In democratic societies, the right to a museum has been guaranteed through public access to cultural assets since the founding of the modern museum in the 18th century. Still, historical sources suggest a gap between idealized and actual accessibility, such as when stringent admission regulations systematically restricted visits.
Today, museums claim to be open to all, even if the actual number of active cultural users is no more than 10–15% of the population. "Right to the Museum?" is a project that examines these contradictions through archival work and field research.
The project's goal is to systematically gather information on the public conception of museums by analyzing historical museum texts and empirically surveying contemporary museum concepts. Archival research will focus on textual museum concepts, from founding statutes to today's mission statements, which will be systematically collected and evaluated in terms of source and content. The field research will examine museum perception from citizens' perspectives, by means of a quantitative preliminary survey, accompanied museum tours, and a subsequent qualitative survey. With this combination of methods, the project will create a unique scientific source to historically classify current museum developments and give impulse to museum practice reflection.
"Right to the Museum?" is a project conducted by the Laboratory for Cognitive Research in Art History at the University of Vienna in cooperation with Haus der Geschichte Österreich, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, MAK - Museum of Applied Arts, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, and Volkskundemuseum Wien.
Anniversary Fund of the Austrian National Bank (No. 18432)
September 2020 – August 2022
Luise Reitstätter (Universität Vienna)
Anna Frasca-Rath, Karolin Galter, Andrea Mayr (Universität Vienna)
Christian Huemer, Johanna Aufreiter, Monika Mayer (Research Center)
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