Re-valuing museum experience

Its been interesting to read in the arts media this week the news that the Louvre will begin significantly limiting daily visitor numbers to create 'more pleasurable viewing experience' (Art Newspaper, 6 Jan 2023), even at the lower than pre-pandemic numbers.

Such a fall in numbers I don’t think is necessarily bad thing. I know first-hand and from various post-pandemic reports from across the global museum sector that both visitors and staff prefer the more intimate experience of art the less-crowded galleries offer. Its something that was on my mind from a visit to Florence last week – from the over-attended Uffizi where in effect only the gallery-goers could be seen, not the art, to Museo Novecento where this busy gallery gave equal measure to the art as the art experience.

The 360-degree rethink the pandemic precipitated in museums has had some positively transformative outcomes, and a reconsideration of the in-gallery viewing experience and of the value of absolute numbers as a measure of success can only be a good thing.