Summative :: Project, N. (2009). Coffee: The World in Your Cup Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture Summative Evaluation . [University of Washington Museology] University of Washington.

last updated: 2009-11-23 20:07:49

Project Name	Coffee: The World in Your Cup Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture Summative Evaluation
Project Lead	University of Washington
Associated Grant	IMLS
Report Author(s)	New Directions Project
Evaluation Organization(s)	University of Washington Museology
Download Report	CoffeeSummativeReport.doc

Summary

The exhibit Coffee The World in Your Cup was designed by and installed at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture running from January 24, 2009 through September 7. The exhibit presents the story of one of the world's most widely traded commodities and how it has affected cultures, economies, and environments across the globe. Coffee explores the environmental and social impacts of the coffee industry and recommends ways for consumers to make socially and environmentally responsible coffee purchases at the grocery store or in a coffee shop. The exhibit space is approximately 2,000 square feet.

The New Directions project was invited to conduct a summative evaluation of the exhibit that would measure the impact of the exhibit, identify areas for adjustment before the exhibit travels and create a baseline of visitor data for future Burke exhibits. To prepare the evaluation framework, students in the New Directions project met with a number of core staff involved in the exhibit. The following report includes results from data collected during the months of April and May 2009. The project consisted of two parts: tracking and timing of visitors in the exhibit and an exit interview offered to three separate audience groups (pre-visit, immediate post-visit, and approximately 6 weeks post-visit). All aspects of this research were reviewed and approved by University of Washington’s Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research.

Goals: Assess exhibit experience, assess exhibit impact
1. Describe the nature of the exhibit experiences for adult and family visitors.
2. Assess responses of visitors to the museum’s intended messages and motivations for behavior change related to the coffee trade.

Evaluation Questions
1. How do visitors move through the exhibit space?
2. How much time do visitors spend in the exhibit space?
3. How much time do visitors spend viewing the introductory video “Origins”?
4. What are the attitudes and behavior of visitors toward coffee growing & purchasing before, immediately after, and 6 weeks after visiting the exhibit?

Data suggests that Coffee: the world in your cup offers an engaging experience for visitors, especially adults visiting together in a group. Based on Serrell’s criteria for a thoroughly used exhibit (1998), Coffee appears to approach benchmarks for success both in Sweep Rate Index, meaning that visitors are stopping at exhibit elements more and spending longer lengths of time within the exhibit in comparison to other observed exhibits of similar size.

The exhibit appears to attract an audience that has an already established association with coffee in their daily lives and appear to come to the exhibit with some degree of familiarity toward environmentally and socially responsible modes of coffee growing and purchasing behavior. The exhibit is successful in strengthening and reinforcing visitor’s knowledge and attitudes of coffee growing, production and distribution and in some cases plays a role in informing visitor’s coffee purchasing behavior. (Executive summary of key findings attached)

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