“How to Attract Visitors to the Museum? How to have public museums serve a necessary role in the systems of cultural and educational institutions? Can museums do something to contribute to social change? These were the central issues discussed by museum representatives during the May 17th workshop at Ho Chi Minh Museum. The workshop celebrated 36 years of International Museum Day and was organized by the Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh Museum, and Viet Nam Museum Network.
The Vietnamese Women’s Museum (VWM) shared the process of how to change a museum’s look and ways to attract the public. VWM also shared lessons learned about, the next direction aimed to attract the public to other museums and colleagues to workshops.
In addition, the presentations of other museums focused on the difficulties and challenges of museums in general to attract the public, and their initial success and new approaches to attracting the public.
At present, most museums are sparsely attended. Experts and officials from the museums both north and south agreed that first, they must change the perception of people in the museum field in order to attract visitors.
Museums need comprehensive innovations: regular display systems, theme displays, successful methods to approach communities, artifacts choices, and stories. In particular, all activities must be aimed at motivating and developing goals to reach out to the public. So before making an activity, exhibition, event, or educational experience, each museum must specify who is the primary target. Is the public interested in the topics that the museum offers or not? Are the basic contents interesting and easy to understand? What would be the motivation and purpose for people to visit the museum?