Il museo tra comunicazione, didattica e fruizione

Museums are often described as informal ways of learning and have the potential to offer different kinds of knowledge, from art to history, from science to technology. The museum aims to preserve, disseminate, communicate and also to produce culture. The museum institution can be considered as a cultural system that has its foundations in the school system at all levels. Several studies show that young people do not seem to be very attracted by museum attendance. University undergraduate students can be considered an important segment of the public; firstly because they are in a phase of cultural training. In 2010, a research on attitudes, motivation and behaviour concerning museum visits of a sample of university students has been conducted. Preliminary findings show that about the 20% of the students of the sample considered didn’t visit any museum in the last 12 months. The explanations for not visiting museums was attributed to a lack of time, or interest, little information about exhibitions, the cost of the tickets and competing interests from other types of cultural activities like films and music shows. However, the majority of participants stated the importance of museum visits and indicated a potential interest for this specific experience.