Art, love, museums, and motives: An ethnomethodological market survey of visitor experiences and the blockbuster exhibition

Although the term "Art Lover" is something that our society uses in everyday language, little is known about what this term means. How do museum visitors characterize the Art Lover? How does an Art Lover's experience of art differ from that of a Non-Art Lover? In answering these two questions, this study seeks to understand a museum visitor's self-identification as an Art Lover and the role that this identification plays in the quality of their museum experience. Using a framework of Ethnomethodology and Marketing Research techniques, a written questionnaire consisting of thirty-five questions was administered. In April 2003, over one-hundred visitors to the Montreal Museum of Fine Art completed the questionnaire. Seven visitors participated in follow-up interviews. It was found that 22% of museum attendees in this study do not consider themselves Art Lovers. Analysis of both questionnaire and interview results revealed that all participants---regardless of their love for art---shared many of the same responses, emotions, and behaviours. However, in comparing the experiences of Art Lovers to Non-Art Lovers, a marked difference was found in the relative intensities and values associated with these motives, emotions, and behaviours. Art Lovers expressed a high level of intensity in their desire to seek out museum experiences and subsequently reported an elevated level of satisfaction with their experience of the exhibition. The results of this study suggest that to consider oneself an Art Lover is directly and positively related to the quality of an individual's museum experience. This study also suggests that a significant proportion of museum visitors are people who do not consider themselves Art Lovers and that museums need to better address this segment of their public.