Towards a Digital Shift in Museum Visiting Experience. Drafting the Research Agenda Between Academic Research and Practice of Museum Management

Abstract

This chapter reviews the state of the art in digital applications for museums and exhibitions, with a particular focus on the visiting experience. The authors have measured the gap between academic research and the current practice of museum management through a mixed-methodology approach. On one hand, the text presents the result of a systematic literature review of articles on museum digitalization that have been published since 2000. On the other hand, it includes the results of an interview with a group of experts, directors, and curators of Italian museums to understand the degree to which digitalization is currently adopted in those cultural institutions. COVID-19 is an additional factor that has been considered in terms of its impact on scientific production and museums’ strategies. Such cultural institutions, having ticketing and similar forms of revenue related to physical visitors at the core of their model of economic sustainability, suddenly realized the need for a different approach to promoting art, namely forms of engagement from a distance. Within the frame of industry 4.0, it has become evident the crucial role experts play in the field of digitalization and implementation of virtual environments for the art sector. This text aims to draft a research agenda on museum digitalization for the near future, looking at trending topics, academic networks, and research geographies. The qualitative survey with experts’ opinions discussed whether regular employment of digital platforms and virtual tours can engage new visitors in the long term, and established the current status of their day-to-day activities.