Student in Museum Studies Fieldwork Seminar (HART316)

Instructors: Prof. Monique Scott & Prof. Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Field Supervisor: Yael Eytan

Fieldwork Description:

This semester, Anna Shuff and I worked remotely as Metrics Interns under Yael Eytan, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. “Metrics” centers on the data surrounding the ways in which the public engages with the museum; our contributions largely involved examination of visitor engagement through social media and testimonials. Our primary project was to gather visitor digital engagement data, to be compiled into a new statistics ‘dashboard’ that reports on online interactions with the museum. Not only does this consolidate the museum’s most essential and relevant data, but it will be a valuable resource for the rest of the museum’s employees, who will not require familiarity with the data methods in order to absorb the dashboard’s contents at a glance. Our other major project for the semester was to gather positive testimonials about the museum. Anna and I canvassed a variety of sites that gave feedback about the museum experience. This included review sites, like TripAdvisor and Google Reviews, press releases, as well as surveys that the museum had run with its visitors and members. These quotes, emphasizing the museum as a site for education, peaceful contemplation, and fun for the family, will be used in future advertisements.

Praxis Presentation:

Please click here to access a PDF version of the presentation.