This document discusses a research project conducted at Trapholt museum in Denmark aimed at studying how curating exhibitions impacts visitors' well-being and understanding of art. The project invited foreign scientists to join workshops and discuss interpretation in museums. It developed a framework to measure art museum well-being based on psychological well-being scales. A case study exhibition called "YOUR exhibition" allowed visitors to curate works and was studied longitudinally to understand how curating influences engagement with art over time and perception of the museum as an institution. Preliminary results found high well-being that requires further examination based on demographics. The research design was modified to combine surveys to better measure impacts of curating.

1. Trapholt – Research and Museum
change
Karen Grøn, museumsdirector #KarenGroen

2. Research is needed secure sustainable
interpretation methods in museums,
development and change
• Normally science at the
museums is about the
collections
There is a need for
capacity and time to do
high level research on
interpretation – and a
need to develop new
generations of reflected
interpretatng museum
curators

3. What is interpretation (formidling)?
• Audience development
• Marketing
• Exhibition
• Education
• Here: focus on the
exhibition and its audiences

4. Trapholt and the National Gallery
vision: a research group

5. The Prism of Sustainability
The museum interpretation research
programme 2013-15

6. Medical Museum

7. National Library

8. 2 aims with the project
New knowledge to the field –
peer reviewed articles
Researchcentre model for the
future

9. Structure
Meetings
• 2 initial meetings to gather the
group
• 1 research design
• 4 workshops
• 1 workshop with Tate and
British museums
• Economy:
• Researcher – the museum
• Assistent – funded by project
Scientist visits
• One day with the museum
• One day with the group
• One public talk

10. Invited 4 new scientists to Denmark
• Petra Tjitske Kalshovens
Anthropology (UK)
• Carol Ryff – Phycology
(USA)
• Sandra Dudley –
Material studies (UK)
• Jonathan Hale –
Architect (UK)

11. Findings
• Foreign scientists pull and
push the project and create
important deadlines for
delivery in a busy everyday
life
• Important with input from
new fields of knowledge
• Workshop structure
essential
• Great inspiration between
the group members and
from the the other
participants scientists.
• New self understanding of
interpretaion as a scientific
field

12. Case: Art and well-being at Trapholt

13. The vision for Trapholt
• To make art
and design a
significant
part of
people’s lives

14. We assume that people feel well at the
art museum
1. We think of art museums
as relaxing – but how do
artmuseums provide well-
being?
2. Can an art museum for
some people be
experienced ass stress-full
and affect their well-being
negatively?
3. Could we create a tool to
help opening up the art
museum to create more
wellbeing?

15. Curating with audiences since 2001
ORDINARY AUDIENCES
• 2001 – Curator for a day
• 2010 – What is art?
SPECIAL GROUPS
• 2011 – The
Kaleidoscope of Culture
• 2012 – Bridging the
Youth
• 2013 – Art and well-
being

16. Responses
• The participants enjoyed interacting and discussing
with each other
• They experienced that each individual experiences
different things in the same artwork
• They began understanding the museum as an
institution
• They got a deeper understanding of art
• They were motivated by the autonomy in the project
• They experienced a new relation between themselves
and the artworks

17. The museum experience
• Museum studies
– The experience of the
museum visit is individual
– Personal codes of
classification
Trapholt questions:
1. How is the well-being
among artmuseums
visitors?
2. Does the invitation to
curate enhance well-
being?

18. Psychologist Carol D. Ryff
Psychological well-being (PWB)
• Leading researcher on
well-being
• MIDUS – national
longitudinal study of
health and well-being,
USA - 40.000 respondents
• Positive human
functioning
• Six scales of PWB used in
more than 400 research
cases

19. Scales of PWB and their theoretical
foundations

20. The Ryff PWB-scales
Self-Acceptance: positive evaluations of oneself and
one’s past life
Purpose in Life: the belief that one’s life is purposeful
and meaningful
Environmental Mastery: the capacity to manage
effectively one’s life and surrounding world
Positive Relationships: the possession of quality
relations with others
Personal Growth: a sense of continued growth and
development as a person
Autonomy: a sense of self-determination

21. YOUR exhibition
• Collection: Sculpture,
painting, furniture,
ceramics
• Digital curating: guided
groups or individually
• Three years

22. Introduction

23. The exhibition

24. Research in YOUR exhibition
• Does curating enhance
well-being?
• Does curating bring
participants closer to the
arts?
• Institutional
understanding of the
museum
• Cognitive understanding
of art

25. Defining well-being in the art museum
• From PWB to AMWB:
– Autonomy in the art
museum
– Art museum mastery
– Personal growth in the art
museum
– Positive relations to others
in the art museum
– Purpose of the art museum
visit
– Self-acceptance in the art
museum

26. Research design
1. Does curating change
the experience of the
museum (institutional
understanding)?
2. Longitudinal study:
Does curating change
the engagement with
and relevance of art
and design (cognitive
understanding)?

27. Institutional understanding
• Does curating give an
institutional understanding?
• Comparable empiric
data on PWB and
AMWB from
– Visitors in the traditional
museum (november
2014)
– Visitors who have
participated in YOUR
exhibition (spring 2015)

28. Cognitive understanding
• Does curating create a
cognitive understanding
of art and design making
them relevant in people’s
lives?
• Longitudinal study over
three years
• Participants in YOUR
exhibition receive email
invitation to participate in
research project
– Measuring AWMB in the
long run

29. Change in research design
• Results different than
expected – new findings
• First results show high well
being, and will be examined
according to gender,
sociodemography etc.
• Research design will
combine AMWB and AWB
into one questinaire

30. Future
• Trapholt includes
research in YOUR
exhibition
• Funding to continue the
research hub
• Cooperation with Tate