The Cantor Center of Arts - Stanford University
My observations of the Cantor Center of Arts
- Entrance of the building: There are two entrances in the building. The entrance that looks like the main entrance is, in fact, not the main entrance. To a first-time visitor, the Hodin garden and the “Gates of Hell” give the impression that it is the main entrance. The Hodin garden provides a little information about each of the statues, but not more than that. Even if the information is provided in textual form, not many people are going to read it.
- The main lobby: When I visited the main lobby, I saw a front desk, but there was noone at the desk to guide me. There were various papers adn reference books kept there, but not a map. I had no idea how big the museum was and I didn’t know where to begin.
- Navigation: The building provides for non-linear navigation, which is a good way to allow people to see things they want to see. However, without a map, I was lost because the rooms were interconnected at more than one place. Like me, others too kept returning to the same place often, which resulted in wasted time.
- Visitor profile: Most of the visitors (more than 70%) were older than 50 years, less than 10% were younger than 20 years, and children younger than 5 years could be counted on fingers. Does it mean that an arts center is not meant for children? Are children not capable of appreciating art, or are they simply not interested in art?S
Sun-Young: Great observation though I'm wondering when the time you visited the museum. Maybe is was a school day and school time so kids weren't seen. Since the art center currently has a children's exhibition there should be some chil learners that visit the museum some time in the day, yes?
- Themes of the rooms: Different rooms focus on different themes; for example, Asian art, Egyptian art, contemporary paintings, Stanford family, glass items. However, summary information about the pieces of art in a room is not displayed at the entrance. when I entered a room, I looked at 20-50% of the items before seeing the information and figuring out what that room specializes in. The information displayed with the items was concise – sculptor name, country, year, material, etc. Some of the information was too long and/or too small font. A good thing was that there was a conducted tour of the museum – a lady was explaining to a group of people. I observed that very few people stopped and read a long display; most of the people just glanced over the items, while reading the information occasionally.
- The wooden horse: Perhaps the most interesting item on display was the wooden (bronze) horse. Most of the people stopped and spent a considerble amount of time looking in disbelief and trying to make sure if the horse was indeed made of bronze. There was a concise display about the conversion of wooden parts to bronze. There was also a piece kept there to touch, satisfying people’s curiosity. However, there was not much information about the sculptor, Deborah Butterfield. The lobby where the wooden horse was housed was the main entrance of the building – appropriate, attracting attention, motivating visitors to see more.
- Other observations: There was also a TV/DVD with a 6 minute show but it shouldn’t have been in the same room as other items on display. The legend of Stanford at the computer generated art room had audio and touch screen (developed by Web projects class – Studio Art 172). There was no separate section for kids, which leaves a huge potential for creating a new one from scratch where children can learn about the origin and evolution of comic characters (children will relate to them) and also the sculptures, they can be provided with items to color and construct.
Some recommendations
- The navigation can be made linear, with only one staircase.
- At the beginning of the tour, a short (5 min) video should be shown to the visitors to attract attention and generate interest, and set expectations. People would know what to visit and for how long.
- More information on the artists can be provided using video kiosks
- Written text with display items increase cognitive load on the visual channel, so visitors can be given headphones that senses which item they are close to, and the audio gives info about that item in their native language.
- A focused/localized audio device (similar to Wallenberg hall main lobby) can be used near the items.
- The visitors should be given an option to lean more about a particular section or artist or art form from videos or demos
Dan Gilbert Great observations and recommendations, particularly with the age of the audience. Right now there is an exhibit about children in art, and even a mock schoolhouse designed for kids, but how many kids are actually going through there? To be fair, it is likely that there are field trip groups from schools that will come through Cantor, you may have just missed them on your visit. I agree with you that the horse exhibit is really appropriate adn memorable. I like it because it provokes so much discussion, it invites questions and it is easier to access for novices than a lot of art.
Deb Kim: Your reflections on your visit to the Cantor Art Museum were very informative to me as I've only been inside the museum a handful of time and it'd been years already. All I remember from my visit is the cafe, the museum gift store, and the Rodin Garden outside. I learned a lot about the space design. I heard a lot of questions in your reflection about what kinds of things visitors to the museum might learn - "take away" from their visit to the museum and what kinds of additional considerations might facilitate their experience what they might be learning about the art pieces during their visit. This is exactly the kinds of reflections/observations of a learning space that we expect to see in Project 1 and more. Thanks for sharing.