The Practice of Multi-dimensional Empathy with Visitors in Children’s Exhibition

Museums increasingly play a significant role in addressing contemporary social issues, fostering cultural understanding, and cultivating public empathy through exhibitions, educational activities, etc. As public cultural infrastructures, empathizing with visitors is an intrinsic requirement of museums’ functions and missions, as well as an effective way to realize their educational purpose. Taking the “<italic>Together</italic>” exhibition at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden, as an example, this article reviews how the exhibition implements the concept of empathizing with its target audience through thematic planning, collection strategies and participatory design. Under this concept and practice, the exhibition innovatively focuses on children’s psychosocial development instead of following the knowledge-education framework of previous children’s exhibitions. It also offers approaches for museums to explore the contemporary value of their collections and to design diversified visitor participation both within and beyond the exhibition space.