Point #8
Finally there is the issue of time to learn, time to reflect and time to revisit an idea. Museum educators have grappled with this problem and find it a particularly challenging one, since our audiences are free to come and go, and large fractions of them are tourists who many never return. Museum galleries are not designed as places to linger, despite our desire to have visitors spend more time there. I was impressed to note in the slide Michael Cassin showed yesterday that the National Gallery at the turn of the century had many chairs scattered around the gallery for people to sit in and contemplate the pictures. What do we do for the visitors who wish to stay with a topic longer? How have we organized our museums to accommodate them? To what extent have we provided additional resources (in addition to items which we are eager to sell to them in the nearby shop) that can satisfy the interested visitors' concerns that arise on the next day or a week after the visit?
I believe that an important issue for we, as museum educators is to tackle the problem of increasing the time possible for visitors to interact with our exhibits and reflect on them, revisit them (in the mind if not directly) and therefore internalize their messages to us.