The Oxfordshire Museum

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Consultation has concluded

To gather data on our current visitors to the Oxfordshire Museum we ran a survey between 13 February and 15 April 2023. We were pleased to hear from 170 people, giving us valuable information about our visitors during this late winter / early spring period.

The survey helped us to understand:

  • who does, and doesn’t visit the museum
  • what visitors think about the museum
  • what helps to make visiting a positive experience
  • the impact of our communications and marketing

Who visits the museum

Most of the people who come to the Oxfordshire Museum fit are aged 70-79 (23.5percent) or 30-44 (30.2percent). This matches our observations of the majority of visitors being parents or grandparents with young children.

You said:

  • Visitor feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 81 percent responding, ‘very good’ and 17 percent responding ‘good’. Only 1 percent responded neutrally and there were no ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ responses.
  • ‘Word of mouth’ was the most common way people heard about the Oxfordshire Museum with 32 percent of respondents choosing that option. Social media (10 percent) and the Oxfordshire County Council website (7 percent) were also common responses
  • You often have a very positive interaction when you visit the museum, with museum staff and volunteers praised for being friendly and welcoming.
  • It’s important to you that your visits are a positive emotional experience, either as a moment of ‘calm’ or ‘learning’, a way to meet new people, or entertainment for curious children. The café was celebrated as tearoom of excellent quality, value and atmosphere.

We will:

Accessibility:

  • Review our accessibility, including the emotional and physical experience of visitors (this is due to start October 2023)
  • Fix some of the practical accessibility problems in the Oxfordshire Museum – e.g. the stairlift (underway)

Programming:

  • Keep school holiday activities free of charge, to make sure that people low-income backgrounds can still take part (we continue to work with the Friends of the Museum to cover the cost of materials to maintain our free offer and are looking at a donations-based approach)
  • Consider the diversity represented in temporary exhibitions and permanent exhibitions – we will be developing a new, more representative collecting strategy in over the coming couple of years
  • Enhance the museum service’s offer for supporting the wellbeing of visitors and residents through programming – we are exploring partnerships and opportunities for social prescribing

Communications and marketing

  • Review how we tell people about the museum, to help us grow and diversify the ways audiences hear about the museum service

To gather data on our current visitors to the Oxfordshire Museum we ran a survey between 13 February and 15 April 2023. We were pleased to hear from 170 people, giving us valuable information about our visitors during this late winter / early spring period.

The survey helped us to understand:

  • who does, and doesn’t visit the museum
  • what visitors think about the museum
  • what helps to make visiting a positive experience
  • the impact of our communications and marketing

Who visits the museum

Most of the people who come to the Oxfordshire Museum fit are aged 70-79 (23.5percent) or 30-44 (30.2percent). This matches our observations of the majority of visitors being parents or grandparents with young children.

You said:

  • Visitor feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 81 percent responding, ‘very good’ and 17 percent responding ‘good’. Only 1 percent responded neutrally and there were no ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ responses.
  • ‘Word of mouth’ was the most common way people heard about the Oxfordshire Museum with 32 percent of respondents choosing that option. Social media (10 percent) and the Oxfordshire County Council website (7 percent) were also common responses
  • You often have a very positive interaction when you visit the museum, with museum staff and volunteers praised for being friendly and welcoming.
  • It’s important to you that your visits are a positive emotional experience, either as a moment of ‘calm’ or ‘learning’, a way to meet new people, or entertainment for curious children. The café was celebrated as tearoom of excellent quality, value and atmosphere.

We will:

Accessibility:

  • Review our accessibility, including the emotional and physical experience of visitors (this is due to start October 2023)
  • Fix some of the practical accessibility problems in the Oxfordshire Museum – e.g. the stairlift (underway)

Programming:

  • Keep school holiday activities free of charge, to make sure that people low-income backgrounds can still take part (we continue to work with the Friends of the Museum to cover the cost of materials to maintain our free offer and are looking at a donations-based approach)
  • Consider the diversity represented in temporary exhibitions and permanent exhibitions – we will be developing a new, more representative collecting strategy in over the coming couple of years
  • Enhance the museum service’s offer for supporting the wellbeing of visitors and residents through programming – we are exploring partnerships and opportunities for social prescribing

Communications and marketing

  • Review how we tell people about the museum, to help us grow and diversify the ways audiences hear about the museum service