Welcoming families to the museum: reconsidering cultural mediations for parent-child autonomous visits

Valérie-Inès de La Ville (1, 2) , Cristina Badulescu (1, 2) , Charles-Alexandre Delestage (2)

1 CEREGE [Poitiers] - Centre de recherche en gestion [EA 1722]
2 MSHS de Poitiers - Maison des sciences de l'homme et de la société de Poitiers

Most of France’s local museums are coping with a contrasting situation: school visits are very successful and receive appreciative comments, whereas autonomous leisure family visits are disappointing and are sometimes damaging to the museum’s reputation. Welcoming families for a leisure museum visit raises two issues: the impossibility of offering a guided visit to every family because of a lack of staff and finances, and the need for innovative interactive pathways that allow families to visit without the benefit of a guide or curator. The authors engaged in an action-research process with the Angoulême paper museum, with the aim of designing an autonomous leisure visit for families with “tweens.” A constructivist framework was elaborated to design an interactive family visit using two interconnected mobile applications and to support the scaffolding role of parents with respect to their child.

Mots clés: Museum; Family visits; Tween; Joint activity; Cultural mediation; Scaffolding (psychology)

Mots clés: Activité conjointe; Visite familiale; Musées; Médiation culturelle

Domaines: Sciences de l'information et de la communication; Gestion et management; Héritage culturel et muséologie

Valérie-Inès de La Ville, Cristina Badulescu, Charles-Alexandre Delestage. Welcoming families to the museum: reconsidering cultural mediations for parent-child autonomous visits. International Journal of Arts Management, 2021, 23 (3), pp.32-45. ⟨hal-03272621⟩