Designing museum and gallery shops as integral, co-creative retail spaces within the overall visitor experience

Abstract

A museum and art gallery experience study reveals that visitors view shop spaces as an integral part of the experience during a visit, therefore having the ability to support and expand the on-site and continued learning experience, rather than acting purely as souvenir shops – generating memories after the event. Museum and gallery shops could aid in the construction of meaningful, personal visit mythologies in an immersive, self-developmental event, corresponding to co-creative retail theory. It is proposed that shop spaces should be more integrated within a holistically designed visitor experience orientation (gestalt) than is apparent from impressions to be gained from the museum experience literature, which reveals a gap between curators and shop operation. For integration purposes, it is recommended that the shop space should be included in the provision of a mix of spatial types, each featuring differentiated qualities or characteristics. All spaces should be considered in a complimentary manner to deliver a synergistic balance of holistic, sociocultural-economic experience and flow for each visitor type, including the contribution of creative retail spaces.

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