I've been lurking on the list, which makes me feel a bit of a tourist,
but now that I'm posting I feel like more of a visitor. Does that have
any implications for a museum-goer's experience once inside the museum?

I agree with much of what's been written about this subject on museum-l,
and I also agree that dictionaries are good places to start when it
comes to searching for definitions, but when we are searching for
connotations (implications?) in a specific context - like in this
discussion - dictionary definitions may not do. Here we are talking
about people coming to a museum, an experience which may not be unique,
but probably is (we hope) different from shopping at the Piggly-Wiggly,
having dinner at aunt Rose's, honeymooning in Vegas, etc.

To me there really isn't a simple answer. The PR office sees visitors
differently than the curatorial dept. The education dept has different
goals for the visitor's experience than the museum store. Which vision
is more appropriate to or is more in line with the museum's goals and
mission?

From the visitor's or the museum's perspective museum-goers may be in
the mode of a tourist/visitor/guest/customer/student/other/all/some
during one single visit depending on a lot of factors, most of which are
probably out of the museum's control, and different from the very next
person who walks in the door. I tend to use the term visitor as it seems
_to me_ to acknowledge or maybe gloss over the wide range of
activities/roles we present to those who come to spend time with us. It's the
easy way out.

If museums are changing the ways in which they relate to their visitors,
are we really asking the visitors to change their attitudes towards museums?
Are we destinations, hosts (which meaning?), service providers, or
retailers? (And what are we asking people to "buy"?)

That's what I was thinking, anyway.

- Jim Rubinstein

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