The Experience of Visiting Museums of Portuguese University Students from Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences: Perceptions, Motivations and Attitudes

Abstract

This article presents the results of a questionnaire on the visiting habits, motivations and attitudes towards museums, answered by 634 students from Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts of five Portuguese universities. In general, there is a positive participation in their visit to museums. The most frequent visitors are more critical about their experiences in museums and, driven by internal motivations, they also reveal a bigger openness to participate in the life of museums. The results indicate that participants’ academic background has an important influence on their experiences with museums. Art students are the ones who visit museums the most. This group also reveals to have greater expectations about their future as museum visitors and consider more relevant the learning opportunities offered by museums.