ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at evidence of a renaissance in the way the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) defined its publics for corporate relationships, and in the public character of the museum’s interactions in this area. It explores how the ROM’s corporate interactions were controlling, ranking, selling, or engaging, depending on how and at whom the museum positioned its activities, and how these related to its publicly stated positioning as agora. The chapter focuses on the targeting of ethnic communities as stakeholders during the renaissance project. ‘Publicity’ is a common public relations process employed to achieve a positive positioning for an organization. During the Renaissance ROM project, the museum positioned itself corporately in relation to various external stakeholders with whom it wanted to engage. Museums have historically started from a position of power where they were in control of the message, trying to shape not just public opinion, but public behaviours.
