Home Page

The Joy Art Is Bringing May Not Be Reflected On The Face

February 2, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

This weekend a newsletter from the Master of Management in International Arts Management program caught my eye with a research piece titled Predicting Museum Visitors’ Intention Through Nonverbal Cues.

I was initially pretty excited thinking they were able to predict people’s actual museum visits based on non-verbal cues. What the study actually found was that there was a correlation between a person’s facial expression and their expressed intention to visit a museum or gallery.

Essentially, they showed people an image from the websites of various museums covering a range of artistic categories for 18 seconds, then showed a blank screen for three seconds as something of a palate cleanser and then moved on to the next image. They used a facial scanning software to evaluate the emotional intensity of joy people exhibited. They asked participants to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate whether they had an intention to visit or not.

I was generally skeptical about the validity of the study in terms of sample size and other design elements so it is probably no surprise that was most interesting to me was their statement that demographic traits and inclination to participate in arts experiences generally determined the degree of facial expressions of joy people exhibited.

The effect is significant for visitors displaying moderate to high joy expressions but becomes insignificant at extreme levels. This distribution suggests that emotion primarily influences visit intention when individuals are in a moderate position, while it loses its predictive power when visitors are either highly disinclined or highly inclined to visit.

The analysis of individual factors also reveals disparities. The influence of emotion decreases with age, suggesting that young adults are more likely to base their decisions on immediate affective reactions, whereas working-age adults consider additional factors. Similarly, the effect of intensity of joy expression is more pronounced in women than in men, reflecting a heightened sensitivity to emotional experiences in cultural choices. Finally, differences observed based on cultural background indicate that facial joy expression does not have the same predictive power across cultural groups: it is a strong predictor for European visitors and a moderate predictor for Maghrebi visitors, but it does not significantly predict visit intention for African and Asian populations.

Source

They suggested the facial scan approach as an alternative/completement to surveys and post-visit interviews. This may be something to consider since demographic traits probably factor into a willingness to participate in surveys and interviews. A recorded candid, unguarded response by a visitor who declines to respond to a survey/interview may help to flesh out what a museum knows about its visitors.

The authors suggest that it may help make decisions about how to communicate about the museum. My thought is that they may discover the images they put in promo materials may not be what visitors are responding most to. They suggest that it may help with visitor flow management and staffing decisions.

They also mention “enabling dynamic adaptation of museum pathways” I am not sure what they mean by that, but I envisioned an app redirecting people through different galleries or through the space in a different order based on how they are responding. It might not necessarily be directing people away from art that seems to bore them. It could also involve directing people to galleries that may elicit more neutral response if they appear to be overwhelmed/overstimulated by the art they are seeing and then directing them back after a period of time.

Obviously one of the big concerns they raise as needing to be addressed is the surveillance required to enable any sort of service or evaluation.

Uncategorized

No Comments

Philly Art Museum Firing Provides Insight Into Large Cultural Boards

January 28, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

You may have heard about the abrupt and somewhat controversial firing of Philadelphia Art Museum director and CEO Sasha Suda back in November. Recently Philadelphia Magazine published a long article revealing many more details surrounding that event.

Other than finding out what the heck the story was behind all that, the article reveals a lot about dynamics between large, high-powered boards of directors and the leadership teams of large cultural organizations. It also illustrates the type of leadership board chairs are expected to exhibit.

On one hand, the article depicts a board chair who is quite overbearing and controlling and wields influence even after they have left that role. At the same time, there is also a suggestion that the board chair that replaced her lacked some of the qualifications required of the role.

The article also illustrates communications within the board. As might be expected with 70 members on the full board, there were many that were disengaged from organizational governance and keeping abreast of the situation.

But there was one instance where a sensitive personnel matter couldn’t be fully described in a meeting agenda so Suda expected the board chair to engage in back channel conversations to make the members aware of what was going to be discussed. When that didn’t happen, many on the board felt blindsided. In fact, that also seemed to be the case with Suda’s firing where some board members seemed unaware that was in the works even though Suda had some indications in weeks prior.

In many respects the whole incident is something of a cautionary tale about destructive board-leadership relationship dynamics. There are lessons to be derived about how things could have been done better. The article also provides some insight into how boards are generally expected to operate in normal, very mundane, operating conditions.

Boards, Working In The Arts

No Comments

Different Ways Of Measuring Impact

January 27, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

I am always keeping an eye open for different ways arts organizations can employ meaningful measures of impact. AEA Consulting listed different impact evaluation tools and criteria being used around the world. Most of them are in relation to social impact, but a couple, like Social Return on Investment (SROI) tied to economic measures such as dollars worth of social impact for dollars invested.

Others are not tied to a currency valuation.

Participatory and rights-based models, prominent in Latin America, frame impact around cultural rights, community capacity, and social transformation. Examples include cultural impact assessments with Indigenous communities and long-running community arts networks in contexts such as Colombia and Brazil, where impact is assessed through measures such as social cohesion, leadership, and cultural citizenship rather than financial returns.

Local community-focused models, e.g. frameworks such as Singapore’s Neighbourhood Arts and Culture Impact Assessment (NACIA) link arts participation to neighbourhood attachment and social networks, combining spatial indicators with health and wellbeing measures.

Source

In terms of how data is collected, AEA lists a number of modes including

Qualitative Tools….audience and participant surveys, validated health and wellbeing scales, social capital measures, and composite indices that track neighbourhood vitality, diversity of participation, or organisational reach…

Qualitative and participatory methods… focus groups, case studies, observation, and creative techniques (e.g. visual brainstorming, storytelling) are used to capture changes in confidence, identity, and agency. These approaches are particularly important for smaller non-profit organisations, which may lack the resources to implement SROI or large-scale experimental designs.

Source

AEA said some of the commonalities they see in these approaches are focus on outcomes rather than outputs, mixing both quantitative indicators and qualitative evidence, and paying attention to who is participating and benefiting.

Long time readers know I have frequently employed a mantra that just because you can measure it, doesn’t mean the results are meaningful. While some of these methods and measures are interesting to me, there isn’t enough detail provided for me to determine if they result in data that is relevant and meaningful.

Audience Relations, Terms and Ideas

No Comments

Cultural Sector Re-Sorting Rather Than In Retreat

January 26, 2026

by:

Joe Patti

Colleen Dilenschneider and the folks at IMPACTS Experience have been dependable as always and recently provided a market outlook for arts and cultural organizations for 2026 & 2027 based on what research is telling them. (subscription required)

Two of the big general takeaways for me was: First- Use 2019 attendance as a reference point, rather than something you are striving to get back to. The operating environment has changed.

And Second:

The data does not show a sector in retreat, but a sector re-sorting.

The most important macro insight for the visitor serving sector is in 2026 and 2027 is that demand is not collapsing; it’s fragmenting along structural lines. The organizations that are doing well are growing stronger, and the organizations that have been struggling are generally facing increasing and compounding challenges.

Source

While the data shows certain disciplines will see modest to marginal improvements (zoo, aquariums, gardens, history museums/sites, live theater) and others will remain flat or see a small improvement in engagement (children museum, natural history museums, science centers, symphonies, opera, ballet.), they warn readers not to interpret that as a set destiny. These are general indications. Every individual organization is different.

They talk about the self-reinforcing death spiral that can occur when organizations cut back on capacity because they don’t have visitation. Among the things they encourage organizations to do is trying to maintain that capacity.

Additionally, they repeat the importance of findings released over the last year which I have covered. Including reducing the friction of finding information and purchasing admissions.

The fact many visitors appreciate value added experiences rather than discounted ones.

They note that while international travel is down, domestic travel to cultural destinations remains robust. However, you may recall that last month, they qualified this noting people are trying to squeeze their experiences into fewer days and cultural organizations need to have a plan to meet those needs.

Audience Relations, Business Models, Info You Can Use, Working In The Arts

No Comments