A decade ago when Nina Simon mentioned in a talk she did that not all the programming at a museum was necessarily for everyone, and that is alright, it was an eye opening moment for me. It has had me looking at the way I program experiences a little differently.
An example she used was that of restaurants adding vegetarian or heart healthy options, people don’t decide to stop eating there. (Cracker Barrel being one exception) People aren’t meant to eat everything on the menu.
Seth Godin made a blog post along the same lines. He notes that the way you process feedback often depends on whether a good or experience was created with a particular person in mind.
If the work we made was intended for someone just like this, and they don’t like it, we need to do a better job next time. The criticism will help us understand how to improve.
But if the work we made wasn’t for someone with the hopes, needs and expectations of the person we’re hearing from, we can forgive ourselves (and them) by acknowledging who it’s for and why.
This being said, many times artists discover that those encountering their work invest it with meaning that the artist hadn’t intended. It can be worthwhile being a little flexible in your view about who the work is for. The unanticipated audience may be quite large.
