Do hospital ao museu: histórico e perfis de públicos do Museu da Misericórdia - Salvador, Bahia

Abstract

The present master's research aimed to highlight the history and analyze the audience profiles of the Museu da Misericórdia, a cultural unit of Santa Casa da Bahia. Between 2006 and 2019, the aforementioned museum received a diverse range of visitors and maintained a unique relationship with the state's tourism industry. Due to this partnership, the museum's visitation numbers increased annually, as it was one of the first stops on tourists' itineraries in the Historic Center of Salvador. We investigated the constitution of the Santa Casa institution, the formation of its museum, and how this history and its collection were specifically presented to visitors who were brought to the museum in groups organized by tour guides. We identified this visitor profile by categorizing visitors based on how they arrived at the museum, as the most frequent type of visitor until its closure in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and later, due to restoration works on the building. This research is a case study within the thematic field of Audience Research, with a quali-quantitative approach, based on participant observation, and is characterized by the use of mixed analysis methods, such as: literature review, application of questionnaires, interviews, and documental research. We present the particularities of the mediation conducted for this tourist audience, in relation to the length of the visit; analyzed visitor reviews on the virtual platform TripAdvisor and considered that, during our study period, there was massive, vertical communication, often instructional in nature. The lack of evaluation of its methods by the museum administration was one of the reasons this occurred, revealing a lack of attention in planning its procedures to enhance the knowledge and satisfaction of tourist visitors.