museum effectiveness

What makes a museum effective, aside from the content of the exhibit? According to Weil four basic criteria must be in place in order for a museum to be pertinent, successful, and effective. These four criteria, starting with the most important, are purposiveness, capability, effectiveness, and efficiency. Weil states that a museum must have purposes that are outcome based, a museum must have the proper staff, collection, and building, a museum must have effective public programming, and must also be efficient, like any other business even though museums are normally non-profit. In short, in order for a non-profit to be successful it must benefit the public, have a budget, have people to run it, and also have goals that can be obtained and measured.

When I visited Philadelphia, PA I went to a lot of museums about our founding fathers, the revolutionary war, the constitution, etc. But the museum I found to be most effective was the National Constitution Center. It was so effective because it engaged the visitor in every way. The exhibits were almost all interactive, there was a live, multimedia video performance titled “We the People”, you can walk among life size replicas of the founding fathers, and you can also sign the constitution yourself. This museum was extremely effective because it immerses the guest into the world of the constitution; the people, the places, and the time. In order for a museum to be effective to a guest it must engage the senses, while also teaching. In order for a museum to be effective in the eyes of “non-museum people” it must pay careful detail to Weil’s four criteria: purposiveness, capability, effectiveness, and efficiency.