Something Different: A pilot study evaluating family outreach ...

Something Different - Page 12 of 47
experience can also be seen in the personal meaning map that Tina completed on the day of
the visit (see Figure below).
Figure 3: 'Tina' Pre-visit Personal Meaning Map
Tina’s personal meaning map above is particularly interesting for the elements that
are not directly negative. First the statement that the Fitzwilliam Museum is “something for
children of school age or people interested in history” is notable for excluding her from the
concept of ‘who the museum is for’. Also interesting is Tina’s perception that the museum is
“something everyone should visit and learn about and respect”. This view that museum
visiting is a worthy activity was offset by negative perceptions of the museum as a boring and
at the same time hostile place governed by “silence” and judgement. This negative perception
aligns with the working class perception of museums identified in Bourdieu and Darbel’s
(1991/1969) study 2 .
Demonstrating that the negative perceptions of the museum were not immutable, Tina
showed a clear shift in her thinking about the Fitzwilliam Museum as a result of a single
2 See Discussion section below for consideration of the continuing applicability of this research within the
contemporary museum context. In sum, Bourdieu and Darbel (1991/1969) identified negative patterns and
outcomes of museum visiting, which museum practitioners have sought to overcome in the four decades since
the study was published. There is at least some evidence in this study that their overall conclusions may need
updating, while some of their empirical and conceptual observations may still hold.