Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Supporting Exploration, Innovation, and Audience Engagement in the Cultural Sector

Robert Stein@rjsteinMUSEUMS & BIG DATA

A BIT ABOUT ME

SCALEWhat does it mean to think about audiences that

HOW CAN THE MUSEUMREACH THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE?

SCALELarge systems exhibit unique properties that change context for the individual

Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2014. acrylic and adhesive

Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2014. acrylic and adhesive

Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2014. acrylic and adhesive

All images courtesy of Pace Gallery, photographed by David Behringer. All artworks Tara Donovan. All images Pace Gallery.Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2014. acrylic and adhesive

MUSEUM UNIVERSEDATA FILE

33,072 MUSEUMS

33,072 MUSEUMS

Museums with total income in excess of $5M represent only 2.7% of all museums in the data regardless of discipline.

Annual Statistical Survey 220 Museums Responding 300 pages of statistics for the year 1 super-giant Excel document

AAMD Survey DataTableau Public

How much should I spend on Digital Advertising?

Where do high attendance museums devote their budgets?

Where do high attendance museums devote their budgets?

WHAT MAKES ONE ORGANIZATION MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ANOTHER?

NATIONAL CENTER FOR ARTS RESEARCH

The National Center for Arts Research at SMUNCAR explores and analyzes issues surrounding patronage and fiscal health of our nations arts organizations. NCAR provides data-based insights that enable arts and cultural leaders to overcome challenges and increase their impact.NCAR has created among the largest database of arts information ever collected, delivering findings to arts leaders, funders, policymakers, researchers, and the general public.

KIPIKey Intangible Performance Indicator

The National Center for Arts Research at SMUNCAR is exploring 128 indices drawn from data provided by several national data partnersCultural Data ProjectNational Assembly of State Art AgenciesNational Center for Charitable StatisticsNational Endowment for the ArtsTheatre Communications GroupLeague of American Orchestras

Access the complete findings and reports at: http://mcs.smu.edu/artsresearch/

Welcome Super-Special Cultural Organization

Super-Special Cultural Org INC

Super-Special Cultural Org INC

PREDICTION

THE ART OFPREDICTION IN MUSEUMS

35% IMPROVEMENT OVER PRIOR MODEL

SCALEThe emergent behavior of groups is composed from the actions of individuals

SCALEOne European Starling

SCALEFive European Starlings

Vimeo Credit ~flight404SCALEOne Hundred Thousand European Starlings

MUSEUMS EXCEL ATCREATING GREATEXPERIENCES FORINDIVIDUALS

BUT WE OFTEN FAIL TO THINK ABOUT EXTENDING THAT TO THE WHOLE AUDIENCE

CAN DATA HELP CREATEA SMART MUSEUM THAT ISAGILE AND RESPONSIVE?

BEHOLD THE PEN

AND TABLES AND STUFF

Visualizing the Cooper-Hewitt Pen Datahttp://github.com/cooperhewitt/the-pen-data

More than 3.4M interactions and 2.5M collection objects have been saved during 108K visits since March 2015

The median number of objects collected is stable at around 18 objects / visit.

And the winner is staircases.

MAKINGFRIENDS

KIOSK EXPERIENCE

ACTIVITIES AND BADGES

REWARDS

A VERY LARGE SAMPLE

LOCAL IMPACT WITHNATIONAL REACH

BIG DATA eh maybe2M+ Rows of activity data> 111k Users> 20 Fields Each Big for Museums Anyways

Summarize issues connected with data-sizeTalk about tools used and their relative advantagesChartioTableauPython + pandas, numpy, scipy, etc

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SO WHAT DO YOU DO WITH ALL THESE NUMBERS?

Front-of-house recruiting successesMotivate visits to the permanent collexGeographic distribution of participation (infer census)Call and response in the data (exhibitions)Repeat Visits

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BEHAVIOR OF REPEAT VS ONE-TIME VISITORS

NORMALIZEDBY POPULATION

+50%

ATTENDANCE

FIRST TIME VISITORS+35% From 4% in 2008 to 39% in 2016

MOST COMMON AGES18-2946% of Visitors are between the ages of 18-29 In 2008, most visitors were between the ages of 54-64

INCREASED MINORITY PARTICIPATION+23%Including a 20% increase in participation among Hispanic audiences

Flickr Credit ~DonkeyhoteyWHAT MIGHT A GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT NETWORK LOOK LIKE?

Image courtesy of seoultown.blogspot.com

THANKS!@rjsteinTara Donovan, Untitled, 2014. styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue