The role of the museum in the education of young adults: from the architectural context to the visit experience

The present research studies the attitudes and behaviour towards museum visits among undergraduate students. From museums they can get an informal education on several topics. Nevertheless, various recent estimates suggest that young people do not visit museums very frequently. In order to promote museum visits among young adults, it might be important to better understand the impact of the interplays between the social and the architectural features of these places. Very often, the museum architecture itself is considered a work of art that deserves credit. Several studies, even of an interdisciplinary kind, focused on the interaction between the qualities of museum design (from the architecture to the educational-expositional strategies) and visitors characteristics (Bitgood, 2002). Two previous studies conducted in Italy (Mastandrea, Bartoli & Bove, 2007; 2009), investigating the experience of the museum visit in different art museums, varying for the art styles of the collections hosted (ancient vs. modern/contemporary art), showed that visitors appreciate very much the artwork collections hosted in the museums (either ancient or modern) but museums characterized by a courtyard and a garden in which natural elements (light, plants, water, etc.) were present together with built objects (works of art, sculptures) were much more appreciated. The study presented here will continue along the same research line. A total of about 500 undergraduate students of the University of Roma Tre took part to a questionnaire survey. With regards to the question about the frequency of museums or gallery visits during the last 12 months, results showed that about 30% of the sample did not visit any museum. The explanations for not visiting museums was ascribed to lack of time, or interest; little information about exhibitions; the cost of the tickets. However, the majority of participants stated the importance of museum visits and indicated a potential interest for this specific experience. In particular, aspects such as the pleasantness of the museum environmental context (the presence of natural elements) may contribute to facilitate a positive approach to museums and consequently the possibility of increasing the number of visits. A further development of the present research programme is also currently in progress, and will aim at extending these preliminary results in a more systematic way, through a larger study focused on the museum visit experience among young adults, across several European and extra European countries. Taken together, our preliminary results seem to show that the physical layout of the museum could be an important feature that we should take into account in order to enhance the attractive power of museums, especially in relation to those particular target groups that might be, apparently, more reluctant to be systematically involved in museums and art exhibition experiences.