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The Museum Experience Revisited
The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit when it was first published in 1992, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking have updated this essential reference, incorporating advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience Revisited paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences.
416 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 31, 2025
thais spiraling
January 25, 2026
First of all, I want to say that Falk is absolutely spot on in looking at the museum from the visitor's perspective, and all the things that influence that. His different "identities" - goals and expectations that people come to the museum with - are valuable and helpful. And there's a lot to be said for taking the time to unpack this.
However.
Evidently I'm not a huge social science fan, because I found this whole book a SLOG. Just . . . tedious. And I think it's more the sociology framework that he's writing from rather than the content.
(1) Long-winded does NOT begin to describe this book. It could have been SIGNIFICANTLY shorter and been just as helpful if not more so. Not only do individual paragraphs and subjects go on interminably before getting to his main conclusion (which 9 times out of 10 felt extremely obvious from a common sense perspective), but he also repeats his points throughout the different sections of the book. I think he's trying to look at them in different contexts or put a different framework on it . . . but it just felt like I was reading the same thing over and over and over and over again.
(2) I didn't find this book particularly practical. A lot of that boils down to his premise that everyone comes into a museum with a different agenda, goals, history, previous knowledge, experience, etc. and until you know that about each individual, you can't really tailor their experience to them. But you need to tailor their experiences and meet their needs . . . but practically . . . Yeah. There was a lot of "you need to be diverse and communicate in a lot of different ways" juxtaposed with "but if you have too much going on and things are too busy, there will be sensory overload and people will fatigue faster and children won't be able to pay attention." His most practical piece of advice might have been to look to Disney theme parks for how to do customer service.
(3) I read this in January of 2026, at which point it was 13 years old. And parts did NOT age well. Any discussion of marketing, of post-visit followup, of how museums communicate with people - all DRAMATICALLY out of date since the explosion of social media. Also, a great many things in the museum world changed drastically thanks to Covid. So studies from the 1990s don't always feel like they're really helpful today.
Overall, I see this book as a good source of ammunition when I need to prove to a board or director or someone that a varied approach, thinking about the visitor first, looking at self-identified identities and reasons for visiting is the direction we should be taking. But it's NOT an easy read.
However.
Evidently I'm not a huge social science fan, because I found this whole book a SLOG. Just . . . tedious. And I think it's more the sociology framework that he's writing from rather than the content.
(1) Long-winded does NOT begin to describe this book. It could have been SIGNIFICANTLY shorter and been just as helpful if not more so. Not only do individual paragraphs and subjects go on interminably before getting to his main conclusion (which 9 times out of 10 felt extremely obvious from a common sense perspective), but he also repeats his points throughout the different sections of the book. I think he's trying to look at them in different contexts or put a different framework on it . . . but it just felt like I was reading the same thing over and over and over and over again.
(2) I didn't find this book particularly practical. A lot of that boils down to his premise that everyone comes into a museum with a different agenda, goals, history, previous knowledge, experience, etc. and until you know that about each individual, you can't really tailor their experience to them. But you need to tailor their experiences and meet their needs . . . but practically . . . Yeah. There was a lot of "you need to be diverse and communicate in a lot of different ways" juxtaposed with "but if you have too much going on and things are too busy, there will be sensory overload and people will fatigue faster and children won't be able to pay attention." His most practical piece of advice might have been to look to Disney theme parks for how to do customer service.
(3) I read this in January of 2026, at which point it was 13 years old. And parts did NOT age well. Any discussion of marketing, of post-visit followup, of how museums communicate with people - all DRAMATICALLY out of date since the explosion of social media. Also, a great many things in the museum world changed drastically thanks to Covid. So studies from the 1990s don't always feel like they're really helpful today.
Overall, I see this book as a good source of ammunition when I need to prove to a board or director or someone that a varied approach, thinking about the visitor first, looking at self-identified identities and reasons for visiting is the direction we should be taking. But it's NOT an easy read.
November 15, 2018
Excellent resource for museum professionals. Summarizes a lot of current research and provides a comprehensive picture of visitor perspectives that museums need to understand in order to create a successful visitor experience. (Still not sure why the lady on the cover isn't wearing a shirt though...??)
August 17, 2020
هذا الكتاب مرجع أكاديمي ومهني ممتاز لمن يرغب في فهم العملية التعليمية المرتبطة بالمتاحف، وفهم زوّار وروّاد المتاحف، كما أنه يثير أسئلة عديدة خاصة في الثلاث فصول الأخيرة.
إذا كنت تدرس تخصص المتاحف فأنا أنصحك به، نقطة ضعفه الوحيدة هي أن المراجع كلها قديمة لموضوع متجدد كهذا، ٢٠١٢ وأقدم..
إذا كنت تدرس تخصص المتاحف فأنا أنصحك به، نقطة ضعفه الوحيدة هي أن المراجع كلها قديمة لموضوع متجدد كهذا، ٢٠١٢ وأقدم..
October 21, 2019
3.5 stars. Could have benefitted from concision in the earlier chapters in particular.
January 24, 2024
how to make space
May 23, 2016
I enjoyed reading this text as its perspective is from that of the visitor and how they access museums. In a profession where unnecessary elitism can run high, the visitor's perspective demonstrates how people use museums, which can help shape our exhibits, our community outreach programs, our educational programs, our volunteer experience, and help us examine our institution's own collections management policy. This is definitely a useful tool to have in an archives, library, and museum.
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April 8, 2016069.15 F1914 2013
October 4, 2015
Good advice for an area in which advice is generally non-existent.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews