would like to serve. We must understand not only our 

 visitors' expectations, needs and concerns, but also how 

 they learn, what they enjoy, why they visit museums, 

 and — why they do not. 



Workshop participants confront these and other 

 issues by taking part in various activities and then draw- 

 ing on these experiences as a basis for discussion, thereby 

 integrating theoretical concerns with practical con- 

 siderations, and giving depth and breadth to their 

 understanding of the issues and to their abilities to grap- 

 ple with them. 



On occasion, visitors to Field Museum may have 

 encountered workshop participants carrying out some of 

 these activities in museum halls. In one activity, for ex- 

 ample, participants spend 15 minutes observing a single 

 object in an exhibit and recording their reactions. They 

 are then asked to categorize their comments and relate 

 them to possible visitor responses to exhibits. Usually 

 there are some observations, some emotional responses, 

 some questions about the subject matter; often there are 

 judgments about aesthetics, and comments on personal 

 likes or dislikes. This experience initiates a discussion of 

 many related questions: In what ways are museum pro- 

 fessionals and general visitors alike and different in their 

 reactions to objects on exhibit? What do we know about 

 our visitors' experiences with such objects? What 

 assumptions are we making about our visitors' experi- 

 ences? How can we test these assumptions? By what 

 means can we provide visitors with exhibit-related expe- 

 riences that are both enjoyable and educational? 



Workshop participants also have fun as they learn. 

 On a day when a workshop is in session, one might catch 

 sight of someone carrying a flock of inflated balloons, 

 another covered with glitter or festooned with artificial 

 birds, or yet another playing a set of "mupejas" (multiple 

 peanut butter jars, of course) — all good-humoredly tak- 

 ing part in a lively role-playing activity designed to 

 explore the process of creative collaboration with the wide 

 assortment of resource persons utilized by museums. 



One session of each workshop is devoted to several 

 uninterrupted hours of work on a problem each partici- 

 pant has struggled with at his or her home institution. 

 Using a systematic problem-solving guide, and with time 

 for reflection away from ringing telephones and over- 

 flowing schedules, educators, curators, and designers 

 alike have found this to be an extremely productive and 

 even invaluable experience. 



Articulation of a problem to be solved is one part of 

 a pre-workshop assignment which requires rigorous 

 analysis of oneself and one's institution. Just as the work- 

 shop thus begins for participants before they arrive in 

 Chicago, so it also continues after they leave. They take 

 home a resource notebook of ideas compiled from the 

 pre-workshop assignment — descriptions of the most 



Svein EdlanA, curator of exhibits for the Loveland Museum and Gallery, 

 and Signe Hanson, designer for the Boston Children's Museum, partici- 

 pate in one of the lively discussions that characterize the workshops. 



innovative program attempted in the past year by each 

 participant, and his or her greatest administrative chal- 

 lenge, together with successful and unsuccessful solu- 

 tions. As alumni of the Kellogg workshops, they become 

 part of a growing network of museum professionals who 

 continue to communicate with each other — sharing 

 ideas, solutions to problems, struggles, frustrations, in- 

 spirations, and triumphs. 



Thus far, 31 percent of the museums represented at 

 the workshops focus on history and culture, making this 

 the single largest group. Among those attending have 

 been staff from institutions commemorating former pres- 

 idents — the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, 

 Michigan, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and 

 Museum in West Branch, Iowa, and the Woodrow Wil- 

 son House in Washington, D.C. — as well as famous 

 places, such as the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, 

 Connecticut, Sleepy Hollow Restorations in Tarry- 

 town, New York, and the Charlestown Navy Yard of the 

 Boston National Historic Park. 



About 25 percent of the institutions represented 

 focus on some area of art. Not only have several well 

 known institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, 

 in Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of 

 Art, in New York; and the National Gallery of Canada 



