Reading between the lines: how visitor type and label design shape engagement with art in the museum

Abstract Art museums welcome visitors with varying levels of prior knowledge, making interpretive tools such as labels essential for encouraging engagement and improving understanding. In partnership with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, this study explored how visitors respond to Formal–Descriptive versus newly designed labels accompanying paintings that address the Dutch colonial past. Formal–Descriptive labels were designed to guide the visitors view, while the Contextual–Historical labels aimed to raise historical awareness by focusing on colonial histories and their implications. As visitors have different motivations for coming to the museum, we examined two visitor profiles: “Pleasure Seekers”, who primarily visit for enjoyment and a visual experience, and “Art Lovers”, who tend to seek deeper contextual or historical meaning. Using a mixed-methods approach including eye tracking, interviews, and self-report measures, we examined visual attention, emotional responses, and interpretation across three paintings. Pleasure Seekers showed larger pupil diameters and spent more time reading labels than Art Lovers, possibly reflecting greater cognitive effort. Viewers in the Contextual–Historical label condition spent more time initially engaging with label content and made fewer saccades, indicating more focused attention. Interviews revealed that Art Lovers used more historically specific language. Questionnaire data showed that Formal–Descriptive labels were linked to more negative reactions to sensitive topics. These findings demonstrate that museums can integrate historically sensitive narratives without causing discomfort and underscore the importance of tailoring interpretive texts to diverse audiences to support reflection and inclusivity.