Museums and Teenage audience: perceptions and receptivity

Abstract

Knowing the public perceptions about museums is an important step in understanding what their social imaginary are. This article presents the results of qualit-quantitative study based on the analysis of drawings produced by students from 6th to 9th grade of Elementary School, aged 10 to 18 years, from four schools in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro (three public and one private), completing one of the strands of the project "Images of Museums". Image analysis can be considered an important investigative tool, able to show the views and perceptions of young people who often express themselves through drawings as a means of demonstrating a natural way to represent their thoughts, emotions, and how they see the world. This investigation used a form in which students could draw or write, as well as answer two questions: "How do you see the museum?" and "Have you been to a museum before?", together with socio-demographic data such as name, school, age, sex and district of residence. Of the 222 questionnaires applied, 109 students expressed their views about museums through drawings. Seven categories and fourteen subcategories were raised from the drawings. The research indicates that adolescents perceive museums in various ways, value and see the museum processes very positively. This observation, encourages the construction of the hypothesis that a shift is underway, a change of place in the museum's social imaginary. Keywords: Museums; Audience research; School audience; Drawings; Social Imaginary.