Interviewed by Joelle Seligson

This interview appeared in the January/February 2013 issue of Dimensions magazine.

Watt’s Up? is both an exhibition and a question that Denise Amyot, president and CEO of the Canadian Science and Technology Museums Corporation in Ottawa, Ontario, is trying to answer through a cross-Canada initiative. Amyot spearheaded Let’s Talk Energy: Engaging Ideas for Canada’s Future, a six-year public engagement program launched in 2010. Her work earned her ASTC’s Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for New Leadership in the Field, which she accepted at the 2012 ASTC Annual Conference last October. Amyot spoke with Dimensions about how she’s energizing Canada about energy.

Read the full transcript, or listen to the podcast.

This is an extended discussion of the question that appeared in the Viewpoints department of the January/February 2013 issue of Dimensions magazine.

“If they had more special exhibitions, then we’d get a membership and come more often.”
—Science Museum of Minnesota visitor, August 2011

Our most recent audience survey, conducted in 2011 (n=830), suggests that there are factors beyond immediate attendance to blockbuster exhibitions to consider. For instance, 85% of visitors responded that they would be more likely to visit the museum more frequently if they knew something was different or had changed. While visitors’ intentions do not necessarily lead to actions, blockbuster exhibitions may inform visitors’ perceptions of change at the museum and encourage repeat visits and new memberships.

Gayra Ostgaard, museum evaluator 2
Gretchen Haupt, museum evaluator 1
Al Onkka, museum evaluator 2
Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul
(more…)