Meeting Warhol in the Exhibition: Visitors’ Experience with Art in the Hong Kong Museum of Art

The essay is a museological enquiry into how museum visitors assign meanings to their visits and their interpretive strategies for connecting with the arts. Adhering to specific theoretical rationale, research methodologies and analytical framework, the writers have identified five different models of visiting experiences based on the visitors’ personal motivation, interpretation of experiences, and general perception of art and cultural activities, namely, connoisseurs, enthusiastic learners, curious viewers, leisurely wanderers and passive visitors. Characteristics of each model is discussed in details. The writers hope that the research will produce useful knowledge about Hong Kong art visitors for the benefit of art administrators and museum professionals in considering how to interact with visitors in a meaningful way.