Talking in the Galleries Allowed: Using Visitor Feedback To Create Appealing Museum Exhibitions
Presented by:
Grace Rapkin The Jewish Museum
Beth Pessen Pessen Strategic Research
Visitors at The Jewish Museum viewing Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, 1919-1949. The Jewish Museum
• Museum of art and Jewish culture in New York City
• Heavy competition for art exhibitions
• Expensive media market
• Dependent on temporary exhibitions to drive attendance
Façade of The Jewish Museum, New York Why did we do this research?
• Look at especially challenging exhibitions
• Understand impact of upcoming exhibitions
• Build a team approach
Visitor at The Jewish Museum viewing Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker How could focus groups help us?
• Marketing: communicate exhibitions in the most appealing way
• Curators: organize and interpret exhibitions in line with visitors expectations
Visitors in the permanent collection of The Jewish Museum, Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey Marketing in a Museum: Challenges
• Limited role of visitor based learning
• Curator focus on attention of critics, peers, art community – new scholarship
• Different ideas about what make a successful exhibition Tina Barney, The Trustee and The Curator, 1992. The Jewish Museum, New York. The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and their Salons
• 9 Jewish women • Salons spanned 18th – 20th c. • Berlin, Vienna, New York, Paris, London, Rome, Milan, and Los Angeles • Brilliant and famous guests • Paintings, photos, letters, diaries, furniture, music and more • Major ideas born in these salons Johann Karl Kretschmar, Portrait of Amalie Beer, c.1803. Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Hans-und-Luise-Richter-Stiftung. Questions Before Research:
• Would the subject resonate with the audience?
• Would this have worked better as a book than as an exhibition?
Exhibition catalogue of Jewish Women and their Salons: The Power of Conversation Method • Three focus groups: • 2 with Jewish Museum visitors (frequent & infrequent) • 1 with non visitors (visit other museums)
• Respondents fit a heavy
museum-goer profile Visitors at The Jewish Museum • All college grads or more • fairly upscale • Visit 4 or more museums each year Our game plan:
• Present descriptive information • Present some alternative positionings • Learn levels of knowledge and interest • Learn expectations • Sit back and listen Descriptive Paragraph
The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and their Salons
An exploration of the great salons in Europe and America, and the influential role of Jewish women as salon hostesses. This comprehensive exhibition will showcase nine Jewish women whose salons spanned the late 18th to the early 20th century in Berlin, Vienna, New York, Paris, London, Rome, Milan, and Los Angeles. In each salon space, we will learn about the woman who ran the salon, and the brilliant and famous people who frequented it. We will see photos and portraits of the salon visitors; letters, diaries, books and memorabilia; furniture and objects from their homes, and in some cases hear the music they wrote. We will also learn about the major ideas born in the salon and how these ideas permeated the artistic, cultural and political spheres of their time. The salonieres in the exhibition were completely unfamiliar to our participants.
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim Johann Karl Kretschmar, Portrait of Portrait of Fanny Mendelssohn Amalie Beer, c.1803. Stiftung Hensel, 1842.. Oil on panel, Stadtmuseum Berlin, Hans-und-Luise- 42x352.5 cm. Collection of Daniel Richter-Stiftung. M. Friedenberg, New York.
Mario Nunes-Vais [Italian 1856- 1932], Anna Kuliscioff, Instituto Salka Viertel. Photograph, Centrale per Il Catalogo e la Schiller-Nationalmuseum Documentazione, Gabinetto Deutches Literaturarchiv, Fotografico Nazionale, Collezione Marbach am Neckar, Germany Nunes-Vais, Rome The only one of the nine salonieres with some name recognition was Gertrude Stein
Man Ray (American, 1890-1976), Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in the Atelier at 27 Rue de Fleurus, 1923. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven Even though no one knew anything about them, salons struck a chord!
“I am interested because they are the intelligentsia of the time – just to see what they looked like, what they were reading, what they thought.” Perhaps the interest came… in part, from the fact that our life today is filled with modern day ‘salons’, where famous salonieres talk to their celebrated guests about topics of the day.
Charlie Rose Oprah Winfrey Larry King How could general interest in the subject be tapped? What were participants really interested in?
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim Pablo Picasso, self portrait with a Portrait of Fanny Hensel, 184 Oil on canvas. palette. 1906. Oil on Canvas,92x73 • The salonieres cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, themselves? A.E. Gallatin Collection • The celebrated guests?
• The role and Julius Helfft (German 1818-1894) Fanny Hensel’s Music Room at importance of the Leipziger Strasse 3. 1851. Pencil and watercolor on paper, salons in history? 21x28 cm. Mendelssohn-Archiv, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin- Preussischer Kulturbesitz 3 Positioning Statements were presented: The most appealing positioning was clear:
The Historical Role of The Salon The salon was enormously influential in shaping public opinion: before the age of the mass press, the concert hall or the museum, the salon was a direct vehicle for the spread of high culture into the public domain. The salon also altered the conventions of social relations by including guests of different religions, sexes, classes …………
Famous and Influential Figures in Modern Culture The salons in this exhibition gathered many famous guests. By “visiting” the homes of these Jewish salonieres, we enter the spheres that shaped some of the most influential figures of modern culture: Ada Leverson sheltered Oscar Wilde during his trial in London; Genevieve Straus inspired Proust’s Duchesse de Guermantes. Bertha Zuckerkandl defended Klimt’s radical art, and Salka Viertel’s living room was the home away from home for expatriates like Bertold Brecht and Greta Garbo. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the lives of these famous guests the women who inspired them and encouraged their work.
The Role of Jewish Women For Jewish women, the salon was a crucial sphere where they could exert their influence. In the salon, women were power brokers and impresarios, and asserted themselves and intellectuals and artists. The exhibition looks at the influence of these Jewish women on the secular art and culture of modernist Europe and America. ……… While participants were not too interested in the salonieres, they were very interested in the famous and important salon visitors.
Jacques- Emile Alfred Ellis and Blanche Walery, London, (French Oscar Wilde, 1861- 1892. 1942), Photograph, Portrait of 14.8x10 cm. Marcel William Andrews Proust, Clark Memorial 1892. Oil Library, on canvas, University of 73.5x60.5 California, Los cm. Musee Felix Angeles. d’Orsay, Mendelssohn Paris
Pablo Picasso, self portrait with a palette. 1906. Oil on Greta Canvas,92x7 Bertholt Brecht. Garbo. 3 cm. Licensed under FanPix.Net Philadelphia the GNU Free . # Museum of Documentation 615323. Art, A.E. License, www. Public Gallatin bertolt.com Domain. Collection What were negative expectations / concerns? “I don’t just want to see an object.” “It might be too much reading and small print, like diaries, and that could be a turnoff.”
Fanny Mendelssohn Henzel, Der Maiabend, Song on a text by J.H. Voss. Autograph with a watercolor vignette by William Hensel. Mendelssohn-Archiv, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Josef Hoffman [Austrian 1870-1956], Chair for the Marcel Proust’s notebooks, 1901- Dining Room of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, Austria, 1918, given to Proust by 1904-6. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Genevieve Straus. Bibliotheque Smithsonian Institution, Museum Purchase from Nationale de France, Department Combined Funds and Crane and Co., 1968-6-1 des Estampes, Paris What would make it great?
“If I could be a fly on the wall…” “It has to be brought to life!”
Maybe from the letters they could develop a dialogue that would be on audio so you could understand the interaction of the people.”
“Hear the music they wrote or listened to – maybe on a harpsichord!”
“Each salon has got to be really evocative, like a jewel box.” Recommendations
• Create an audio guide with readings from diaries and letters; add music
• Design a physical salon “setting” within the exhibition
• Use multi-media throughout
Wilhelm Hensel, Fanny Hensel nee Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 1829. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Reactions to recommendations
• Questions about who we interviewed and why
• Initial skepticism about validity of results, how focus group research works
• No precedent to hearing and including visitor insights in the process
Edvard Munch, The Scream 1910 The Munch Museum How did we use this research?
• Exhibition design re-examined
• “Salon” settings more experiential
Installation view of Jewish Women and their Salons: The Power of Conversation at The Jewish Museum. Audio Guide
Creating the experience of being “a fly on the wall….” The Public Response
• Attendance was strong; exceeded projections
• Exhibition was well received by the critics: ”The Jewish Museum gives a palpable sense of the effervescent worlds orchestrated by 14 influential hostesses”.. Time Out New York
• Exceptionally positive word of mouth: “The subject is a real contribution;…this a unique and entirely 'satisfying' production.”
• Local organizations and groups set up their own real life salons We’ve come a long way, baby!
• Insight was “right on”
• Visitors “at the table”
• 10 exhibitions researched to date…..more to come
Genevieve Straus, 1889. Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Departement des Estampes, Paris.