contextual approach

A contextual approach is taken when the visitors are allowed to be personal with the items, possibly feeling them and such. This differs from another approach where, say, the object is locked in a glass cabinet, only allowed to be seen and observed rather than felt and experienced. Having the objects available for personal connections made strengthens the overall reaction of the visitors to the museum in general. For example, at the Conner Museum's "Big Cats" exhibit it was made possible to feel the different coats of the different big cats. Thus, little children were getting excited and could tell their parents about how they felt the fur of a cougar today. In doing this, they were allowed to actually experience the object (in this case the fur) and form concrete sensual experiences, and this in turn made the object more memorable and life-like than one placed behind glass. Therefore, the contextual approach is very likely to be found and successful in museums today (as shown in the example of the conner museum).