This week on Museum 411, we’re thinking about ways to engage visitors in exploring your collections without relying on expensive tech like AR, apps, or audio/video projection. We’re taking inspiration from existing, successful museum tours and offering suggestions on how you might tailor something like this in your own space. Let’s take a look.
1. Mood tours (inspired by the Getty)
People remember how something made them feel (hat tip to Maya Angelou). Setting a mood with storytelling and tone can absolutely be done on a budget and at any type of museum.
The idea: Thematic tours based on emotional tones or psychological states — rebellion, love and loss, mystery, wonder, hope, obsession, nostalgia, power, fear, pride, curiosity, etc., etc.
Different ways you might execute this:
- Use a printed guide or verbal intro from docents to kick it off. Maybe make a color-coded mood path.
- Think about impactful lighting and/or pacing, i.e, slower movements, deliberate silence, breathing prompts.
- Incorporate mood-related quotes or reflection questions on wall signage or placards.
- Allow visitors to pick a mood and receive puzzles, guided questions, or prompts that direct their path.
2. Character-driven narration (inspired by the Tenement Museum)
The idea: Present the tour from the point of view of a fictional or real person connected to the subject matter.
Different ways you might execute this:
- Write a first-person script based on letters, diaries, or known history.
- Let guides speak as or quote from that character during stops.
- Give visitors the option to choose who to follow (a worker, an artist, a critic). If you can’t use real guides, create handouts or labels with printed perspectives from the different characters.
- Outreach tie-in: Let schools or community groups co-create new characters based on real research.
3. Mystery trails (inspired by British Museum’s Museum Missions)
The idea: Turn the museum collections into a challenge, something between a scavenger hunt and a puzzle. Great for children, but can be aged up for older visitors.
Different ways you might execute this:
- Start with 5–7 key objects already on display that have strong visual or thematic connections (same time period, artist, material, symbolism, etc.).
- Create one clue per object, using riddle-like language or simple observational challenges. Here are some ideas and quick examples to illustrate:
- FIND → Example: Three tools in this room are used for writing. Put them in order from oldest to newest.
- LOOK → Example: You’ve just discovered this buried in the ground. What do you think it is?
- POSE → Example: Strike a pose like the figure in the statue or artwork.
- DISCUSS → Example: Which object represents power? Which represents everyday life?
- Place clue cards strategically or print a passport-type booklet that leads visitors from object to object.
- Pilot test any challenges with volunteers or staff!
4. Night tours (inspired by the Preston Castle Flashlight Tour)
The idea: Offer evening tours with minimal lighting, fewer people, and a different pace (and a spooky slant is always fun if your location or collection has the requisite lore).
Different ways you might execute this:
- Designate a specific theme to prepare folks for the tone of the tour, “Quiet Encounters” vs. “Dark Histories,” as an example.
- Provide flashlights and/or allow people to BYOF (the Grand Rapids Art Museum includes souvenir flashlights and glow bracelets for guests).
- Depending on the type of museum, decide if you want self-guided or docent-led tour (the Winchester House flashlight tour is self-guided but has docents stationed along the way).
5. “No Labels” exploration (inspired by MONA’s label-free format)
The idea: Invite visitors to experience a gallery or section without any wall text or interpretation.
Different ways you might execute this:
- Temporarily cover labels in a designated zone and give visitors a notebook or question card.
- Ask people to guess the object’s use, meaning, or origin based on what they see. Or to simply write down questions they have about the object, to truly let visitors choose how much or how little they want to know.
- Offer a debrief area with reveal cards or docents who can fill in the gaps (and generate discussion!).
- Have wandering docents with badges that say “ask me about this object” or “want to hear a story?”.
- Consider having spots where visitors can create their own labels. To simplify, you might prompt with questions like “what do you think this is for?” or “describe this piece in one word.”
MONA’s lack of wall labels are paired with a sophisticated app that provides information digitally. In this case, you’re replacing the app with analog methods of conveying information without labels.
6. One object, many voices (inspired by the Multaka Project)
The idea: Multaka is an Arabic word that translates to meeting point or gathering place. For this concept, you can center a tour around just a few key objects, but then interpret them from different cultural, personal, or thematic viewpoints. It’s a particularly good way to illustrate that there isn’t just one way to view an object or a story.
Different ways you might execute this:
- Have docents or guest speakers share how they interpret one object based on their background or profession (artist, historian, local elder, etc.).
- If you can’t bring in multiple speakers, offer printed cards with alternate takes on the same piece.
- Think about further group discussion with “what do you see that I might not?” prompts.
