Bernadette Lynch - Whose cake is it anyway?
Lynch, B. (2011). Whose cake is it anyway? A collaborative investigation into engagement and participation in 12 museums and galleries in the UK. Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
This is one of the most insightful evaluative policy research reports on community participation in museums and galleries. It was written in the UK context of the late 2000s, in which participation and engagement discourses and policies in culture had peaked. What distinguishes this report from many other similar attempts is its innovative research methodology. Employing participatory theatre, it yielded novel insights into the dynamics, power relations, achievements, and constraints of community engagement within public heritage institutions.
The results of this research underlined that, despite years of funding focused on engagement and participation, power relations between institutions represented by professionals on the one hand and communities on the other have not changed significantly. The former were the ones dictating the pace, dynamics, scope, and types of engagement, while the latter were in a passive position waiting to be ‘activated’ when new funding and programs for engagement arrived. Another indicator of the marginal role of participation in these institutions, was that funding allocated to participation was never stable and central to the budget. Likewise, participation programs were not embraced by the whole staff, but left to one or two enthusiasts within the organisation. The report also provided recommendations for changing this situation.
The research presented in this report was commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in order to form the basis for changing its programs supporting participation. It is therefore particularly interesting for policymakers who oversee conceiving and evaluating programs for participation in the museum and heritage sectors. The report shows why in-depth, evaluative research is important in cultural policy and how it can bring genuine insights on participation that inspire new cycles of policy-making.
Lynch “Whose cake is it anyway? A collaborative investigation into engagement and participation in 12 museums and galleries in the UK”