Objects, Emotions, and Experiencing the Past: Visitors’ Perception of the Museum of Warsaw’s Main Exhibition
Objects, Emotions, and Experiencing the Past: Visitors’ Perception of the Museum of Warsaw’s Main Exhibition

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author analyzes research results concerning visitors to the Museum of Warsaw. The creation of a new main exhibition at the museum was driven by a turn towards objects, which was a novelty in Poland. The study was conducted using the focus group interview method, with three groups: Polish students from Warsaw universities, Warsaw guides, and students from foreign countries who study at Warsaw universities. The paper presents what different visitors expect from the city museum and how those expectations correspond with the assumptions of the museum’s curators. It also analyzes the role of emotions in experiencing a museum exhibition and the issue of the “authenticity” expected by visitors when they are in the museum. In addition, the author presents how visitors’ expectations are divided between “knowledge” and “experience” categories and the consequences of this division for thinking about how the past is experienced.

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