of museology that seeks to uncover information about visitors to cultural institutions, such as demographics, behaviour, satisfaction, leisure habits and learning outcomes. Audience research has a long history of practice in museums, and there is a large body of literature and methodologies developed for use in a wide range of contexts. More information can be found under the Methods and Resources sections of this site. How do I conduct a visitor survey?
How do I conduct a focus group?Focus groups are a qualitative method of social science research widely used in marketing and commercial sectors for product testing, as well as in sociology, political research and management planning and strategy. Focus groups are in-depth discussions usually lasting one to two hours with small groups of eight to ten people who are carefully selected based on a set of criteria. For a brief introduction to what is a very specialised and complex research methodology download the focus group's information sheet. This recommended that further reading be undertaken and a list of texts and websites have been provided at the end of the sheet for this purpose.
Do Visitors Learn in Museums?Learning is a key issue for museums to address. Museums are positioning themselves in the market as places for learning and, at the same time, research has shown that people visit museums to learn. Learning is becoming increasingly important as museums struggle for relevance in the new century, with increased competition and choice for consumers, sophisticated expectations of leisure experiences, lifelong learning, as well as the ongoing need for museums to be accountable for all facets of their work to a wider range of stakeholders and communities. There is a vast literature about how people learn and how they learn in informal contexts, including museums, and with specific types of visitors such as families, school children and adults. However, there has been less work investigating the impact of museum visiting on subsequent learning through changes in attitudes and behaviour. AMARC has implemented a vigorous program of audience research over the past five years using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including visitor surveys, depth interviews, focus groups, tracking and observational studies. Based on this body of work an overall picture of visitor learning at the Australian Museum across a broad range of programs and audiences has been collated and summarised. Are museums leisure venues?People give many reasons for visiting or not visiting museums which are closely tied to choices people make about how they will spend their leisure time. Molly HoodÕs work found that six concepts affect the decisions that people make about their leisure choices: being with people (social interaction); doing something worthwhile for the self or others; feeling comfortable and at ease in the surroundings; challenging new experiences; the opportunity to learn and actively participating (Hood, 1995). A wide variety of research has been undertaken into museums as leisure and tourist destinations. This reading list contains a bibliography of key readings about museums and leisure.
How do I evaluate a website?As museums are continually expanding their online activities, evaluating visitors' needs, usage and feedback about museum websites is becoming a priority. To date there is not a great deal of literature available on this topic, although increasingly papers that detail evaluation projects are being presented at conferences such as Museums and the Web. This website hosted by John Chadwick contains links for research projects and papers about evaluating websites. 
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