This presentation was given to a workshop in Copenhagen as part of the ‘Museums and Cultural Institutions as Spaces for Cultural Citizenship’ project. The project is comprised of 10 museums: ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Design Museum Denmark, KØS - Art in public spaces, Nikolaj - Center for Contemporary art, The Royal Theater, Copenhagen Museum, The National Museum, The National Gallery, jF Villumsens Museum and Thorvaldsens Museum.
For More details see: helengraham@wordpress.com
Helen Graham Whose story is it anyway?: 'Public' and 'Ownership'
Co-production: Visitors, Knowledge and Politics
1. Co-production:
Visitors, Knowledge
and Politics
Helen Graham
Presented at a workshop
at Statens Museum for
Kunst, Cophenhagen, 1st
February 2013
The workshop was part of
the Museums and Cultural
Institutions as spaces for
Cultural Citizenship project
2. Workshop
Visitor Experiences of Co-produced
Exhibits/Exhibitions:
Sharing research and exploring
approaches
18th December, St Mungo Museum of Art and
Religious life
3.
4. It is probably not excessive to
suggest that the profound feeling of
unworthiness (and of incompetence)
which haunts the least cultivated
visitors as if they were overcome
with respect when confronted with
the sacred universe of legitimate
culture, contributes in no small way
to keeping them away from
museums. (p. 53)
It’s not really news that art galleries might be exclusive!
14. Visitor research:
Success in one way (…but did the co-
produced content help?)
• 50% split on whether the gallery was about
‘art’ or about the ‘north east’
• Phase 1 visitor research: noticed was little use
of the AV
• Phase 2 visitor research: focus in on each AV
element
17. When asked to listen or look at the co-produced
media then visitors gave positive comments –
It’s interesting to see
It’s quite cool to see the changes (e.g.
the city from a Interesting mix.. (between Tyne, between then
local’s point of known photograph and and now)
view… unknown photography)
‘makes it a bit more
*Listening to people’s
personal to the people
stories+ ‘makes it a little bit
around here which is
more real, how it used to
good’
exist’
I think it adds to your experience
and understanding. You look at the
paintings and you have your own
perspective and then if you add *support idea that’
someone else’s perspective, you ‘anyone can take pictures
get a different idea of how it has and capture a nice
developed… moment’
18. • Not strong enough connection between
paintings and co-produced media (as a result
felt ‘too much’)
Introductory Panel: Northern Spirit is a major new permanent
exhibition celebrating the achievements of artists,
manufacturers and makers from the North East of England.
Internationally acclaimed art from the Laing Art Gallery’s
collection feature in this new display, including work by 19th
century painter John Martin, engraver and naturalist Thomas
Bewick and the Beilby family of glass enamellers.
19. • Need for stronger explanation about why co-
produced content was there – give authored
and personal reasons (because this is what
gives it it’s value)
Maybe it would be nice
if you used people’s
comments to explain
the significance of the
place for them…
Doesn’t really say how
the content has been
generated…
24. Q1.
What makes co-production
valuable? What are the
theories of value behind the
different contributions in your
current projects?
25. Experiential knowing is through direct face-to-face encounter
with person, place or thing; it is knowing through the immediacy of
perceiving, through empathy and resonance.
Presentational knowing emerges from experiential
knowing, and provides the first form of expressing meaning and
significance through drawing on expressive forms of imagery through
movement, dance, sound, music, drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry,
story, drama and so on.
Propositional knowing ‘about’ something, is knowing
through ideas and theories, expressed in informative statements.
Practical knowing is knowing ‘how to’ do something and is
expressed in a skill, knack or competence
(Heron, 1992, 1996a).
27. Participant control
Museum control
D
TELL SELL CONSULT JOIN DELEGATE
Museum decides
Museum decides Museum invites Museum invites Museum turns
then sells
and then informs input before others to make decision over to
positive aspects
others deciding decisions with others.
of the decision.
them.
Courtesy of Kinharvie Institute and Curious Conference,
St Mungo Museum of Art and Religious Life.
5th and 6th December 2012.
28. Think about the projects
you are working on –
which aspects have been
Tell, Sell, Consult, Join,
Delegate?
Participant control
Museum control
D
TELL SELL CONSULT JOIN DELEGATE
Museum decides
Museum decides Museum invites Museum invites Museum turns
then sells
and then informs input before others to make decision over to
positive aspects
others deciding decisions with others.
of the decision.
them.
Courtesy of Kinharvie Institute and Curious Conference,
St Mungo Museum of Art and Religious Life.
5th and 6th December 2012.
30. Participant control
Museum control
D
TELL SELL CONSULT JOIN DELEGATE
Museum decides
Museum decides Museum invites Museum invites Museum turns
then sells
and then informs input before others to make decision over to
positive aspects
others deciding decisions with others.
of the decision.
them.
Courtesy of Kinharvie Institute and Curious Conference,
St Mungo Museum of Art and Religious Life.
5th and 6th December 2012.
38. Q3.
How do you see co-
production linking to
renewing museums for the
21st century?
39. More on Northern Spirit and the co-produced content see:
artontyneside.wordpress.com
Also publications:
(in press) Rhiannon Mason, Chris Whitehead and Helen Graham,
‘From One Voice to Many Voices: Creating Polyvocality in an Art Gallery Display’.
In Viv Golding and Wayne Modest (eds) Collaborative Museums:
Communities, Curators, Collections. Oxford: Blackwell.
(2012) Rhiannon Mason, Chris Whitehead and Helen Graham.
‘Place shaped and place shaping: The role of a civic art gallery then and now’.
In Ian Convery, Peter Davis or Gerard Corsane (eds) Making Sense of Place.
Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer.
Helen Graham
University Research Fellow in Tangible and Intangible Heritage,
University of Leeds
h.graham@leeds.ac.uk
Notes de l'éditeur
Visitor research
Easy to see – gets most attention
BUT design perhaps didn’t help
Makes it personal, real, link between now and then – helps idea of different perspectives.Principle – anyone can…
Interpretative lack – clearer about the value and importance of the content
Heighten the personal element within the interpretation – as a way of explaining why it is there.
