My research investigates learning as a creative and experiential exchange in gallery settings between museums and their visitors. It looks at how creative practitioners mediate between museums and their visitors, by creating interpretative handling objects to provide visitors with possibilities for sensory exploration, leading to new ways to connect with artefacts on display. Grounded in a review of relevant theory and practice, the study looks specifically at artist-created interpretive handling objects and their potential to enhance visitor learning though creative, participatory and tactile experiences. The case study describes the use of the Object Dialogue Box created by the artistic partnership hedsor, in which data from observations and interviews are analysed using activity theory. The analysis informs how such a tool as the Object Dialogue Box mediates visitors' experiential learning in relation to artefacts in gallery settings. My observation looks at how the activity is mediated by the facilitator and how meaning-making takes place through it. Interviews with the relevant actors such as the museum staff and the creative practitioners provide insights on the making and implementation process. It emphasises what kind of opportunities and challenges the 'interpretive and experiential tool' represents for both museums and visitors. Finally, stimulating experiential learning in museum galleries using object-based interpretation was found to contribute to visitor engagement, and create new insights into the artefacts on display.
