Nuts & Bolts

Developing a Toolkit for

Emotion in Museums
Linda Norris, Rainey Tisdale

Think about the Was the space large and open?

Maze-like? Deep red? Soft blue?
linked in the human brain, and
unless emotion is involved, our
last exhibition Pulsing with light, sound, and
people—like Times Square—or
brains won’t flag something as
meaningful. Therefore, if we want
you visited. calm and contemplative, like a
monastery? Were the labels dry and
visitors to have transformative and
memorable aha moments, we must
intellectual or full of the human make space for emotion. As user-
spirit? Did you feel anxious that experience designer Alli Burness
you didn’t know enough about the puts it so eloquently, “the emotions
subject? Or happy to be there with join hands with the meaning and
a loved one? both ring out louder.”2

Humans are emotional animals. As interpretive planners who are

Whether exhibition developers constantly seeking new tools and
plan for emotion or not, every methods for developing more
visitor brings their feeling self meaningful visitor experiences,
to the museum; it cannot be we have been researching and
separated from the thinking self. exploring the emotional landscape
Indeed, social science research of museums since 2014; it was
suggests we wouldn’t even want to a natural extension of our
try, that emotions actually help us collaboration on the book Creativity
learn more effectively. In Identity in Museum Practice. In this article
and the Museum Visitor Experience, we want to share the basics of
audience researcher John Falk what we’ve learned so far with the
explains this connection: “Every Exhibition readership, in the hopes
memory comes with an emotional that it will help each of you expand
‘stamp’ attached to it. The stronger your understanding of emotion’s
the emotional ‘value,’ the more place in museum exhibitions
likely sensory information is to and build your own toolkit for
pass this initial inspection and be developing emotionally evocative
admitted into memory.”1 In other work as part of your practice.
words, emotion and memory are
2 Alli Burness, “Reacting to Objects: Mindfulness,
Tech and Emotion | Museum in a Bottle,” Museum
1 John H. Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor in a Bottle, April 29, 2013, https://museuminabottle.
Experience (Left Coast Press, 2009), 147. com/2013/04/29/reacting-to-objects/.

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 fig. 1. Tokens like this were often fastened
to the clothing of infants left at the
Foundling Hospital. Emblems of loss,
like this token (now in the collections of
London’s Foundling Museum), almost
inevitably evoke emotional responses.
© THE FOUNDLING MUSEUM, LONDON

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 Nuts & Bolts // Developing a Toolkit for Emotion in Museums

What would an Let’s start with a definition. negative, private or public,

Which is harder than you’d think— spontaneous or performed, single
exhibition be even the scientific researchers or combined. There can be
like that made don’t have consensus on what different levels of emotional
exactly emotion is, even though intensity, depending on the
people feel giddy? it is as familiar to each of us situation. An experience can have
Restored? Apathetic? as breathing. As psychologist an emotional arc, in which feelings
Alan Fridlund puts it, “The only unfold in time, one after another.
Abandoned? Cozy? thing certain in the emotion Emotional responses can vary
Discombobulated? field is that no one agrees on how across individuals and across
to define emotion.”3 With this cultures. Moreover, emotions aren’t
Wistful? Intimate? challenge in mind, here’s our best right or wrong; they just are.
Insecure? Respected? shot at a layperson’s definition. Sometimes from the outside they
Commonly described as “a strong might seem socially inappropriate
Openhearted? feeling,” emotion is an affective or inauthentic, but there is always
state of consciousness, one that some human reason they are
often includes a physiological being generated.
response. Etymologically, emotion
is related to motion; it is something Scientists often reference five basic
that moves or stirs us; indeed, emotions—anger, fear, disgust,
emotion can prompt changes in sadness, and happiness—but the
both motivation and behavior. list of emotions goes far beyond
Emotion is often a reaction to an these.5 What would an exhibition
experience (for example, an event, be like that made people feel giddy?
a social interaction, or a memory). Restored? Apathetic? Abandoned?
Technically and theoretically, Cozy? Discombobulated? Wistful?
there are complicated differences Intimate? Insecure? Respected?
between emotion, feeling, mood, Openhearted? (The Center for
and affect, but in everyday Nonviolent Communication has an
language we generally use these excellent list you might download
terms interchangeably.4 for reference.6)

And now let’s go a bit deeper. Heritage researchers Laurajane

Emotions (in a museum context Smith and Gary Campbell note that
or otherwise) can be positive or people use museums and historic
3 Julie Beck, “Hard Feelings: Science’s Struggle to
sites to “manage” emotion. They
Define Emotions,” The Atlantic, February 24, 2015, write that they are “permissible
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/ places for people to not only feel
hard-feelings-sciences-struggle-to-define-
emotions/385711/.
particular emotions, but to work
4 “Emotion | Definition of Emotion by Merriam-
Webster,” Merriam Webster, accessed September 21, 5 Paul Ekman, “What Scientists Who Study
2016, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ Emotion Agree About,” Perspectives on Psychological
emotion; “Emotion | Define Emotion at Dictionary. Science 11, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 31–34,
com,” Dictionary.com, accessed September 21, 2016, doi:10.1177/1745691615596992.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/emotion; Aarron 6 “Feelings Inventory” (Center for Nonviolent
Walter and Jared M Spool, Designing for Emotion Communication, 2005), https://www.cnvc.org/sites/
(New York: A Book Apart/Jeffrey Zeldman, 2011), 26. default/files/feelings_inventory_0.pdf.

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out or explore how those emotions Begin With the Team common museum practice). With
may reinforce, provide insight some artwork and objects, the
or otherwise engage with aspects Making space for exhibition team opportunity for eliciting an emotional
of the past and its meaning for members to feel paves the response is fairly obvious: think
the present.”7 We have come to way for an experience that helps of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, which
expect certain emotions at certain visitors to feel. By introducing depicts the tragedy of a fascist
types of museums. For example, opportunities to practice observing bombing, or the tokens left by
visitors to the 9/11 Memorial and discussing emotion in all its mothers at a foundling hospital
Museum or the United States variety and complexity, you can to identify their abandoned
Holocaust Memorial Museum support your team in strengthening children (fig. 1).8 In other cases,
expect a cluster of emotions—from its ability to tease out exhibition a visitor needs carefully framed
grief and discomfort to anger and content, themes, and design elements interpretive information to
compassion. Exhibitions at local that have the greatest emotional prompt a reaction. Remember
and national history museums are potential. Linda likes to start that objects can evoke different
often constructed (intentionally or each new interpretive planning emotions in different people and
not) to engender pride, patriotism, process by asking the team to different contexts. Therefore,
or belonging (sometimes share their fears about the project. in the development process it is
engendering the opposite for It gets hidden anxieties out into useful to get feedback from many
those who feel excluded from the open rather than having them different kinds of visitors: How do
the dominant narrative). Wonder bubble below the surface where specific objects make them feel?
is a go-to emotion that many they hamstring progress; it also Does more or different information
museums fall back on. But there is sends a message that emotion has change the emotional response?
so much more emotional territory a legitimate place in our work. Does it change when the object is
to investigate. In fact, we would Another strategy is to take an juxtaposed with other objects or
argue that an exhibition topic “emotional field trip” together to with images?
that has little potential to evoke a different museum or public space.
emotional responses in visitors At the end, you can discuss how Make An Emotional Map
is an exhibition topic that is not the space made each of you feel
worth pursuing. at various points in the trip, what During the conceptual design
you noticed about the emotional phase, you might consider mapping
By purposefully integrating ideas experiences of others in the space, the exhibition as an emotional
about emotions into the exhibition and how that space might inform landscape that visitors will move
planning process, we can explore your own project. through in time. We were excited
the full complexity of human to learn that the Peabody Essex
emotion and create deeper, more Consider the Objects Museum has been experimenting
varied, and more meaningful visitor with this technique: educator
responses to museum content. Emotional potential is an often- Michelle Moon shared with us an
Below are some ideas for doing overlooked criterion in choosing emotional bubble diagram used
just that. objects for exhibition. You might in planning the Native Fashion
want to adapt your exhibition Now exhibition.9 Rainey also used
documentation tools to help you
8 “The Foundling Museum,” Foundling Museum,
7 Laurajane Smith and Gary Campbell, “The
track and sort objects accordingly accessed January 20, 2017, http://foundlingmuseum.
Elephant in the Room: Heritage, Affect, and (ideally, we hope, including a org.uk/.
Emotion,” in A Companion to Heritage Studies, eds. field for emotion in collections 9 “Native Fashion Now,” accessed January 20, 2017,
William Logan, Mairead Nic Craith, and Ullrich Peabody Essex Museum, http://pem.org/exhibitions/
Kockel (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015), 443–60.
databases will eventually become 180-native_fashion_now.

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this technique in developing Dear which emotions? How do we hope by a multitude of design factors;
Boston, an exhibition of objects visitors will feel when they leave? keep in mind that those design
from the makeshift memorial If mapping your gallery seems factors also influence emotions.
for the 2013 Boston Marathon like a stretch, you might practice Once you have established goals
bombing.10 Her goal was to design first by watching a handful of for the emotional progression
an experience that would help dramatic movies and mapping their of the exhibition content, you
visitors process their negative emotional arcs. can plan space, color, lighting,
emotions about the bombing texture, smell, sound, and other
and leave feeling connection and Attend to the Physical Environment design details that will further
hope. Such mapping isn’t meant enhance—and not detract from—
to dictate emotions, but rather Humans constantly pick up cues this arc. Rainey will never forget
to consider the storytelling arc of from their immediate environment the historical recreation of a 1970s
an exhibition and how a variety that influence their emotions gynecologist’s office at Den Gamle
of responses might be engaged (for a fascinating deep dive into By, a living history museum in
throughout the space. You might this process, you could read Places Aarhus, Denmark. The stirrups and
ask questions such as: What is the of the Heart: the Psychogeography gynecological tools were powerful
emotional progression for visitors of Everyday Life by neuroscientist on their own, but the design
and where is its high point? Of Colin Ellard). We already details—a sterile, windowless
understand that moving through room; fluorescent lighting; and a
10 See: http://www.bostonbetter.org/ an exhibition is a sensory-motor silhouette projection of a patient
calendar/2014/4/7/dear-boston-messages-from-the-
marathon-memorial. experience that is highly affected behind a screen changing into her
gown—made the feeling of anxious
vulnerability all the more visceral
(fig. 2).11
RAINEY TISDALE

Make Space for Human Voices

Humans are wired to respond to

the emotion expressed by other
humans. During planning, seek out
exhibition content—audio, video,
quotations—that allows a variety
of people to speak for themselves,
with feeling, in their own way.
The wildly popular Museum of
Broken Relationships (founded in
Zagreb, Croatia and now traveling
globally) exhibits everyday objects,
contributed by community
members, along with first-person
labels that reveal the array of
emotions humans experience
fig. 2. Historical recreation of a 1970s gynecologist’s office, Den Gamle By, Aarhus, 11 “Remember the 1970s,” Den Gamle By, accessed
Denmark, 2015. Different settings evoke different emotions for different people. It’s not January 20, 2017, http://www.dengamleby.dk/engelsk/
surprising that men and women have different emotional reactions to this space. the-old-town/discover/remember-the-1970s/.

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 ALLAN LEONARD VIA FLICKR, UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE
during breakups (fig. 3).12 Reading
these stories in contributors’ own
words makes the emotion all the
more immediate and meaningful.
You can also make space for
visitors to layer their own voices
and feelings on top of the content
you provide. On a recent visit to
the Oakland Museum of California,
we encountered a simple talkback
station that collected and displayed
visitors’ intense memories from a
local disaster, the 1991 Oakland–
Berkeley firestorm. Another talkback
station asked visitors what
California evoked for them (fig. 4). fig. 3. Teapot and label, Museum of Broken Relationships, Brussels, Belgium, 2014.
When collecting people’s voices, The label, written by the teapot’s owner, begins, “She was always drinking smoked tea…”
your content will be richer if and continues, “We get scared, just like children crossing the bridge, afraid we won’t
you take care to ask meaningful make it to the other bank.” Imagine other museum labels written with the same passion.
questions that invite emotional
responses. The award-winning,
national oral history project

LINDA NORRIS
StoryCorps is a great resource:
the interviews posted online offer
examples of what emotionally
compelling first-person narrative
sounds like, and the website
also offers lists of tried-and-true
interview questions.13 Lastly, you
might consider ways that emotion
could make the curatorial voice
seem more human and real; winners
of NAME’s annual Excellence
in Exhibition Label Writing
Competition regularly provide
inspiration for this approach.14

12 “Museum of Broken Relationships,” Museum of

Broken Relationships, accessed January 20, 2017,
https://brokenships.com/.
13 “Great Questions from StoryCorps,” StoryCorps,
accessed September 21, 2016, https://storycorps.org/
great-questions/.
14 “Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing
Competition,” American Alliance of Museums,
accessed January 20, 2017, http://aam-us.org/about- fig. 4. “What does California’s border evoke for you?” talkback station at the Oakland
us/grants-awards-and-competitions/excellence-in- Museum, California, 2015. Thoughtful design of both text and the physical station itself
label-writing. can help encourage deeper, more emotional responses from visitors.

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 Nuts & Bolts // Developing a Toolkit for Emotion in Museums

Create Moments of Comfort, share their own thoughts, feelings,

Connection, Expression and stories in reaction to works
of art on exhibit (fig. 5). A quiet
It’s not enough merely to evoke nook, some well-placed comfy
emotions in exhibitions; it’s also chairs, an empathetic interpreter,
important to support visitors in opportunities to express emotion
processing those emotions. Recently, through writing and art-making—
Linda visited the John C. Crosbie these are all tools for helping visitors
Sealers Interpretation Centre in process their emotional responses.
Canada. In an exhibition on a 1914
sealing disaster in which more Seek Out Opportunities
than 130 men died on the ice was for Empathy
a small theater space showing
film footage of sealers out on the We consider empathy to be the
ice. You could envision the cold holy grail of visitor emotions
and the danger. On the bench in front because it fuels not only social
of the video screen was a box of connection (both bridging and
tissues, a small gesture that offered bonding) but also social change.
social permission and space for From the Empathetic Museum
strong reactions. At the Columbus project, founded by Gretchen
Museum of Art in Ohio, in-gallery Jennings in 2012, which seeks to
activities called “Connections” make empathy a core component
provide a chance for visitors to of all museum institutional

fig. 5. (left) “Connection Station” at the

Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, 2016.
By encouraging responses directly in
gallery spaces, the emotional connections
between art and visitors become stronger.

fig. 6. (right) A Mile in My Shoes by

Clare Patey and Kitty Ross for the Empathy
Museum, London, England, 2016.

LINDA NORRIS

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 cultures,15 to museum conference The Empathy Museum, which has polarization, where one group’s
sessions, to the new book Fostering no formal site but produces emotional reaction is favored over
Empathy Through Museums pop-up exhibitions across the another’s. The staff at the newly
(Elif Gokcigdem, ed.), empathy United Kingdom, is an excellent opened National Museum of
is increasingly recognized as an source of inspiration in this regard; African American History and
important topic for our field, and its A Mile in My Shoes project (you Culture made a decision to put on
yet it feels like we have barely literally wear someone else’s shoes display the casket of Emmett Till,
scratched the surface in while listening to their audio diary) who was lynched in Mississippi
understanding the ways museum gracefully reveals the power of this in 1955 (his mother insisted on an
exhibitions can nurture empathetic complicated but crucial emotion open-casket funeral to highlight
responses in visitors. What can (fig. 6).16 the brutality of his death). In an
you contribute to this developing August 18, 2016 Washington Post
practice? Can you use emotion Lean Into the Hard Emotions article, writer Krissah Thompson
to help visitors identify with either describes why director Lonnie
artists or subject(s)? Can you Our public audiences need us to help Bunch made the difficult choice:
help visitors empathize with each them dig into the hard emotions,
other? (“Have you ever experienced even if it’s scary. It’s the only way As painful as it may be, Bunch
something like this? What did it we will grow and improve, together. said, it’s essential that his
feel like?”) Can you design and And it’s even more crucial when institution delve into stories
prototype a bridging interactive? race, class, gender, politics, and such as that of Till, the
social views create emotional Chicago teenager who was
15 “The Empathetic Museum,” The Empathetic
Museum, accessed January 20, 2017, http:// 16 “Empathy Museum,” Empathy Museum, accessed murdered for whistling at a
empatheticmuseum.weebly.com/. January 20, 2017, http://www.empathymuseum.com/. white woman during a visit
to Mississippi—an event that
galvanized the civil rights
movement. ‘You couldn’t
tell the story of the African
American experience without
wrestling with difficult
issues, without creating
those moments where people
have to ponder the pain of
slavery, segregation or racial
violence,’ Bunch said. 17

Staff and volunteers at the museum

receive training to help them
respond to visitors who have strong

17 Krissah Thompson, “Painful but crucial: Why

you’ll see Emmett Till’s casket at the African
NATALIE HOLMES

American museum,” The Washington Post, August

18, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/
lifestyle/style/painful-but-crucial-why-youll-see-
emmett-tills-casket-at-the-african-american-
museum/2016/08/18/66d1dc2e-484b-11e6-acbc-
4d4870a079da_story.html.

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reactions to Till’s coffin, or to Said one, “This tour brings up all

other emotionally charged moments my emotions…I am a mother, I am
in the galleries. Your museum a great-grandmother. I know as a
may need such training too—plus mother what it feels like to have
lots of prototyping, input from a newborn put in my arms. For a
diverse perspectives inside and slave to have a baby…and to have
outside your museum, and deep that child taken away is [to] have
conversations about exactly which your heart taken away.”
approach to use—but don’t avoid
emotions just because they are Conclusion
hard. The hardest work is often the
most important work. We plan to continue researching,
exploring, and experimenting
Evaluate for Emotions with emotion in museums in order
to improve our own museum
In planning for exhibition practice. We hope that you will do
evaluations, move beyond solely the same, so that as a field, we
knowledge-based outcomes. can learn and share together. Each
Yes, your visitors may learn the of you has emotional expertise to
particulars of rock formations or bring to the table. So does every
the specifics of the history of your visitor you encounter. It’s part
place, but changes in what people of being human. That’s a wonderful
feel can be just as powerful—and thing, for everyone to be able
just as valid—in terms of the to bring that human expertise to
service museums provide to their the museum, for everyone to
public audiences. One common be naturally good at this particular
evaluation framework for integrating way of knowing exhibition content
emotion with other project the moment they come through
outcomes involves asking, “What do the door. When we imagine what
you want visitors to know, feel, and museums could be like if that
do upon leaving the exhibition?” emotional expertise was valued
This model acknowledges that and integrated into the exhibition
emotion often serves as the bridge experience, we get intrigued,
between knowledge and action. excited, invigorated, optimistic,
At the Harriet Beecher Stowe and more than a little impatient.
Center in Hartford, Connecticut, We hope you do too.
emotion and empathy are key
elements of a newly developed Linda Norris is Global Networks
interpretation of Stowe’s home, an Program Director, International Coalition
experience that is part exhibition of Sites of Conscience, based in
and part facilitated dialogue in a New York City. [email protected]
historic house setting. “Feeling” Rainey Tisdale is an independent
responses from visitors helped curator based in Boston, Massachusetts.
solidify the connection between [email protected]
knowledge, feeling, and action.

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