Museum Visiting in Canada: Do Canadians Still Value Museums?
We maintain the bold affirmation that museums are relevant institutions for communities. We repeat and repeat how valuable they are for memory, identity, and all the other good things you’ll hear from people who study Art History, Museum Studies, or the Social Sciences. At Forager Education, we’re part of that world… and we believe it! But are we just talking to ourselves?
In 2019, the Alberta Museums Association (AMA) and its territorial partners asked a braver question: How do Canadians value museums, and what role should museum visiting play today?
→ Document link: Trust and Value. The Role of Museums in Canada in the Twenty-First Century
Their national study doesn’t answer with sentiments. It answers with research, and it forces us to confront a reality we often gloss over: the value of museums still hasn’t reached the hearts and minds of the broader public, or the people shaping policy. While museums have made efforts to diversify and engage, many Canadians still see them as “nice to have” but not as “necessary”. What does that mean for public support, funding, and inclusion?
To answer that, the AMA looked not only at today’s trends but also at two key moments in museum history: the 1970s and the 2010s. These snapshots reveal a troubling pattern. While Canada’s population and its museum sector both grew, museum visiting remained limited and uneven..
Museum Visiting in 1973: Expansion Meets Uneven Engagement
According to the research made by AMA, in 1972, there were just 838 museums in Canada, and many had been energized by the Centennial celebrations of 1967 (so, we could guess that they were driven by clear political motivations, but not necessarily community ones). Heritage institutions were expanding, collections were growing, and cultural preservation was on the rise. But public interest didn’t grow equally.
Let’s see the numbers… In 1973, 60% of Canadians reported visiting a museum or historic site in the previous year. Almost half of those visits (48%) were to museums, galleries, or science centres. Over five years, 84% of Canadians had visited at least once. The numbers suggest public support barely exceeded half of the potential visitors. And we need to read those numbers with care: An art gallery isn’t the same as a science centre. They offer different kinds of content, different rhythms of engagement. Grouping them together blurs the picture of what Canadians were actually connecting with.
Now, the research shows how frequency and enthusiasm were concentrated in a narrow demographic: younger, formally educated, urban Canadians, mostly in Western provinces. That tells us something important: Museums were mostly attracting one kind of public. Their content and outreach likely reflected the interests and habits of this narrow group. And while participation seemed steady, it was driven by a small group of regulars. The reach wasn’t wide. It was concentrated.
And of course, museum support wasn’t universal. The AMA report suggests that 40% of Canadians hadn’t visited a museum in the past year, meaning a large portion of the population wasn’t regularly engaged. Even more directly, 13% said they had little or no interest in museums at all. And more troubling: the research offered no data on Indigenous visitors or New Canadians. Entire communities were left out of the picture. That silence points to a major gap between museums and many of the people they were supposed to serve, especially those who weren’t young, urban, or formally educated. The picture was incomplete and, frankly, exclusive.
Museum Visiting in 2016: Growth Without Transformation
Keeping our presentation of AMA research, by 2016, the museum sector had grown dramatically. Canada was home to 2,600 museums. Nearly every electoral district had at least one. Public programming has expanded, especially through digital tools and interactive formats. Educational visits reached 7.5 million students each year. Museums had become more active, more inclusive, more outward-facing.
Impressive, huh? But if we read the numbers with care, we can find they tell a more complicated story. Only 48% of Canadians visited a museum that year. Over five years, 80% had gone at least once. And the socioeconomic factors remained key. Attendance rose with education and income, clear indicators of who continued to feel most connected to museums and heritage institutions.
By this time, we get more specific data for other types of communities. New Canadians appear in the metrics; they visited more than those born in Canada, marking a promising trend (although the research did not provide a specific percentage). Also, we have more information about Indigenous participation… and then we found their attendance was lower (64%, compared with 81% of non-Indigenous Canadians).
In over 40 years of investment and expansion, the overall rate of participation hadn’t meaningfully improved. In fact, there was a slight decline. Museums had become more numerous, but not necessarily more welcoming. And to make matters worse, no data was gathered on Canadians with little or no interest in visiting. That absence leaves another blind spot and that absence speaks volumes.
Rethinking Access: From Museum Visiting to Belonging
Now we can say: Yes, there was progress in expanding the institutions themselves. But access to that progress remained uneven and the gains weren’t shared equally.
In 1973, museums weren’t reaching older, rural, and less formally educated Canadians. Was it because they weren’t producing content that spoke to these communities? In 2016, the pattern apparently shifted, but difficulties didn’t disappear. Canadians with fewer socioeconomic privileges still showed lower attendance. And while the 2016 data gave us more detail and gave us the opportunity to recognize areas of improvement, it still wasn’t enough to fully understand museum publics.
At Forager Education, we believe the issue isn’t just about attendance. We intuitively feel that it is about inclusion! It’s about whose stories get told and whose don’t. It’s about who feels welcome not once a year, but every time they step through any of the 2,600 doors now open across Canada. It’s about who feels seen in spaces that call themselves stewards of the human spirit and the stories that shape us.
The Deeper Challenge of Museum Visiting
The challenge isn’t getting someone to visit a museum once. It’s building an experience where they see themselves reflected and represented. It’s creating an experience where they feel reflected and respected. Where they see themselves not as distanced guests, but as part of the story. That takes more than access. It takes relevance, equity, and effort that we can do together, as people compromise with the human project and tool called museum .
Museums, heritage sites, and cultural institutions must push harder for inclusion. People don’t just want access; they want meaning. They want to feel like they belong. That means the goal can’t be foot traffic alone… It’s not about opening more doors! It’s about making what’s behind those doors matter —to more people, in more ways, for the right reasons.
