Different Ways of Meaning Making

The purpose of this study is to identify and examine how eight East Asian visitors of a comprehensive American art museum think about the knowledge presentation in the museum setting, including how they feel about collection arrangements, exhibition styles, or label contents in a museum gallery. Specially, this study explored and attempted to describe how people from another cultural perspective see things in the particular traditional American cultural institution. The findings suggest some improvements in practices and some questions for future research and may inspire museum professionals to question their own assumptions of art and about how to communicate information about it. As a result, American art museums can better bridge the gap between their scholarly perspectives and different needs from diverse visitors¿international or domestic¿who are eager to learn from American art museums¿ collections.