Museums of Contemporary Art as New Forums Cover Image

Музей Современного Искусства: функция форума
Museums of Contemporary Art as New Forums

Author(s): Natalia Sergeyevna Shalina
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts
Published by: Издательство Исторического факультета СПбГУ
Keywords: Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Modern Art; Bilbao Effect; Museum audience; Interactivity in museum; Museum space; Museum architecture; Contemporary museum architecture; Tate Modern; MOMA

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this research is to understand what a Museum of Contemporary Art is and what makes it different from other Art museums. This research is an attempt to outline characteristic features of Museums of Contemporary Art (MCA), how they are understood by their visitors, and to reveal some positive and negative aspects from the position of visitors. The methodology used to achieve this goal was based on a survey, in which respondents were questioned about their interest towards contemporary art and their experience of visiting MCA(geographical frames of the research included countries of EU and Latin America, Russia, USA and Japan). According to the results, people tended to stress three main features that distinguished MCA from other museums. These features included contemporary art and its interpretation in museum space, interactive approach to learning and architecture of museum buildings. Every aspect was explored more in depth. A tight connection between high level of popularity of MCA and the development of touristic industry throughout two last decades was revealed. This correlation between cultural and economic spheres allows looking at MCA from the angle of economic changes in society and makes a basement for a further research.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 199-208
  • Page Count: 10