Lois Foreman-Wernet

Comparing Arts and Popular Culture Experiences: Applying a Common Methodological Framework

n an effort to increase their audiences, legitimacy, and support bases, arts institutions are increasingly emulating purveyors of popular culture by using sophisticated marketing techniques and blockbuster programming. Two arguments have emerged in response to this trend. One argument suggests that if the arts have something unique and vital to offer, a notion suggested by their nonprofit status and their orientation as a public good, then it is important not only to the arts community but also to society as a whole that this trend be reversed so that the unique qualities of the arts are retained and made available to the whole of society. On the other hand, some argue that no real qualitative differences exist between the arts and popular culture and that the arts should therefore fight for their survival in the marketplace, along with popular culture products and institutions. The need to discuss both the arts and popular culture in the same framework has become apparent, especially in the cultural policy arena. Not only is there evidence of an ongoing blurring of the boundaries between the arts and popular culture—due, for example, to the borrowing of images and ideas,1 the crossover of audiences,2 and the widespread use of technology3— but there is also increasing discussion among cultural policy leaders of a need for the conceptualization of a broadly cast economic “arts sector” that

Standing in Two Worlds Looking at an Art Exhibition: Sense-Making in the Millennial Generation

Reported is a study that focused on the Millennial Generation and potential differences in viewing an exhibition in person versus online. The exhibition featured the artwork of Paul-Henri Bourguignon, whose extensive body of work includes a variety of paintings and drawings that employ a wide range of styles. Some viewers traveled to the physical space of a museum gallery, while others viewed reproductions of the same works on the Internet. Informants engaged in reflexive self-interviews using Dervins Sense-Making Methodology. The authors compare viewers’ responses to works experienced in person versus online and discuss implications.

Hidden Depths and Everyday Secrets: How Audience Sense- Making Can Inform Arts Policy and Practice

ABSTRACT This article responds to the arts policy and research call for better understandings of arts audiences—actual and potential. The authors report on the application of Dervins Sense-Making Methodology (SMM) to audience research. SMM is an approach developed specifically for providing data useful to informing policies and practices of institutions mandated to serve publics. We review the narrative themes that have emerged from our analyses of accounts of cultural experiences by several hundred informants, and we offer five sample applications that illustrate potentials and their implications for arts policy and practice.

Reflections on Elitism: What Arts Organizations Communicate About Themselves

ABSTRACT Over the past several decades, arts organizations have been responding to an array of societal changes. These changes have resulted in a transformation of the field, including not only how professional, non-profit arts organizations are perceived by their stakeholders but also how they see themselves. This study looked at mission statements and communication materials of the flagship arts organizations of five U.S. cities to determine what they say about themselves and how they position themselves on an elitism-democracy continuum, from excluding to embracing new and different audiences. It included a content analysis of annual reports, season brochures, news releases, and social media to determine why and about what arts organizations communicate. It then used a case study approach to analyze in more detail the communication of three specific arts organizations. Overall, the study showed how arts organizations are communicating their unique identities and how they are working to position themselves on the democratic side of the elitism continuum.