In order to launch its co-planning with its local partner, the LABA, in the months of October and November 2023 the Mart, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, devised and shared a questionnaire designed for its research target, namely young people aged 17 to 25.

The aim was to investigate the perception that young people have of art museums and their future expectations. How do you imagine the museum of the future? How do you experience the reality of the museum today? What have you always dreamed of being able to do in a museum? These are just some of the questions in the questionnaire being used to investigate the points of view of this new public.

Starting with the data that emerged from the survey, during the academic year a class of LABA students will have the opportunity to experiment with and devise a communication campaign directed at this public.

This is the first step in the planning of actions and events that are able to respond to the real demands of young people, encouraging them to visit museums.

 

In the two months in which it was administered, the survey gathered the opinions of more than 500 young people in the 17-25 age band. It emerged from the data that visiting museums is not one of the main activities chosen by young people to spend their leisure time. Nevertheless, 83% of those interviewed had visited the Mart, 44% of whom during this current year. Of these, 92% had a pleasant, enriching and instructive experience. Over half of them visited the Mart with their class group, in other words, during trips scheduled by the school, and 33% visited it with friends or individually.

It emerged from the results that the museums preferred by Generation Z have certain precise characteristics, such as captivating, immersive layout designs, in which the architectural component becomes part of the experience.

A decisive factor in attracting younger people is also the museum’s capacity to involve its visitors and make them feel they are participating, both through the design of the spaces and through the offers it proposes. Clear, concise communication is preferable, together with digital media and the mediation of operators, as such solutions are preferable to panels in the rooms. The emotive component is always a key factor and a fair percentage of those interviewed state that the most appreciated museums are those that present works that have been encountered and studied at school.

The answers to the question "how do you imagine the museum of the future?" are polarized between those who would like a more technological museum and those who prefer the museum to offer a direct relationship with the objects it conserves. The characteristic of the museum of the future on which most agree is accessibility: almost all those interviewed would like the museum to be accessible and inclusive, in economic, physical and intellectual terms, open to everybody and welcoming. Indeed, 42% of those interviewed would like the museum to offer the possibility of entering free of charge, according to Generation Z a factor that would contribute more to facilitating access to the museum.

Generation Z imagines the museum as “a second home”, an agora, a "19^th-century parlour" or simply as a physical place for meeting and sharing, “with places to sit and chat about the works, with virtual explanations in 3D to enter a work of art properly” or “spaces to be able to discuss and compare the works with other people on specific themes, a green zone to be able to go on the hotter days”. In short, the museum of the future is not only a space to exhibit, but above all an environment capable of creating and giving space to socialization.

Some young people interviewed summarize their expectations of the museum of the future with the word "wellbeing": the museums of the future must be places to be comfortable, which also provide the instruments to get to know themselves and to improve, a thrilling experience. The museum should be “a place for meeting, to discover new things through art; a place where you can relax, chatting or studying sitting in the rooms surrounded by works”.

Associated with this sphere, the characteristic of interactivity also emerges, the need to act in the space to make it their own. “I imagine the museum as personalizable: it would be great to be able to create your own itinerary, based on your tastes, interests and likes. I also imagine more "material" exhibitions, allowing you to form a relationship with the art work, even touching it”. But also “with background music”, and “much more interactivity, with more voiced explanations and projections, to enjoy the personal experience using our senses to the full". A synaesthetic and sensory museum, therefore, to stimulate not only the gaze and sight, but also the other senses, for a more immersive experience.