American Air Museum Evaluation

Research Problem

The Imperial War Museum had invested funding in the American Air Museum through Heritage Lottery Fund funding. Having been closed for a year, the American Air Museum was reopened, offering much more interpretation to bring the stories of the servicemen to life. Research was needed to understand how the visit experience had been improved.

Approach

Three days of depth interviews were conducted on site among visitors, with a particular focus on visitors who had been before. Over the course of the three days, we spoke to 45 visitors about their experience at the Museum, and how this had changed since the redevelopment.

Outcomes

Visitors were very positive about the redevelopment and particularly the personal stories that were shown both from video screens and in text on the walls. Many first time visitors also knew relatively little about American air power in Britain so this was a great source of information for them.