The Frick Collection engaged Surface Impression to help design and implement a new, visitor-centred approach for welcoming guests as they return, after 5 years of absence, to the museum’s newly renovated historic buildings.
The reopening in April 2025 marked an opportunity to redefine the visitor experience through brand alignment, cultural values, the infusion of new energy and thoughtful engagement. Ahead of the reopening, we were tasked with creating a new Visitor Experience Framework to transform how guests interact with the institution, enhancing their overall experience in the reopened buildings.
For this project, we partnered with Dana Mitroff Silvers, an expert in human-centered design.
Collaboratively re-imagining the visitor experience
Over six months, we worked with 125 Frick staff across all visitor-facing departments.
We facilitated workshops to create a common purpose statement, service values and behaviors, and recovery of service strategies.
Visitor journey mapping identified the key touch points across the visitor journey and ways to break down departmental silos to create a more seamless and holistic visitor experience.
A centralized data capture system in Airtable was introduced to unify visitor feedback from digital and paper-based sources.
We delivered dynamic in-person customer service training for frontline staff and created a visitor experience handbook as a reference guide for staff.
An impactful new visitor experience
Key outcomes for the project included making the Frick more welcoming, engaging, and inspiring for everyone who walks through their doors.
Through our work, we helped staff to: reimagine and elevate the visitor experience; reconnect with the Frick’s brand, values and mission; infused a renewed energy and excitement into how the Frick welcomes visitors; align cross-departmental teams around a shared service vision; introduced a light-touch, centralized visitor feedback capture and analysis; and developed a flexible visitor framework that can evolve post-reopening.
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