ABSTRACT
This study was highly unusual in being a qualitative project that looked at audience experience across multiple art forms. In Chapter 5, we use this fact to compare engagement between music, dance, drama and visual art, considering how performance conventions (being able to drop in to a gallery versus having to buy a ticket for a limited run at a theatre) influence the decision to attend an arts event. In the second half of the chapter, we explore arts venues, showing how they can disrupt or enhance arts experiences, through being uncomfortable and unwelcoming or unusual and beautiful. We also discuss the distinctive contribution made by ‘liminal spaces’ such as cafes and bars in arts organisations, in encouraging people in the ethical consumption that was an important part of contemporary arts attendance for many of our participants.
