In this master's thesis, we explored the issue of family workshops in museums and galleries and understanding museum and gallery visitors as consumers of their services.
In the theoretical part, we introduced the definitions and role of museums and galleries in our society. We focused on museum pedagogy, its definitions and development over the years. We explored the work of a museum pedagogue and learned about the role it plays in the museum and gallery world in preparing programs and other activities for visitors. In the continuation of the theoretical part of the thesis we dealt with museum and gallery visitors. We studied the understanding of visitors as consumers of museum and gallery services and the ways in which museums and galleries try to attract as many visitors as possible. We paid a lot of attention to the definition of family as a specific group of visitors of these institutions and the reasons why the authors believe that they should be given extra attention compared to other visitors. We studied the learning process of families in museums and galleries and the importance of visiting museums and galleries for children outside the formal education system. We also discussed family workshops, the materials that museums and galleries offer to families, and the ways in which they adapt to this group of visitors, and addressed broadly museums for children.
In the empirical part of the thesis, we presented the results of interviews with three employees of the museum pedagogical service from two museums and one gallery in Ljubljana and analyses of materials that these institutions offer to families online or when visiting them. We found that all three museums and galleries focus on the family as a special group of visitors. Not only do they prepare family workshops for them, but they also pay attention to them when planning spaces, preparing materials and activities, offering an opportunity to have fun and learn something new outside the exhibition. In selected museums and galleries, they adapt to their audience and the logic of the market with workshops and other activities as part of their educational role and mission – they prepare workshops to spread interest in the subject and educate the audience to keep returning to museums and galleries throughout their lives.
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