Contact: Organizational Culture of the Museum and Visitors in the Light of Entries in Guest Books

The paper deals how to define relations between guests and organizational culture in museum. Guest books are lectured at temporary exhibitions presented at the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, from the half of 20th Century up today. They are the source of analysis of the characteristics of the relationship between the museum and visitors as well as the review of opinions and assessments when receiving the exhibition. The exhibition is a product of the museum’s organizational culture. The culture is the process and state that determines the hierarchy of values and activities, it decides about the identity of employees, as well as about the convictions the institution about itself. Statements about the museum and exhibitions, recorded in guest books, reflect the characteristics of organizational culture and they signal various ways of self-identification of the recipients of the exhibition. Contact is understood here as a state of compliance of the museum’s mission and strategy as well as the intentions and goals of the visitor. Analysis of entries due to content will allow to find answers to the following questions: What are the symptoms of connecting the visitor to the museum? Which elements of the museum’s organizational culture are distinguished by the visitor? What are the characteristics of the space of “contact”?

The Affordances of Cultural Institutions’ Objects: The Evaluation of Organizational Museum Visual Offer from the Perspective of Communication Strategy

The interdisciplinary study bordering communication management and media psychology aims to present the possibility of using the “affordance” concept in the cultural institutions study, and more precisely in the organization’s museum research. It may be particularly useful to extend the theoretical apparatus to describe the phenomena of the organizational iconosphere, where behavioural models seem to be insufficient to analyse the relationship between the designed institutional environment and its ability to influence the visiting audience. The author has conducted qualitative research on visual messages in the newly created Polish Vodka Museum in Warsaw. The theoretical foundation was the model proposed by Meyer et al. [2018], which synthesizes the functions of visual messages in the organization’s space. The article, referring to the theory of affordances, presents a new application of this concept in the analysis of the communication potential of an organization’s museum. The assessment of the offer of cultural institutions may begin with the analysis of affordances of the main objects exhibited. This is a complementary approach to studying the preferences and experiences of visitors.

Marketing Communication of Polish Museums in the Opinion of Their Audience – Conclusions from Empirical Research

The aim of the article is to present the results of qualitative and quantitative research of the museum audience on the subject of marketing communication implemented by these institutions. The research was carried out using the focus group interview method (FGI) and the online direct interview method (CAWI). As part of the research, it was determined, among others, what are the main sources of information about the museum’s offer, what marketing communication activities of these institutions can be considered the most effective and what communication channels are preferred by the public. It was also determined what factors have the greatest impact on the audience’s loyalty towards the museum.

* Niniejszy artykuł stanowi poprawiony fragment niepublikowanej rozprawy doktorskiej autorki, pt. Zintegrowana komunikacja marketingowa w działalności muzeów (promotor: prof. dr hab. Mirosława Pluta-Olearnik, promotor pomocniczy: dr Anetta Pukas), obronionej w czerwcu 2018 roku na Uniwersytecie Ekonomicznym we Wrocławiu [Macalik 2018]. Rękopis dostępny jest w Bibliotece Głównej Uniwersytetu.

Marketing Strategies in Museums

Many Polish museums have yet to discover and claim their position in the broader social context. All too often, their activity is in no way related to the needs, expectations, and aspirations of the visitors. This state of affairs is caused first and foremost by the attitude of suspicious aversion towards marketing strategies, with the latter being perceived as an element of a market-driven game characteristic to the business sector which, in turn, is commonly associated with dishonesty and objectives standing in stark contrast to public cultural institutions’ mission. This article delineates the actual significance of marketing strategy in museums by presenting the effects of their lacking in interest in own auditoriums’ needs.

*Niniejszy artykuł jest rozszerzoną i uzupełnioną wersją tekstu drukowanego w: Ł. Gaweł, F. Skowron, A. Szostak, Raport z projektu badawczego „Krakowski Odbiorca Kultury”, Wydawnictwo Attyka, Kraków 2019.

The Impact of Cultural Blogers on the Decisions of Their Readers in the Area of Participation in Culture

In the face of changes that take place in socio-economic aspects of reality, particularly in the field of culture, it is worth looking at the previously rarely considered in analysis social actors such as cultural bloggers. Their influence on attitudes and decisions regarding the participation in the culture of their readers remains unknown to the broader research perspective. Among them anonymous online surveys have been made that allowed for cautious drawing of several conclusions: regular blog readers passively read subsequent entries, but actively search for them, moving the discussion to social media; blogs about culture are trusted sources of opinion and knowledge among the readers; readers also admit that blogger entries and opinions have had an impact on their decisions in the area of cultural participation, but at the same time they have been selectively approaching the content offered to them. The research was of quantitative and preliminary nature, therefore it does not give the right to formulate more in-depth and general conclusions – they point, however, to the interesting, and usually omitted in the analysis links of modern education and cultural discussion.

Audience Research as an Integral Element of Creating a Temporary Exhibition. Teens Love Design and Iconic Things – the National Ethnographic Museum’s Exhibitions

The aim of the article is to focus on, connected with democratization, culture’ s changes. These changes entail modification of culture research. On that theoretical base the Teens Love Design and Iconic Things projects conduct by National Ethnographic Museum are presented. The research in these projects help to work out the shape of the temporary exhibitions.

Extended Methods: Seven Issues for Culture Studies That Increase Our Freedom

The author presents a model of the research approach that increases our freedom. What issues should a researcher consider if he/she wants to study culture in the 21st Century technological, social and economic circumstances? The author distinguishes seven issues that a researcher guided by the broader concept of culture, one that defines culture according to Raymond Williams as a “specific way of life” should consider. These issues are: (1) research is an interaction between scientists and study participants; (2) research can democratize the culture field; (3) research can be a cultural animation; (4) cooperation with artists, activists, educators, etc. is important; (5) there are many regulators of human behavior; (6) researcher has to answer a question what important social goals the study supports; (7) ethical aspects of social phenomena have to be taken into consideration. The article is a voice in a discussion of whether research methods only describe social reality or help to create it.

* Tekst powstał w ramach grantu Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2015/19/N/ HS6/01682.

Beacon Technology Use in the Marketing Communications between Museums and People with Disabilities

The aim of this paper is to point out the directions of beacon technology use in marketing communications of museums with people with disabilities. At the outset, the museum is presented as an open institution. Then, beacon functionality is discussed that can be used in marketing communication with persons with disabilities. In the following part of the discussion, results of qualitative research are presented. To this end, interviews were conducted in selected museums that use beacon technology, followed by an analysis of applications deployed in these museums in order to adapt them to the needs of people with disabilities. On the basis of the research, the article outlines the level of utilization of the potential of applications used in marketing communication with people with disabilities and analyses the technology development trends. The presented results can be a contribution to further research and a starting point for other research topics depicting the marketing activities of museums, including those aimed at persons with disabilities.

The Modernization of Polish State Archives’ On-Line Service – Search the Archives: How to Invite New Users to the Service?

The article presents the most important conclusions from different surveys aimed at studying the search models, motivation and needs of search the archives service users. The UX survey used only the qualitative research methods and was conducted in two steps. First step consisted in individual in-depth interviews with surveyed persons and usability test on existing version of search the archives service. We surveyed a group of 15 persons. We met the same amount of surveyed persons during the second step consisting in creative workshops aimed at generating ideas on new ver sion of the service. The survey showed that service users can be divided into three groups: Viewers, searchers and specialists. Those groups differ in the way they use the service and the reason they use it, and the knowledge they have on the start. The conclusions from the survey where used during the service modernization process.

* Artykuł jest kontynuacją, swoistym rozwinięciem, wystąpienia autorek, które miało miejsce podczas konferencji naukowej „Badania publiczności w instytucjach kultury” zorganizowanej w Krakowie przez Zakład Zarządzania Kulturą w Instytucie Kultury Polskiej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w dniach 11–12 kwietnia 2019 roku.

Who is Not Interested in (Institutional) Culture? Segmentation of Cultural Participants

Referring to the role of institutions in the field of culture and concepts of participation and (un)participation in culture, we sought to answer the question of who can be defined as a potential audience of cultural, above all musical, institutions. In the text we justify why it is worth to use survey and segmentation studies to identify and describe cultural (un)participants, despite the limitations of both methods. We present the segmentation prepared by the National Centre of Culture which was developed based on a nationwide survey carried out for the purposes of the Moniuszko Year. We refer to the motivation and barriers to participation characteristic of each of the five distinguished segments, that is: distanced pragmatists, connected omnivores, those remaining in the comfort zone, visitors of aesthetes, immersed in culture. In the conclusion part we present which of distinguished segments, in the first place, could be effectively encouraged to participate in the culture by institutions such as operas and philharmonics.

Crisis of the Audience in German Theater?

Research indicates that German theater is struggling with an audience crisis demonstrated by a decrease in audience attendance. The aim of the article is to present various positions indicating an audience crisis in German theaters and their analysis in the context of the latest concepts of audience research. In modern German theater, two orientations clash, one focusing on the art itself, the other leaning towards the audience and its development. Can you find a compromise between such extreme positions? Does the crisis of the public in German theaters refer only to economic factors? Or it is worth, as I indicate in this text, to analyze the situation of the progressive development and responsibility of the audience of some German theaters, examples are theaters in Halle, Weimar and Berlin.