Cartoon Museum of Bangkok Metropolitan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is four-fold: (1) to examine the participants’ learning behavior with respect to the cartoons’ museum, (2) to explore the design of the cartoons’ museum based on the principles of informal learning, (3) examine the elements of the exhibition set in the cartoons’ museum, and (4) to investigate location aspects of the cartoons’ museum.

The research participants included two major groups. The first group (N=23) were the experts in media, education, museum design, and museum exhibitions, and cartoon professionals, along with those collecting cartoons and organizing cartoon exhibitions, all of whom were selected through a purposive sampling method. The data collected from this group were obtained by interviews and qualitatively analyzed. The second group of the participants (N=426) recruited by the multistage sampling method included two sub-groups: the youth (7-24 years old), and general public with their age over 25 years, studying or working in Bangkok. The data with this group were collected through a survey and quantitatively analyzed through descriptive statistics.

Four major findings were found. First, the major target groups for the cartoons’ museum were the youth, their families, and the general public, and the minor target group included the academics, researchers, cartoon professionals. With respect to their learning behavior, the youth, as the major target group, expressed their learning style with inquisitive learning, first-hand experiences, whereas the adults were found to prefer learning through the in-depth-study-then-practice learning. Second, the cartoons’ museum should incorporate several sectors regulating the museum’s policy of learning goals with knowledge, enjoyment, and liveliness, and responsible for providing services, researching, offering training courses, creating neo-industries, promoting life-long education, and organizing the events that foster the cartoons’ museum as the national museum with cultural heritage. Third, the elements of the exhibitions set in the cartoons’ museum included permanent exhibition, temporarily circulated exhibition, activities, and libraries. Fourth, the location aspects of the cartoons’ museum could be the use of the museum available, and a newly constructed museum. The selected one should be convenient for commuting and spacious enough for the museum’s exhibitions and activities to be arranged.