International Spy Museum Essay

The current atrium at the International Spy museum has been described as dark, unwelcoming, ineffective in its use of space, and lacks the proper signage and visitor flow. All these opinions came from employees at the International Spy museum, so one can image how the many guests that visit the museum each year must feel. The entrances into the atrium are confusing for visitors. Visitors can come through multiple entrances which can cause misunderstanding about where visitors should line up and pay for tickets. Tour and student groups used the same entrances as regular visitors which adds to the confusion of purchasing tickets. There are also small exhibits that are hard for the visitors to engage with. When visitors do engage with the lobby exhibits it interferes with visitor flow. Lastly the lobby does not reflect the museum overarching themes. The atrium’s best asset is the excellent guest service staff at the spy museum, who make sure that guests always know where their going.
Our group’s goal was to change the movie theater-like feel of the current atrium at the spy museum, and create an entrance that would match the Spy Museum stellar exhibits and interactives on the other floors. Four main types of research were conducted for this project. Max conducted our groups ‘in the field’ research (interviews with
Resources range in scale from single focus resource to multi-focus resources. Museums resources are what they are interpreting/ exhibiting and venue is where the resources are located. Reed used the Lincoln Cabin as an example of a single focus resource and the Louvre as an example of a multi-focus resource institution. Lincoln Cabin is a single focus resource because that is all the visitor comes to see (the cabin) and that is all the staff are interpreting. The Louvre on the other hand has multiple famous paintings that are ‘must see’ before leaving the institution (Mona