Research questions

• How can we better understand who visits and benefits from museums?
• What can existing population-level and museum data tell us about those who visit and those who do not?
• What research can museums committed to representative participation draw on to understand audience development more strategically?
• How might museums utilise research and strategies from fields such as implementation science to drive evidence-based decision making, understand which changes in museums successfully broaden visitor demographics and sustain progress towards representative participation?

About the project

This network, led by University of Leicester’s Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, brought social science scholars in dialogue with cultural policy makers, museum scholars, and museum leaders committed to representative participation and research-led practice.

As part of its commitment to engage meaningfully with Birmingham’s visitors and citizens, Birmingham Museums was represented in the core project team for this network. Across the Network Grant period, five public talks were delivered at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum. You can view them on the Museum Attendance website to learn more from academics and practitioners about cultural inequalities, museum visitation, cultural policy, and implementation science.

Links

• Museum Attendance website.