Book Description

Security officers in museums are often first in line when it comes to interactions with museum patrons in galleries. Yet, their perspectives are often overlooked making them invisible. Their proximity to the art that they protect, interactions with museum visitors, and the major role they play in the daily functions of museum operations are reasons why their perspectives should be considered informative. Our thesis explores the vital voices of museum security officers and how their perspectives can be used as resources. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following: What information pertaining to program development, exhibition development, and audience engagement do security officers' perspective offer? How is the voice of the security officer valued by other museum staff? How does training or education affect the way the security officers' opinions are regarded? Despite a semester-long negotiation with the Associate Vice President of the Department of Protection Services at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), we were unable to secure permission to interview security officers contracted from Securitas. In order to move forward, our research focus shifted to museum professionals who work or have worked with museum security officers. Our hypothesis being that their interactions could provide critical insight on the perspectives of the security officers and how the perspectives were already being used. Through responses to a questionnaire we developed, museum professionals indicated that security officers' perspectives are a resource for both museum staff and visitors. Those results lead to the recommendation that security officers be incorporated in the front-end, formative, and summative stages of program development, exhibit development, and audience engagement. To achieve this, museums should practice in-reach, a process that develops relationships within an institution through shared goals, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas and viewpoints.