# Virtual Reality in Museums: Exploring the Experiences of Museum Professionals
## VR Uses and Museum Professionals' Perceptions
### Museum Professionals' Perceptions about the Role and Uses of VR  
Apart from current uses, our aim was to also explore the interviewees' perceptions on the ideal use and role of VR in museums. Current literature tends to emphasize the role of VR in attracting new audiences and enhancing the experience offered (see for example [28]). However, for museum professionals, technology has a broader and multifaceted role to play in a museum context. For most interviewees (8 out of 16), VR can offer new ways of interpretation, allowing for personal involvement of the visitor in interpretation processes. It can promote new ways of understanding art, objects, and concepts, and can allow visitors to explore their ideas on these concepts. Thus, the role of such technologies is not to offer something innovative but to serve the audience's actual needs. As interviewee 16 emphasizes, \"it doesn't really matter to us if the technology is innovative or not. It's whether or not it serves audiences and whether or not it gives them something new that they will enjoy and that will enrich their visit\". Moreover, it is essential to understand the reason why we incorporate VR in a museum in the first place. According to interviewee 16, VR should not be used to replace the gallery experience but to allow the visitor to experience something he/she would never have access to in any other way and to incorporate this meaningfully in the overall museum experience. As interviewee 16 notes:  
_\"I think where it gets challenging is when you try to use VR to replace the gallery experience or to provide a gallery experience in a virtual environment. That's not what it's good for. It's good for offering a different kind of experience. So, use VR to create experiences that people can't get anywhere else. People can walk into museums and galleries all over the world. So, don't try and make a virtual museum or a gallery, make something else, a studio, a scene, a location, or send them to the moon. But don't try and create a gallery in there\"._  
If this experience enhancement is achieved in a meaningful way, then these technologies can also contribute to attracting new audiences. However, as stressed by interviewee 3: \"Understanding from the beginning the goal of using these technologies is the key\", otherwise the entire offering is compromised. In fact, a common challenge faced is how to best find the right balance to offer a truly meaningful experience without turning the museum into a meaningless theme park. Many museums use technology to \"remain relevant\" and align the offered experience to people's everyday lives. Thus, they consider technology as a tool to stay up-to-date, while at the same time, seeking for interactions that do not diminish the content. As interviewee 6 explains:  
_\"The expectation today of people and technology is high. A lot of people try and interact with screens that are not interactive. I don't think this is always because people want to know more about what they are watching but rather they are used to interacting. I think it's important to be up-to-date with emerging technologies to remain relevant in the public eye but also do this in a respectful way, not to diminish the reason the technology is there [that is] the content\"._  
While struggling to stay relevant, museums are also seeking ways to offer new social experiences with technology that allow social interaction and can transform learning. According to three interviewees, for VR to have an effective role in a museum, it should be connected to a basic human need, such as communicating and sharing with other people. Thus, new technologies have a role to play in allowing visitors to share their experience and interact with others. These technologiescan also offer experiences that cannot be offered at home. Thus, museums do not need another experience that can be also found at home through an application, but rather an experience that provides the missing context in conjunction with the aura of the original, which can be offered only inside the museum.