Museum professionals, board members and volunteers are invited to participate in a day-long Visitors Experiences Academy sponsored by the Michigan Museums Association and the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University. It will be held on Saturday, Oct, 25, in 105 Cohodas Hall at NMU. The cost for the VEA is normally $100 to non-MMA members but the Beaumier Center is underwriting the event so that all participants can attend for $50 a person (includes coffee, lunch and materials).  To register, visit http://www.michiganmuseums.org/event-799439.

A museum visitor’s experience does not begin at the entrance to an exhibit or the beginning of a public program, and it does not end when he or she walks out the door.  The time a person spends at a cultural institution is just one phase of how he or she engages with and processes what that institution has to offer.

The MMA Visitor Experiences Academy is intended to help museum professionals, board members and volunteers look at the entire process of how visitors experience their institution.   Workshop participants will come away with resources and tools to apply to their own institution and improve the experiences of visitors there.

Included will be a look at the large body of research about how visitors experience museums, activities to better understand the engagement of audiences and methods for better understanding visitor experiences at your museum.