Now I Get It: Decoding museum fatigue

What is the source of that listlessness that almost everyone feels, past a certain point in a museum? How can one combat it? There are simple hacks.

Too much of anything is bad, they say. And how true that is.

At the Vatican Museums in Vatican City. Too many similar exhibits, particularly when arranged along identical passages and in same-looking rooms, are said to be a key cause of museum fatigue. (Shutterstock)

One could have works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh in the same building and still feel… that sense of listlessness that seems to settle on almost everyone when they have been in a museum past a certain point.

That point, studies suggest, is 30 to 45 minutes. That’s when “museum fatigue” usually sets in.

The phenomenon would seem to be timeless. The term was coined by Benjamin Gilman, during his term as secretary of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1893-1925).

Symptoms include an ambling that researchers call the “cruising” stage, when the initial enthusiasm has worn off and one has gone from purposeful trotting to aimlessly stopping and no longer caring to stare.

Researchers have noted more swivelling of the head, as the fatigued museum-goer seeks a break from the sameness and the overwhelming muchness of what they have before them.

Too many similar exhibits, particularly when arranged along identical passages and in same-looking rooms, are said to be a key cause of museum fatigue.

Simple things can help. Benches offer respite, and the person stands up re-energised. A coffee shop can do wonders. A gift shop is even more effective, because here there is direct engagement with the artefacts; one can touch the jewellery, buy a replica, hold a print in one’s hand.

Anyone who visited the India and the World exhibition at Delhi’s National Museum or Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj museum in 2017-18 can vouch for how marvellously that gift shop, situated somewhere in the middle of the vast array, worked to renew energy and interest, with its replicas of Harappan-era jewellery and prints of ancient art.

The marvellously put together exhibition also allowed visitors to punch their own coins, using a press that embossed ancient symbols on tiny circles of fake gold.

Interesting solutions have emerged out of contemporary art galleries too. In November, Brooklyn artist Finnegan Shannon’s show, Don’t Mind If I Do, held at Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, eliminated walking altogether. Visitors sat on couches while the art moved towards and around them on a conveyor belt.

Anything that adds an element of variety, surprise, or direct engagement does wonders.

So, if you are losing interest, particularly at a world-renowned establishment that you have waited years to visit and paid multiple Euro to access — head to a bench, a coffee shop or the gift shop. Don’t give up.

You are part of a long line of fatigued museum-lovers. Stay the course! Just alter it a little.