Nomads as audiences

What Mongolian herders want to see from museums and cultural programming

Abstract

Little attention has thus far been afforded to the topic of nomads as museum audiences. This paper explores the questions of what nomadic pastoralists in Mongolia want to see from their local museums, and how regional museums and their cultural programming can meaningfully engage with this target audience. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic fieldwork across three regions – Khövsgöl, Uvs, and Bulgan aimag – it examines local attitudes towards heritage, museums and archaeology. Findings reveal a significant disconnect between what regional museums currently offer and what herding communities value: experiential, socially embedded encounters with material culture, and storytelling that resonates with their daily lives. Low numbers of museum visits reveal barriers to engagement: time constraints, inaccessible formats, as well as a lack of outreach and negative perceptions of museums as irrelevant repositories for redundant objects. Nevertheless, herders expressed strong interest in themes of traditional ecological knowledge, continuity and change, and inspirational stories of rural identity. This paper thus considers opportunities for data-informed, community-responsive changes to Mongolian regional museums: new narratives, participatory interpretation, and extramural engagement. By aligning with rural ways of knowing and local rhythms of life, regional museums have the potential to enhance their relevance and impact for nomadic-pastoralist audiences.