Abstract
“You only go to the museum or the concert because you should.” Such sentences are hardly ever spoken openly, and yet infrequent and non-visitors of arts and culture organisations form the majority of society. At the same time, it is unclear how many people actually visit theatres, museums, concerts, dance performances and so on, because only visits (admissions) and not visitors (identifiable persons) are counted. However, we do have some data that provide insight into visiting patterns: Based on 23,093 interviews, the German Working Group for Consumption and Media Analysis (VuMA) states that approximately 5 percent of people go to the theatre or opera once a month or more, 35.4 percent go less often and 58.7 percent never go. Additionally, 5.9 percent go to concerts or festivals once a month or more, 46.4 percent less often and 46.8 percent never. Cultural events and museums are attended by 12.3 percent once a month or more, 52 percent less often than once a month and 35.7 percent never. However, even with these figures, it is not clear whether the concertgoer is also an operagoer—that is, what the intersections are. It also remains unclear whether ‘attending cultural events’ is identical to ‘going to the theatre, the opera, a festival,’ or for that matter what type of festival (music, dance, theatre, etc.) we are talking about here. The German Federal Agency for Civic Education assumes that classical cultural organisations are able to attract only 4.5 percent of potential users of cultural offerings.
You know, she [my wife] has a knack for the beautiful things, with culture, with art, with better society—I don’t have it at all. Where I come from, there were no beautiful things at all. ‘Culture’ for us was that one was washed properly, and the only artistic event was when Max Gartmann smeared a naked portrait on the lavatory wall in the ‘Wirtshaus zum grünen Fasan’ [Green Pheasant Tavern].
—Monaco Franze, in the television series Monaco Franze—Der ewige Stenz (Monaco Franze—The eternal stench, 1983)
We thank Helena Palmer and Alexandra Vyhnalek for their contribution.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
VuMA (2015, p. 18).
- 2.
Schmidt and Wilhelm (2010).
- 3.
Dohme and Dietl (1983).
- 4.
Adorno (1975).
- 5.
Bourdieu (1974).
- 6.
Bourdieu (2001).
- 7.
Becker (1982).
- 8.
Bourdieu (1983).
- 9.
Veblen (2002 (original 1899)).
- 10.
- 11.
For example, Cultural Sociology; Curator: The Museum Journal; Empirical Studies of the Arts; Museum Management and Curatorship; Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts; Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts; Visitor Studies; Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, and many more.
- 12.
Veblen (2002 (original 1899), p. 51).
- 13.
Ibid., p. 40.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 44.
- 15.
Simmel (1995, p. 10).
- 16.
Ibid., p. 11.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 12.
- 20.
Ibid. This connection between aesthetics and style is also found in Schulze’s concept of Milieuformierung (milieu formation) (Schulze 1997).
- 21.
Bourdieu (1984, p. 2).
- 22.
Ibid., pp. 2–3.
- 23.
Bourdieu (1974, p. 163).
- 24.
Bourdieu (1984, p. 171).
- 25.
Ibid., p. 170.
- 26.
Ibid. Emphases added.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Cultural capital in this context represents ‘educational capital,’ a tripartite form of capital made up of ‘incorporated,’ ‘objectified’ and ‘institutionalised’ capital. Incorporated cultural capital can be described as internalised, learnt capital, since it is an integral part of the person. Relevant schooling and socialisation play an important role here. Objectified cultural capital is manifested in artefacts such as a private libraries and art collections, while institutionalised cultural capital is manifested in one’s educational title, which has a symbolic effect due to the knowledge associated with it (Bourdieu 1974, p. 487ff.).
- 29.
Bourdieu (1987, p. 389).
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
- 32.
Here we should briefly refer to Adorno’s Einführung in die Musiksoziologie (1975), in which he elaborates different types of listeners. On his eight-level scale, the ‘expert’ is at the very ‘top,’ who, with the help of their prior knowledge, hears the work analytically and grasps it structurally (ibid., p. 18). Of course, one needs a lot of free time and the educational resources to acquire this prior knowledge. This is followed by the ‘good listener,’ who is primarily located in bourgeois society. The lower levels are formed by the ‘entertainment listener,’ who, according to Adorno, comes from the lower class and is appropriated by the culture industry, and finally there is the very ‘bottom,’ the ‘anti-musical listener,’ to whom psychological defects are attributed (ibid., p. 32).
- 33.
Steigerwald (2021).
- 34.
- 35.
Peterson and Simkus (1992, p. 169).
- 36.
Peterson and Kern (1996, p. 900f).
- 37.
Peterson and Simkus (1992, p. 169).
- 38.
Ibid., p. 170.
- 39.
“The most descriptive appellation for those near the base of the pyramid would seem to be ‘univore,’ suggesting that, unlike the high status ‘omnivore,’ members of this group tend to be actively involved in just one, or at best just a few, alternative aesthetic traditions” (Peterson 1992, p. 254).
- 40.
Ibid., p. 252.
- 41.
See ‘The Production of Culture Perspective’ (2004), where the authors focus on the transformation of symbolic cultural elements. As symbolic cultural goods they include “art works, scientific research reports, popular culture, religious practices, legal judgments, journalism, and other parts of what are now often called the culture or creative industries” (Peterson and Anand 2004, p. 311). They assume that the changes are causally related to the culture goods’ respective producing (social) systems.
- 42.
Schulze (2005, p. 167).
- 43.
Schulze (1997, p. 265).
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Schulze (2005, p. 143).
- 46.
Schulze (1997, p. 266).
- 47.
A detailed study on cultural user behaviour can be found in Kirchberg and Kuchar (2013). After analysing 16 studies from 11 countries, the authors came to the conclusion that, due to the methodological and qualitative differences between the studies, there is hardly any comparability of the statements on cultural use (ibid., p. 186). They go on to comment: “Well-founded findings on the reasons for not visiting highly cultural institutions […] are basically not available” (ibid., p. 169), which is not entirely accurate in view of the results presented in the following sections of this chapter.
- 48.
Applied audience research for the development of new audience groups has emerged in particular in the English-speaking world through the fields of audience development and arts marketing, which emerged in the mid-1980s. Here, the focus is not only on investigating the factors that determine a visit, but also on developing and implementing concrete measures to address a broader audience for culture in the long term. Examples of these approaches in the US include Morison and Dalgleish (1987), and in the UK, Diggle (1984).
- 49.
Research was conducted in various databases (JSTOR, KVK, Scopus, PsycARTICLES, etc.) and on the Internet itself using various keywords, as well as searching for relevant publications via the bibliographies of relevant publications, specific journals and publishers.
- 50.
On the procedure for creating a metasummary, see Onwuegbuzie and Frels (2016, p. 25f).
- 51.
Hood (1983, p. 51).
- 52.
Ibid., p. 52.
- 53.
Ibid., p. 54.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Ibid., p. 55.
- 56.
Ibid., p. 57.
- 57.
Hendon (1990, p. 440).
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
Ibid., p. 456. However, this is slightly at odds with another statement in his study: “The art museum visitor is not like other people in the American society. But while he or she is somewhat different, these differences are not as great as we have been led to believe” (ibid.).
- 60.
Ibid.
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
Ibid., p. 457.
- 63.
Prentice et al. (1997, p. 50).
- 64.
The terms they have chosen are ‘intermediate,’ ‘supervisory,’ ‘skilled manual,’ ‘unskilled manual’ and ‘student’ (ibid.).
- 65.
Ibid., p. 53.
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
Ibid., p. 55.
- 68.
Ibid., p. 59.
- 69.
The authors also asked which aspects would constitute an ideal day off. For visitors to museums and theatres this was: “‘getting away from normal routine,’ ‘to spend time with family and friends,’ ‘to meet other people,’ ‘to satisfy one’s curiosity,’ ‘to tell friends about it,’ ‘to feel comfortable,’ ‘to broaden one’s general knowledge,’ ‘to gain a feeling of self-fulfillment’” (ibid., p. 62).
- 70.
Ibid., p. 63.
- 71.
Ibid., p. 67.
- 72.
Arts Council England (2003, p. 25f).
- 73.
Ibid., p. 27.
- 74.
Ibid., p. 66.
- 75.
Ibid., p. 67.
- 76.
Ibid., p. 69f.
- 77.
Ibid., p. 70.
- 78.
Ibid., p. 86.
- 79.
- 80.
Todd and Lawson (2001, p. 272).
- 81.
Ibid., p. 273.
- 82.
Ibid., p. 275f.
- 83.
Fondazione Fitzcarraldo (2006, p. 1).
- 84.
Ibid.
- 85.
Ibid., p. 3.
- 86.
Ibid., p. 156.
- 87.
Ibid., p. 160.
- 88.
National Endowment for the Arts 2020. Original emphasis.
- 89.
Ibid., p. 25.
- 90.
Ibid., p. 9. Emphases adjusted.
- 91.
Ibid., 26f.
- 92.
Hadley (2021, p. 220).
- 93.
Ibid., p. 219.
- 94.
- 95.
The two long-term, international research projects eMotion and ECR try to develop such a differentiated and empirically based understanding of art consumption, art reception and their interdependencies. eMotion—Mapping Museum Experience focuses on visitors to fine art museums, and ECR—Experimental Concert Research on concert visitors. Both combine the collection of big data with theories from cultural sociology and art psychology.
- 96.
The only exception is a study conducted in Mannheim in 1911 and 1912. In the course of her dissertation Die Industriestadt als Boden neuer Kunstentwicklung (Industrial cities as fertile ground for the development of the arts, 1919), Else Biram conducted a comprehensive survey of the population regarding its use and understanding of culture. She investigated the extent to which an industrial city influences the development of (visual) art and cultural life in general (Biram 1919, p. 139). In doing so, Biram considered the city as the starting point and breeding ground for any art development and reflected this by interviewing different milieus. Her methodology combined qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thus, for example, observations were first made when the public visited the museum, in order to derive questions for the later questionnaires from these observations (ibid., p. 140f.).
- 97.
Steigerwald (2021).
- 98.
Kirchberg (1996, p. 160).
- 99.
Deutscher Bühnenverein (2003, p. 11, p. 5).
- 100.
Ibid., p. 9f.
- 101.
Ibid., p. 11.
- 102.
Ibid., p. 12.
- 103.
Ibid., p. 15.
- 104.
Höge (2016, p. 99).
- 105.
Ibid., p. 99f.
- 106.
Ibid., p. 102. This high number of high school graduates could be due to the fact that almost everyone who returned his completed questionnaire had a high school diploma (ibid.).
- 107.
Ibid., p. 107.
- 108.
Ibid., p. 108f.
- 109.
Ibid., p. 113.
- 110.
Ibid., p. 114.
- 111.
Renz (2016, p. 180).
- 112.
Ibid., p. 188.
- 113.
Ibid., p. 250.
- 114.
Ibid., p. 228f.
- 115.
Ibid., p. 245.
- 116.
Ibid., p. 243.
- 117.
For a more detailed classification of audience development, see also Mandel 2011. In this brief overview, Mandel also addresses the functions, goals, strategies and measures of audience development, as well as the image of culture in Germany and the barriers to the use of cultural offerings. According to her, the most frequently cited expectations of a visit to arts and culture organisations are ‘good entertainment,’ ‘experiencing something live’ and ‘a good atmosphere’ (ibid., p. 203).
- 118.
Bartsch et al. (2016).
- 119.
Ibid., p. 2.
- 120.
Ibid., p. 9.
- 121.
Bibliography
Adorno, Theodor W. (1975). Einführung in die Musiksoziologie [Introduction to the sociology of music (2012)] Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Originally published 1961.
Arts Council England. (2003). New Audiences Programme. www.artscouncil.org.uk/document/new-audiences-arts-new-audiences- programme-1998-2003. (Accessed 18 October 2018).
Bartsch, Carolin, Sommerfeld, Annika, Traxel, Christoph, & Weintz, Jürgen. (2016). Kulturbesucher und Nichtbesucher. Prägungen, Interessen, Barrieren und Anreizfaktoren – Eine quantitative Untersuchung im Raum Mönchengladbach [Cultural visitors and non-visitors: Influences, interests, barriers and features of attraction – A quantitative analysis in the area of Mönchengladbach]. Kulturmanagement Network Magazin Ausgabe 111: Best Practice. www.kulturmanagement.net/dlf/0def45cee41c005d6ffe1d78f05807a6,1.pdf. (Accessed 18 October 2018).
Becker, Howard S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Biram, Else. (1919). Die Industriestadt als Boden neuer Kunstentwicklung [Industrial cities as fertile ground for the development of the arts]. Vol. 1 of Schriften zur Soziologie der Kultur, edited by Alfred Weber. Jena: Diederichs.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1974). Zur Soziologie der symbolischen Formen [On the sociology of symbolic forms]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Originally published 1970.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1983). Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital [Forms of capital (1986)]. In: Reinhard Kreckel (ed.), Soziale Ungleichheiten. Soziale Welt Sonderband 2 (pp. 183–98). Göttingen: Otto Schwartz.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1987). Die feinen Unterschiede [Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste (1984)]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Originally published 1979.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (2001). Die Regeln der Kunst. Genese und Struktur des literarischen Feldes [Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field (1996)]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Originally published 1992.
Deutscher Bühnenverein. (2003). Auswertung und Analyse der repräsentativen Befragung von Nichtbesuchern deutscher Theater. Eine Studie im Auftrag des Deutschen Bühnenvereins [Evaluation and analysis of the representative survey of non-visitors to German theatres. A study commissioned by the German Stage Association]. www.miz.org/downloads/dokumente/188/Buehnenverein_NichtbesucherAnalyse.pdf. (Accessed 18 October 2018).
Diggle, Keith. (1984). Arts marketing. London: Rhinegold.
Fondazione Fitzcarraldo. (2006). I don’t go to museums! Non-visitors: Teenagers at a glance. http://www.fitzcarraldo.it/en/research/idontgotouseums_abstract.pdf. (Accessed 18 October 2018).
Hadley, Steven. (2021). Audience development and cultural policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Heinrichs, Werner, & Klein, Armin. (2001). Kulturmanagement von A–Z. 600 Begriffe für Studium und Beruf. Munich: DTV.
Hendon, William S. (1990). The general public’s participation in art museums. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 59(4), 439–58.
Höge, Holger. (2016). Visiting museums: Some do and some don’t. In: Stefano Mastandrea & Fridanna Maricchiolo (eds.). The role of the museum in the education of young people: Motivations, emotion and learning (pp. 95–120). Rome: Roma TrePress.
Hood, Marilyn G. (1983). Staying away: Why people choose not to visit museums. Museum News 61(4), 50–57.
Kirchberg, Volker. (1996). Besucher und Nichtbesucher von Museen in Deutschland [Visitors and non-visitors to museums in Germany]. Museumskunde 61(2), 151–162.
Kirchberg, Volker, & Kuchar, Robin. (2013). A survey of surveys: Eine international vergleichende Metastudie repräsentativer Bevölkerungsstudien zur Kulturnutzung [A survey of surveys: An international comparative metastudy of representative population studies on culture use]. In: Vera Hennefeld & Reinhard Stockmann (eds.), Evaluation in Kultur und Kulturpolitik: Eine Bestandsaufnahme [Evaluation in the arts and cultural policy: State of the arts] (pp. 163–92). Münster: Waxmann.
Kirchberg, Volker, & Tröndle, Martin. (2012). A review of studies on visitor experiences in museums. Curator – The Museum Journal 55(4), 435–52.
Kirchberg, Volker, & Tröndle, Martin. (2015). The museum experience: Mapping the experience of fine art. Curator – The Museum Journal 58(2), 169–93.
Labaronne, Leticia. (2017). Performance measurement and evaluation in arts management: A meta-synthesis. Zeitschrift für Kulturmanagement: Kunst, Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 3(1), 27–69.
Mandel, Birgit. (2011). Audience development. In: Armin Klein (ed.), Kompendium Kulturmarketing. Handbuch für Studium und Praxis [Compendium of arts marketing: Handbook for education and practice] (pp. 201–14). Munich: Franz Vahlen.
Morison, Bradley G., & Dalgleish, Julie G. (1987). Waiting in the wings: A larger audience for the arts and how to develop it. New York: American Council for the Arts.www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/legislation-policy/naappd/waiting-in-the-wings-a-larger-audience-for-the-arts-and-how-to-develop-it. (Accessed 18 October 2018).
National Endowment for the Arts. (2020). Why we engage: Attending, creating, and performing art. Office of Research & Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts. www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Why-We-Engage-0920_0.pdf. (Accessed 26 May 2021).
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J., & Frels, Rebecca. (2016). 7 steps to a comprehensive literature review: A multimodal and cultural approach. Los Angeles: Sage.
Peterson, Richard A. (1992). Understanding audience segmentation: From elite and mass to omnivore and univore. Poetics 21(4), 253–58.
Peterson, Richard A., & Kern, Roger M. (1996). Changing highbrow taste: From snob to omnivore. American Sociological Review 61(5), 900–07.
Peterson, Richard A., & Simkus, Albert. (1992). How musical tastes mark occupational status groups. In: Michèle Lamont & Marcel Fournier (eds.), Cultivating differences: Symbolic boundaries and the making of inequality (pp. 152–86). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Peterson, Richard A., & Narasimhan, Anand. (2004). The production of culture perspective. Annual Review of Sociology 30, 311–34.
Prentice, Richard, Davies, Andrea, & Beeho, Alison. (1997). Seeking generic motivations for visiting and not visiting museums and like cultural attractions. International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship 16(1), 45–70.
Renz, Thomas. (2016). Nicht-Besucherforschung. Die Förderung kultureller Teilhabe durch Audience Development [Non-visitor research: The promotion of cultural participation through audience development]. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript.
Robinson, Edward S. (1928). The behavior of the museum visitor. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.
Schmidt, Steffen, & Wilhelm, Anne. (2010). Freizeitverhalten [Leisure behaviour]. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung [Federal Agency for Civic Education]. https://www.bpb.de/system/files/pdf/7YQX0E.pdf. (Accessed 4 January 2018).
Schulze, Gerhard. (1997). Die Erlebnisgesellschaft. Kultursoziologie der Gegenwart [The adventure society: Cultural sociology of the present]. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.
Schulze, Gerhard. (2005). The experience market. In: Jon Sundbo & Flemming Sørensen (eds.), Handbook on Experience Economy (98–121). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Simmel, Georg. (1995). Philosophie der Mode [Philosophy of fashion]. In: Michael Behr, Volkhard Krech & Gert Schmidt (eds.), Gesamtausgabe in 24 Bänden Band 10: Philosophie der Mode. (1905). Die Religion. (1906/1912). Kant und Goethe. (1906/1916). Schopenhauer und Nietzsche. (1907). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Steigerwald, Claudia. (2021). Shaping cultural policy in Germany: the case of ‘Cultural Education’. International Journal of Cultural Policy. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2021.1893314.
Todd, Sarah, & Lawson, Rob. (2001). Lifestyle segmentation and museum/gallery visiting behaviour. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 6(3), 269–77.
Tröndle, Martin, Kirchberg, Volker, & Tschacher, Wolfgang. (2014). Is this art? An experimental study on visitors’ judgment of contemporary art. Cultural Sociology 8(3), 310–32.
Tröndle, Martin, & Steigerwald, Claudia. (eds.) (2019). Anthologie Kulturpolitik. Einführende Beiträge zu Geschichte, Funktionen und Diskursen der Kulturpolitikforschung [Cultural policy anthology: Contributions introducing the history, functions and discourses of cultural policy research]. Bielefeld: transcript. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839437322.
Tröndle, Martin, & Tschacher, Wolfgang. (2016). Art Affinity influences Art Reception (In the eye of the beholder). Empirical Studies of the Arts 34(1), 74–102.
Veblen, Thorstein. (2002). The theory of the leisure class: An economic study of institutions. McLean, VA: Indypublish. Originally published 1899.
VuMA, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verbrauchs- und Medienanalyse. (2015). Was konsumierst Du? Basisinformationen für fundierte Mediaentscheidungen 2015 [What do you consume? Basic information for well-founded media decisions 2015]. www.vuma.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/berichtsbaende/VuMA_2015_Berichtsband.pdf. (Accessed 18 October 2018).
Zembylas, Tasos. (2017). Evaluation im kulturpolitischen Wirkungsbereich: Grundprobleme und Herausforderungen [Evaluation in the field of cultural policy: Fundamental issues and challenges]. Zeitschrift für Kulturmanagement: Kunst, Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 3(1), 13–35.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tröndle, M., Awischus, L. (2022). Visitors and Non-visitors. In: Tröndle, M. (eds) Non-Visitor Research. Edition WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production. Palgrave Macmillan, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35181-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35181-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-35180-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-35181-6
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)