Engaging Audiences

Module code: MU7017

This module considers how museums communicate with diverse audiences. It is comprised of lectures and workshops followed by studio time, where you'll put your ideas, experiences, and theoretical tools into practice. Beginning with theories of learning, media and design, and their importance in museum communication, you'll identify and analyse different exhibition types and strategies, while thinking broadly about how you might develop museums as sites of active learning and engagement. You'll also explore participatory approaches to exhibition making.

During the studio time you'll have an opportunity to work with your colleagues and with museum professionals to explore approaches to engagement. Your active process of experimentation and making will lead to a physical installation of some of your work (this might be a prototype of one of your display ideas, a display capturing your experiments and thought processes or a display which explores a particular form of engagement).

Overall, the Module aims to equip you with the skills and knowledge necessary to think broadly and creatively about engagement in museums, and participatory and experimental strategies in exhibition development.

Topics Covered

• Audiences
• Learning Theory
• Learning and Exhibitions
• Models and Replicas
• Museums and the Web
• Engaging through Exhibitions
• Design
• Prototyping
• Interactives
• Participation
• Evaluation