We had a great kickoff meeting earlier this week with new and old friends at the MCA Chicago. I wasn’t at Slover Linett back in 2011–12 when we helped the museum with an in-depth sequence of market and visitor research studies, but I’ve seen how the museum’s leadership and staff have made changes large and small for visitors based on those insights. So it’s exciting to be embarking on a new audience research program now that will build on those earlier studies and help the MCA implement its new strategic goals in the next few years.

My colleague Madeline Smith helped lead the kickoff conversation, and our senior teammates Chloe Chittick Patton and Peter Linett also joined us (both were highly involved in the previous work). We’re now drafting a survey that will be administered to visitors at the museum throughout 2019, and we’re also developing some creative qualitative approaches to illuminate the needs of both current and potential audiences.

We all look forward to learning more about contemporary engagement with contemporary art in Chicago. I’m very happy to be part of Slover Linett’s “Team MCA” as we continue this important work together.

If you have questions about this project or our work with art museums, email me here.