I have a perhaps politically incorrect (and certainly professionally
incorrect) suspicion about education of the general public in ART
museums. Has any study been conducted to determine the effectiveness and
popularity of exhibition scripts, handouts, etc. in art museums? It's my
intuition that many people visit art museums to "see pretty pictures"
rather than to learn anything in particular about art history. At the
"Glory of Venice" exhibition at the National Gallery of Art last
weekend, I noticed a large percentage of the attendees bypassing
the scripts on the wall, especially in the later rooms of the exhibition,
in favor of hunting out their favorite picture in the room and focusing
on that. Similarly, I seemed to be the only one showing interest in the
laminated information cards placed in the rooms of the permanent collection.
I'm not doubting the intent or the importance of art museums' mission to
educate, I'm just questioning if advances in art education technology
(internet-sites, art on cd-rom) will _really_  threaten the livelihood of
art museums.
 
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                        Lawrence Hyman
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Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Acquisitions, Washington, DC