Welcome! We're happy to have you!
We're excited to share our refreshed website full of resources, discussions, and tools with you! COVES is an initiative created by museums for museums to better understand their visitors: who visits, who they visit with, and what they experience during their visit. Whether you are a COVES member, a researcher in or supporter of the museum field, or someone who wants to learn more about visitor experiences, we hope you find something useful here, and we'd love to answer any questions you might have!
Our Mission
The Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies (COVES) is designed to unite museums across the country to systematically collect, analyze, and report on visitor experience data.
We envision a collaborative museum community seeking to better understand and improve the visitor experience. We believe that studying the visitor experience in museums can help us learn about our visitors, make evidence-based decisions about services and programming, and respond to challenges, interests, and concerns in a visitor-centered manner.
Our Community
COVES is stronger because of our members.
As of July 2025, COVES members include over 135 participating institutions, representing science centers, children's museums, natural history museums, history museums, and art museums. The Art Bridges Foundation supports more than 90 art museums participation in COVES. Bring your institution to our community!
Member Area Login
Are you a member of the COVES? Login below for full access.
Not a member yet? Click here to join.
