Museum Effect - by Jeffrey K Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

Museums, libraries, and cultural institutions are opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who we are, were, and might be. These institutions are vehicles for educating and civilizing society that work on a variety of levels, ranging from a community event to a sin...

Book Synopsis

Museums, libraries, and cultural institutions are opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who we are, were, and might be. These institutions are vehicles for educating and civilizing society that work on a variety of levels, ranging from a community event to a single child making a first visit. The Museum Effect documents this phenomenon, explains how it happens, and makes suggestions as to how these institutions can work to facilitate this process.

Review Quotes

Although entitled The Museum Effect this book is also about libraries and other cultural institutions. The book takes a reflective approach, discussing how these places affect us and the communities in which we live. . . .[The Museum Effect] provides plenty of food for thought for those in the profession wishing to reflect on the impact of their services.

Smith writes as a psychologist rather than an art historian but clearly has a deep knowledge and understanding of art which he conveys with infectious enthusiasm. This engagingly written and thought-provoking book makes some considerable claims about the effect of museums on their visitors. . . .[T]here is much to be gained from viewing this book through an archival lens. . . . .More research into the effect archives have had on users at a personal and emotional level might generate novel perceptions and provide valuable additional evidence when making the case for our services. There seems little doubt to this reviewer that the experiences and emotions that archives offer to people can be just as profound as any derived from works of art or other objects and activities.

What a wonderful book! Jeff Smith has done an amazing job of capturing the museum experience in a totally engaging way, interweaving research data with real-life anecdotes so compellingly that the book is, indeed, a page-turner. Writing fluidly and with both wit and respect, he takes us on a first-person tour through how people respond to art, what they do in museums, and how these findings can help us make museums even better. Though his research is based in art museums, he connects his findings to museums of all kinds as well as to libraries, music, and astronomy; he even includes a reference to Monty Python. It's a pleasure to read research on museum visitors' experiences that presents the questions, the methods, the findings and their implications so enjoyably. This is a book that every current and would-be museum professional and every teacher about museums should read, enjoy, and use. It's a treasure.


With his idea of the museum effect, Smith provides one of the most compelling explanations for what makes art such a fundamental and profound aspect of our personal lives, our societies, our cultures, and our shared human history. Smith is a museum insider and empirical researcher, and in this piece he successfully bridges psychological science and art as well as artist and viewer, while along the way revealing to us why cultural institutions, museums in particular, affect us in positive ways. An essential book for anyone wanting the why and how of art.

About the Author

Jeffrey K. Smith is professor and associate dean for research in the College of Education at the University of Otago, New Zealand