11. 06. 2012.

Presentation and workshop “Exhibit Evaluation: What do we want and need to know?”, 19.6.2012. in Pula

Formal Presentation

Elsa Bailey will offer an overview of the ideas surrounding evaluation of museum exhibitions.  Ideas will include thinking about questions that are relevant to each institution; the stages of evaluation; and examples of the ways and means used by evaluators to investigate these questions.  Dr. Bailey will share her experiences as a professional evaluator in the United States, and discuss evaluations she and others have conducted there.  The formal presentation will be followed by questions and answers and a group discussion of how these methods might be carried out in Croatian museums with consideration to cultural context and traditions.

Group Gallery Activity

Participants will work in teams out in the galleries of the museum to think about and identify questions that would be interesting and useful to examine in that setting.   They will then have the opportunity to conduct a “mini evaluation.” With the support of Dr. Bailey, teams will select one of these questions that might be easily investigated in the time frame and circumstances available to them.  They will consider possible methods for gathering information to investigate those questions.  They will select one of these methods and prepare a tool(s) for this investigation.  With the support of Dr. Bailey, (and if circumstances permit), teams will try out some of these methods.  Teams will consider how the information they get from investigation could be used and applied at that museum. Each member of the team will reflect on their home institutions and think about questions that they might investigate there.