ABSTRACT
The potential that museums have as cultural institutions is central to a democratic society in the advancement of cultural citizenship through participation and dialogue with museum audiences. The chapter first discusses the theoretical premises of cultural citizenship, participation and engagement, and continues by using various analytical typologies to examine a variety of empirical examples from the authors’ as well as other researchers’ experiences. In particular, the chapter draws on empirical examples of audience-centred exhibition-making and museum development onsite. The chapter looks at various communicative and participatory choices as well as at the barriers a museum institution faces in this process. In addition, the chapter discusses people’s changing relationship with museums, ranging from being a museum public to various types of participatory relationships, and it discusses potential motivations to alter these relationships.
