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

Something Different - Page 14 of 47
Figure 4: Children freely explore museum gallery during family outreach visit
Certainly, overcoming such a negative perception of the museum in such a short space of
time is a remarkable achievement for the family outreach visit. Another implication of the
childhood experiences discussed above is the possibility that the lack of memorable positive
experiences with cultural institutions in their formative years may have inhibited these
mothers’ subsequent engagement with museums or galleries. This implication is significant
given that the present outreach activity offers the possibility of delivering memorable and
positive childhood memories of a museum for the children of the young mothers.
Expectations of Museum Visit
Other than Tina, participants’ expectations of the family outreach visit were typically
undefined. As such, they were often unable to articulate any detailed reasons why they
elected to attend in the first place. This difficulty in articulating reasons can be seen in the
extract below:
Interviewer What interested you in coming along today?
Liz Well, [the community group leader] said that we can come, [...]
so I said, yes, we’ll come along and see what it’s all about.
Interview at Fitzwilliam Museum on Day of Visit - 24/11/09