Examining the State of the Art of Audience Development in Museums and Heritage Organisations: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

A series of transformations in the social and political roles as well as in the economic contexts of cultural heritage organisations over the past decades have brought into focus the need for them to work on their relationship with audiences. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current academic debate on the audience development in museums and other cultural heritage organisations, with the aim of identifying the main thematic areas within this field of knowledge. A Systematic Literature Review has been conducted by using the Web of Science, Scopus and Dialnet databases. The following nine categories emerged from the analysis: Management Strategies, Community Engagement, Participation, Knowing the Audience, Communication, Marketing, Education, Skills and Abilities, and Digital and Technological Environments. Future research lines could further the existing knowledge of each of the identified categories, include additional languages and databases, and explore the sources and documents produced by cultural practitioners.