ABSTRACT

Institutional organization of knowledge and public space underpins and shapes its public nature. This chapter describes in more detail the connection between these structuring aspects of the Royal Ontario Museum and the articulation of a new public role being offered by the director. It introduces such factors as the constraints of the physical plan and infrastructure, the organizational model, its operational processes, and economic issues, all of which might not be considered to affect publicness in the usual way. Institutions also perpetuate ideological, symbolic, disciplinary, and regulatory structuring power within their organizational discourses, systems, and practices on the ground. Several theoretical perspectives link structure and the public nature of museums. The entrance fee became a key structuring element at the museum, shaping the quantity and quality of access to the museum. Formal structures of the museum’s organization – particularly managerial ideologies and systems, and the professionalization of museum work – changed hierarchies, relationships, and ways of doing things.