Going the Distance: Why Long-Distance Audiences Matter

Videoconferencing with students in Germany through SAAM’s Artful
Connections Program (via americanart.si.edu)

In 2009, over 30 million visitors walked into a Smithsonian Institution museum in the Washington, DC and New York metropolitan areas.  Those visitors were able and motivated to visit those museums, taking time out of their busy lives to accomplish varying objectives through their visits.  While that figure is truly impressive, there remain almost 300 million Americans—as well as visitors from around the globe—not reflected in that visitation figure.  If the Smithsonian, a national institution belonging to the public, is only able to attract less than 10% of the population to its buildings, what does this tell us? We believe it establishes the responsibility of museums of all sizes to work to engage long-distance audiences that are unable to have a bricks-and-mortar experience, in order to open up collections and programming to as broad a public as possible.

How may long-distance audiences be characterized?  These are audiences who may be unable to visit museum in person due to:

• distance
• financial means
• health
• time

Or they may simply be unmotivated to visit museums, viewing them as places that fail to address their interests or accept them and their communities.  The individuals comprising the long-distance audience for any particular museum may be as varied as the in-person audience.

What sets long-distance audiences apart from the general populace are their unique benefits and limitations. The limitations of engaging long-distance audiences are in part due to the technology that enables their connection to the museum. In video conferencing, the camera creates a focal point on “the expert” as the audience passively listens. Museum educators often try to avoid this teaching style, but find the experience flattened by the camera. Other online resources may also be unable to make a personal connection with the audience; an interactive experience online, no matter how extensive, may not necessarily replace a personal interaction with museum educators or staff on site.

However, museums can take advantage of the many benefits there are to working with long- distance audiences. Educators can use the audience’s own setting as context, designing content so that it carries relevance for that particular audience. The long-distance audience may feel more comfortable and less self-conscious learning in their own space, engaging on their own terms; for example, one visitor to the Smithsonian Latino Center’s recent online 3D Day of the Dead exhibit noted that “in real life those of us who are caught between the two worlds often feel embarrassed at not knowing as much as we and others feel we should about our culture,” and thus felt more comfortable doing the activities online in a setting where he or she did not feel the external pressure of such expectations.

Distance learning also has the potential to set the stage for an upcoming museum visit or to continue engagement with a group after a visit.  The Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens, in Washington, DC now provides its introductory film online, so that visitors can save time at the actual site by watching the video before arriving.  Alternatively, in the case of institutions like the Smithsonian Latino Center that have no physical museum building, distance learning can provide the only possible “visit,” such as in the case of the aforementioned online Day of the Dead exhibit.  There are, as mentioned, factors which may present barriers to having a bricks-and-mortar experience, but what if there isn't even a bricks-and-mortar experience available?  Technology has opened up many doors for museum educators to reach a wider audience, providing an additional platform for sharing exhibits and materials with the public. Its uses should always be driven by the unique characteristics of long-distance audiences.

References: http://www.si.edu/About

http://www.si.edu/opanda/docs/Rpts2011/SLC_SLVM_DODReport.pdf

http://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/welcome.html