ABSTRACT
Population aging has increased the demand for activities for older people, and museums are well positioned to respond to this demand. Getting to know about older people’s experiences in museums, interests and motivations will allow building more assertive museographic relationship propositions for the potential public of older people, that is, visitors and non-visitors. The objective of this article was to get to know older people who visit museums, regarding their sociodemographic and motivational characteristics, previous and current experiences in museums, as well as participation perceptions and emotions in the museum experience. The questionnaire was applied in 24 Brazilian museums to 1,387 visitors. Descriptive statistical analysis found that most of the sample is composed of women with higher education than high school and quite diverse in terms of housing arrangement and income. The interviewees go with their families or in social groups. The main interests and experiences sought within the museums are the objects, in addition to learning new things, walking around and socializing with other people. Joy, satisfaction, and curiosities are the most felt emotions. More than half of the older people believe they can contribute to museums, sharing memories and teaching things they know how to do. Around 90% of the sample stated that they were not people with disabilities, and stated that they did not miss any accessibility resource. The museums have the potential to work with all levels of autonomy of older people, as long as they become age friendly environments for all ages. The data are consistent with the literature presented in a produced scoping review.
KEYWORDS:
Aging; Gerontology; Museology; Older adults; Brazil
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Fonte: Elaboração nossa a partir de Araujo (2019,