What Visitors Want

Spent two days interviewing visitors the AGO last week as part of a class assignment at U of T. My inestimable colleagues in this project have also been busy bothering people when all they seek is a little peace and quiet, and respite from the world outside!
What did I discover? First, the thing that surprised me (or actually didn't surprise me) was how much people love art. I mean, they are there because they are seeking something extraordinary, aesthetic, lovely, something hard-to-describe.
Our questions in this exercise revolved around how interaction with actual living speaking humans might enhance visitors 'experience' in the galleries, but in large measure, that's really a discussion on how people learn, or how much they want to learn. The fact is, people WANT to know. They visit an art gallery wanting to understand the how, why and who of the artwork displayed there. They come with the assumption that someone who knows something about art has made some very carefully considered selections and put the best of the best up for them to enjoy.
Questions about how well the gallery is doing - whether visitors felt there was enough information available to them usually elicited positive responses, but in delving into it many people actually admitted that, even if they are frequent visitors, they still don't really understand things. They need more information. They would like to have someone available talking to them about art, and be able to answer questions casually, as they arise.
Mostly, people I interviewed could only identify security staff, but were unsure if they could ask security questions about art. Talking to security staff later, they also want to learn more about art. It's a prevailing desire!!!
I have alot of ideas about how we could make this all happen, but what are your ideas?

Cultural commotion in print!

Well, not quite! But I'm working on it! I'm referring to the paper I wrote last term for Jennifer's excellent Cultural Heritage course. I titled it Cultural Commotion at the Toronto Carrying Place, and those of you in the class, who may have seen my case study presentation will know a little of the content.
Jennifer has been assisting some of her students in searching for possible publication vehicles, and I'll be preparing the manuscript for appraisal soon.

It's pretty exciting, and I'm thrilled, in part because the material means so much to me. I've been down at the Humber taking photographs for months. Ideally, I'm thinking this might make a great Independent Study or, if I could fashion it into an internship, that would be great.