How to create active engagement on guided experiences

But before that, in the last episode, I was speaking with Sita Sergeant, founder, and self-described. Chief Troublemaker at She Shapes History, an Australian tour company and social enterprise that's really changing how we experience women's history through engaging walking tours. So if you missed it, do go back and listen to episode 1, 4, 7. I am also excited to share that we are celebrating six months of my book, the Art Engager, being out in the World.

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If you enjoy this podcast, please consider supporting us to keep the content coming. All the details are in the show notes. Let's get on with today's show. So take a moment to think about the guided experiences or programs at your museum. You probably already know that active participation creates more meaningful visitor experiences than passive listening. Yet, consistently facilitating this, actually doing it day after day, tour after tour, program after program.

That's where the real challenge lies. So today we're gonna explore some practical techniques for transforming experiences from passive to active, drawing both from my book and also from approaches I've gathered through years in the field. And these strategies will help you to consistently create more impactful and memorable experiences for your participants. So let's start at the beginning.

Now, in order to consistently create active participation on our guided experiences, we need to be clear about what we're actually working towards. So what does an active, engaging visitor experience really look like in practice?

So creating active experiences means shifting away from traditional approaches, and in the past museum programs often relied on this one way delivery of information -so facts, figures, stories, and anecdotes, these one size fits all experiences, rarely considered individual needs, preferences, or interests.

Participants on these programs were passive observers, rather than active contributors, and this may have led to potential disengagement and even boredom despite these programs focusing on collection highlights. So instead of this traditional model, we want to create experiences where the educator facilitates discovery rather than just conveying information. Participants actively contribute to the experience rather than just receive it.

Success is measured by engagement, connections made, and the meaning constructed and different perspectives enrich and enhance the experience rather than diluting the narrative. Now, none of this means we're setting aside expertise, knowledge, or content. In fact, it takes more knowledge to guide discovery, than to simply present information. You're still meeting any content goals you may have, but you're just doing it through engagement rather than one way information delivery.

And I've got a quote here from an educator who told me after a workshop in their feedback, they said, "I used to think my job was to teach participants about the collection or the site. Now I think my job is to help participants discover meaningful connections between these places, objects, and their own lives." so if we think about this as a spectrum, what does moving from passive to active actually look like in practice in museums?

So if we start at the passive end of the spectrum, we often see approaches like maybe longer presentations, uh, leading with information about artworks, objects, historic rooms, and with limited space for dialogue. We might see predetermined routes through the galleries or historic buildings with few opportunities for choice by either the guide or the participants.

There may be questions that mainly check for listening or retention of information, rather than encouraging curiosity, observation, or thinking. And maybe content that doesn't actively connect to or build upon participants' existing knowledge and experiences, it might be the same content that's repeated for every guided experience.

And even, uh, physical positioning that resembles a sort of, uh, follow the leader approach with the group moving and stopping as one unit, maybe standing in similar formations at each location, gathered around the guide and their attention directed mainly to specific features that are highlighted. So that's the passive end of the spectrum. But what about as we move towards the more active end?

So we might incorporate elements like: discussion-based approaches with multiple perspectives contributing to the understanding. We might have some choice points where participants can influence which objects, artworks, rooms, or stories, we can explore more deeply. We'll definitely have questions, questions that invite personal connections and multiple interpretations, and also tailored content, content that builds on and connects to existing knowledge and experiences.

And there might be physical arrangements that facilitate engagement with the site and interaction amongst the group members. Now it's important to also say at this point that active doesn't necessarily mean physical activity or talking all the time. Mental and emotional engagement are equally important forms of active participation.

So if you have a participant and they're quietly looking at and thinking about an artwork, they may be just as actively engaged or even more engaged than someone who's answering factual questions about it. So before we dive into any specific techniques, we need to first address the mindset change required to create active experiences. And this starts with rethinking three key relationships. So first, the relationship between the educator, guide, docent, and the participant.

So if we see ourselves as facilitators, rather than information providers, we naturally create more space for active participation. Your knowledge then becomes an active tool to guide and foster discovery. Secondly, we need to rethink the relationship between the participant and the object.

So we need to recognize that participants bring their own perspectives and experiences to the conversation, and this helps us to design encounters that create opportunities for them to connect and find meaning in what they're looking at. And thirdly, the relationship amongst participants. So museum visits are social experiences. People learn from each other. So by creating opportunities for participants to share ideas and perspectives with each other, we enrich everyone's experience.

And making these mindset shifts requires intention. So in my book, I emphasize the importance of actively and intentionally creating the conditions where engagement can happen. This is central to two of the eight practices in the Thinking Museum approach. That's facilitation and creating a community of collaboration. And at the start of the book. I also discussed the 3 Foundations of the approach, so that's observation and noticing.

Shared visual, inquiry and personal discovery, and accepting these as the values from which you design and lead your programs is a crucial part of the mindset shift needed for creating active experiences. And this shift can be quite challenging. So in museum programs where sharing knowledge is the primary focus, this can be difficult, but knowledge and facilitation aren't opposing skills.

Good knowledge of your collection or your site can actually enhance your ability to facilitate meaningful discussions and to respond confidently to whatever emerges during an experience. So let's have a look at the first moments of any guided experience when we're getting started. So the first few minutes sets the tone for everything that follows, and in the Thinking Museum approach, this falls within what I call the Entry phase. So this is one of.

Three phases of a guided experience, which are Entry, Exploration, and Exit and traditional museum tour introductions often focus on establishing the educator or guides credentials may be outlining some collection highlights or providing historical context. Now, while these elements may have their place, they can also unintentionally signal a passive experience ahead. So here's how to make your introductions more active. So firstly, keep your personal introductions brief and relevant.

Focus on your role as a facilitator and what you love about your job rather than listing credentials or academic achievements. Secondly, the idea of connection before content. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Take time to make connections with people. Take time to learn about your participants before the program starts in earnest. You know, asking what drew you to this exhibition today creates a relationship that values their perspective.

Also make sure you frame the experience as collaborative from the start. So use 'we' language this positions participants as co explorers rather than just audience members. So, for example, 'today we'll be exploring these artworks together...' is a simple shift that positions participants as active contributors. And also establish participation norms early. So, include a simple participation element in the first few minutes of the program.

This will set the expectation that this will be an interactive experience. So for example, you could invite participants to share their initial impression of the gallery space or the building, or to spend some time observing and describing what they see in the first artwork or object. And acknowledge the value of diverse perspectives upfront, so explicitly invite different viewpoints you could say in your introductions.

'You know, one of the wonderful things about art history, whatever theme you want, is how it can mean different things to different people. And I'm really looking forward to hearing your perspectives today.' And lastly, think about choice points. So if this is appropriate for your setting, you might want to let participants know about potential opportunities to influence the direction of the experience.

So you might say today we'll have a few moments where we can decide together which areas to explore more deeply. So that's your introduction. Let's move on to questions. So questions, I've said many times on this podcast, they are the most powerful tool we have for creating active experiences, but the type of questions we ask makes all the difference. So in passive experiences, questions, often test knowledge.

So, you know, questions like, ' who can tell me when this building was constructed?' They might also have single correct answers, ones the guide or educator already knows. These questions might focus mainly on identifying features, styles, or dates or artists, when we're talking about art, they might also act as rhetorical devices before the guide eventually provides the right answer.

So I like to think of these as 'performative questions' because they're not signaling that you are interested in what participants have to say at all. So here's how to transform your questioning approach into more active questioning. Ask genuine observation questions. You know, 'what do you notice about this room?' 'What details stand out to you in this artwork?' So these invite everyone into the conversation regardless of any prior knowledge.

Then you might want to use some comparative questions, you know, 'how does this space differ from the one we just visited?' 'Or what similarities do you notice between these two objects?', these types of questions, prompt, active looking and connection making. And you might want to include some personal response questions such as, 'which aspect of this museum or historic site do you find most compelling?' Or what about some hypothesis generating questions.

'Why might the inhabitants have designed the space this way?' 'Or what might this unusual feature tell us about how people lived?' these types of questions, invite speculation rather than regurgitation of facts. And you'll also want to think about sequencing your questions. So in my book, I share lots of tools to help with formulating and sequencing your questions.

First, in the Discussion Cycle, I show how moving from observation to description, to interpretation and conclusion creates a natural progression. And you might also want to try one of my 10 Questioning Practices. These will help you to sequence questions for different types of discussions. And crucially, these frameworks allow space for sharing information in an active way. And finally, you want to give wait time, so allow five to seven seconds of silence after asking a question.

This shows you genuinely expect some thoughtful responses, and it gives people time to think- really, really important, especially when they're taking in new environments as well. So let's now talk about movement and how we design spaces, because the way we move through museums really shapes whether we are just passively following or actively engaging. So in more passive setups, we tend to see things like this. Perhaps everyone gathered behind the guide, we're all looking in the same direction.

The group moves together as one following a set route, and people might stay at the same distance from each other throughout, and there's not much physical interaction with the space itself. But we can change this. So try mixing up the physical arrangement if space allows, get the group to form a semicircle as this helps everyone see both the object and each other.

And in small rooms like those in a historic house or an old building, you can invite people to choose a spot where they can really notice something specific. And if you're outside, getting people to look from different vantage points can really open up new ways of seeing the landscape or the architecture. You can also offer choice in how people move. So say something like, uh, 'take a few minutes to look around this area and find something that stands out to you'.

And this changes people from being followers to becoming explorers. Then when you come back together, you can share and compare what caught your attention. I also love to use positioning as a thinking tool. So for example, asking, um, perhaps 'where do you think a member of the household might have stood in this room?' Or 'find a spot that gives you a completely different view of this feature'. It turns thinking into something physical and visible. And of course varying how people look.

So careful closeup looking for looking at details, using the middle distance to take in the whole scene or from very far away for context. And all of this helps to create different layers of engagement. You can even use the body as a way to respond. So, you know, try something like, 'how do you think people moved through this space?' Or 'notice how your body reacts to the size or layout of the architecture.' It's about tuning into how the space feels, as well as how it looks.

And yes, this even works in tight spaces. So in a small room, you could say something as simple as, 'take 30 seconds to notice one detail that interests you about how this space was designed or used'. And then we'll share. Prompts like these can make a big difference. So let's move on to talk about how we can facilitate interaction amongst participants.

So in a more traditional program, the guide would stand at the front, would ask a question, someone would answer, and the guide or educator would respond. Then another question and another answer. So it's a bit like everything has to go through the guide, like a wheel with the guide at the center and the participants around the edge. But there's no connection between the people who are on the edge, there's no real conversation or collaboration.

This setup really limits how much participants can interact with each other. So how can we change this dynamic into a more active one? So you could start with something very simple like partner looking. So 'turn to the person next to you and share one thing you've noticed about this object'. And with this, everyone gets involved at once and it helps people feel more comfortable participating. You can also build in layers.

So you can start with pairs, then bring pairs together in small groups to spot patterns or common ideas, and only then share with the whole group. And by doing this, you are building confidence and energy step by step. You could also create structured sharing opportunities. So techniques like each person shares one element they notice that hasn't been mentioned yet. And this ensures broader participation, much more so than open discussion. And you can also assign roles.

So perhaps perspective taking roles. You could create small groups, and each group considers the same object from different perspectives. So design elements, historical context, emotional response, whatever you want, and then bring it all together to discuss. So let's talk about information next. So, in traditional or more passive guided experiences, the content is often fixed. It's delivered the same way, regardless of who's in front of you.

But when we shift to a more active approach, our content becomes more responsive and adaptable. Now, this doesn't mean that we stop sharing important historical information or context. Not at all. It's about offering multiple pathways into the core ideas. So ask your participants what they're curious about. Ask this question. What are you wondering about this 'object, this artwork?', and ask it throughout your program.

It gives you a sense of what the group is curious about, and then you can share tailored information that connects with their interests. Sometimes I'll share a small piece of information and it will act as a springboard. Then I'll ask something like this: 'knowing this information, how does it change how you look at the artwork or object? What do you notice differently now?' So this keeps the conversation active and it gives meaning room to grow. And always invite interpretation first.

So before sharing an explanation ask what do you think this might be? Or Why do you think this detail was included? Then you can add context that builds on their ideas or observations. So finally, moving to closing. So how we end an experience matters just as much as how we begin. Passive closings usually involve a quick summary or a 'thanks for coming', but active closings are an opportunity to help visitors reflect, connect, and carry something forward. So you might use reflection prompts.

These are prompts or questions that invite participants to identify what was most meaningful, surprising, or thought provoking for them. So you might want to use my Look Back, Step Forward, or my 3 2 1 Reflection Questioning Practices from The Art Engager. These are so useful to end a program. You might want to issue some connection invitations.

You might say 'is there an idea from today that you might take with you into everyday life?' Or you might do some group reflection, so you might ask the question, 'what themes have we noticed across the galleries or objects or artworks that we explored?' And you might want to ask some forward looking questions.

So 'what might you see differently now after this experience?' In my book, I call this phase the Exit phase, and it's a phase where you are really helping participants to take what they've experienced and connect it to a wider world. So transforming visits from passive to active is essentially rethinking how meaning gets made in museums.

The approaches we've discussed today from re-imagining the educator's role to transforming questions, redesigning physical movement, facilitating visitor interaction, to adapting content, to closing for continued engagement, all of this serve this larger purpose. Now it's a change in technique. Sure. But it's also a mindset shift.

And these shifts ask us to trust that our participants bring valuable perspectives, that meaning happens through engagement, and that our role is to facilitate discovery, not just deliver facts. So I'd love to hear how you are making these shifts in your own work. What's working, what's challenging? You can share with me on social media at Thinking Museum. So that's all for today's episode. I hope you found it helpful and thought provoking.

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Thank you so much for joining us. See you next time. Bye. Thank you for listening to The Art Engager podcast with me, Claire Brown. You can find more art engagement resources by visiting my website, thinkingmuseum.com, and you can also find me on Instagram at Thinking Museum, where I regularly share. Tips and tools on how to bring art to life and engage your audience. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share with others and subscribe to the show on your podcast player of choice.

Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.