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Who Cares About Museums?
Culture& to carry out research into museum visitors
Arts and education charity Culture& has announced plans for a new survey into museum visitors.
The organisation, which is asking the question: “Who Cares About Museums?”, wants to explore who does and doesn’t visit museums, and why. The research will look at a number of issues, including whether museums represent the diversity of the UK’s four nations and how relevant museums and their collection are to people’s lived experience.
With research showing that only 1% of museum audiences are Black, Culture& says that it seems that institutions claiming to be relevant and inclusive are “out of touch” and “out of reach” for many in Britain’s diverse society.
Who Cares About Museums? is a response to a Culture& session held at last year’s Museums Association Conference in Newcastle-Gateshead. This was called “Who Cares in Museums?” and explored the emotional impact of doing decolonial work with museum collections.
The session included Culture& artistic director and CEO Errol Francis; Culture& development director Angela Billings; Sandra Shakespeare, the founder-director of Museum X; and Ama Josephine Budge, a researcher and pleasure activist.
Those interested in responding to the survey can access it via Culture&'s website.