Better understanding museum visitors.

New questions have become central to the concerns of all museum and exhibition directors: with what motivations and expectations do people visit a museum or exhibition? Do they think they will enhance their knowledge, or perhaps be entertained? And, above all, what do they ‘take home’ in terms of learning after the visit? The book entitled ‘Andare al museo. Motivazioni, comportamenti e impatto cognitivo’ edited by Renato G. Mazzolini and published by the Autonomous Province of Trento, presented at the Trento History Museum on 6 June 2002, endeavours to answer these questions. It presents the results of a first attempt to analyse, by way of a field study, the expectations people have when visiting museums, and particularly with what benefits they go out afterwards in terms of learning, of stimulus to visit other museums or inform themselves through other sources and of changed attitudes towards science, art and history. Contributions by Massimiano Bucchi and Federico Neresini. The field study was conducted by Observa.