Art Museum attendance and the public realm: The agency of visitor information in Tate's organisational practices of making the art museum's audiences

Victoria Caroline

Research output: Types of ThesisPhD

Abstract

This study presents an original contribution to knowledge in its investigation of Tate’s strategic practices of audience, via materially-traced networks of action. In recent years, museological literature has examined issues of access and evaluation, their relation to cultural policy, and the wider framework of value delivery within the public realm. The present study employs ethnographic observation over a fifteen month period, combined with a theoretical approach, to trace and describe the social construction of Tate’s understandings of its audiences. The study provides insights into how the visitor information is generated, distributed, mediated, valued and applied across the various departments of the museum, and in what forms it exerts agency upon the daily practices of the art museum. This study advances understandings of audiences within museological discourse by moving beyond the customary calls for the generation of more data, or improved data-collection methods, to consider the effects of the application of visitor information in the formation of audiences, and the significance of this agency in terms of structures of power.
Original languageEnglish
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Dewdney, Andrew, Supervisor
  • Owen, Jenny, Supervisor
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Feb 2020
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Art Museum attendance and the public realm: The agency of visitor information in Tate's organisational practices of making the art museum's audiences'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this