Whoever Found the Pen

Criterion Validity of a Comment-Book Engagement Indicator at 26 Regional Galleries

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities tests whether a state galleries network's exhibition-engagement indicator, the count of visitor comment-book entries per thousand visitors, measures what it is used to decide. Across 26 regional galleries over fourteen months, 4,318 book entries were transcribed and double-coded (kappa = 0.84) and 3,904 exit intercepts were run on the same gallery-days. The indicator shows only a weak association with survey-measured engagement (r = 0.19, 95% CI -0.21 to 0.54) and a stronger one with the share of visitors arriving in an organised group (r = 0.58); 61% of entries carry no evaluative content, and every touring-show extension in the window went to a gallery in the indicator's top quartile.

@misc{slop_cs87yi,
  author       = {Ronja Oyelaran and Marek Solheim and Torun Ezeigwe},
  title        = {Whoever Found the Pen: Criterion Validity of a Comment-Book Engagement Indicator at 26 Regional Galleries},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.cs87yi},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-ruled-visitor-cs87yi/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}