museums - open publications of uts scholars · in spite of the buzz associated with the ... modity...

Museums:Challenges for the 21st Century

Christine Burton, Carol Scott

Introduction

Since the 1970s, the Western industri-alized world has witnessed an unprece-dented museum "boom." This boom is

both quantitative in terms of the numbers ofnew museums established and qualitative interms of the place that museums now occupyin society. Besides fulfilling the traditionalfunctions of acquiring, conserving and inter-preting material culture, contemporary muse-ums are cultural icons in their own right,defining urban landscapes, providing "sym-bolic value" for the expression of cultural lifean' -tving incentives to the local economy(Ki••...nberg, 1998, p. 2).

This boom, though generally perceived pos-itively, may also have adverse consequences asmuseums compete with one another for a lim-ited market. Kirchberg (1998) notes that inGermany between 1991 and 1996 the numberof museums increased by 30% but attendanceincreased by only 5%. In addition, for theactive leisure and cultural participant, theincreasing number of leisure options is notconfined to museums. New venues and attrac-tions compete for a consumer with less time tospare than ever before.

In spite of the buzz associated with theboom, the demand for museums in terms ofattendance does not appear to be keeping pace.

The overall trend suggests that the museumsector is struggling to maintain its audiences.

In the United Kingdom, "Recent statisticsshow that visitor numbers to museums andgalleries appear to be in trouble at a time whena host of new attractions are competing forattention" (Buder, 2000, p. 1). Scottish TouristBoard figures reveal a 15.6% drop in atten-dance at museums and galleries between May1999 and May 2000, along with a 30%drop in visitor numbers at heritage sites. Thissame trend has been reponed for Englishmuseums (Conybeare, 1994; Griffiths, 1998;Nightingale, 1999).

On the Continent, attendance at museumsin West Germany declined by 9% between1991 and 1996 (Kirchberg, 1998), while atten-dance at most culture and history museumsin Denmark has dropped by 7% since 1996(Anderson, 2000, p. 8). Visitor numbers atItalian museums declined markedly betweenJanuary 1999 and January 2000; attendancewas down 23.9% at the Uffizi in Florence,15.5% at the Palatine Museum in Rome,20.8% at the Baths of Caracalla and 15-20%at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice (Caton,2000).

In the United States, though a 1997National Endowment for the Arts surveyreponed that museum attendance increasedfrom 41% in 1992 to 50% in 1997, there isuncertainty about whether the current boom

Christine Burton is CourseDirector of the GraduateProgram in Arts Management,University of Technology,Sydney, Australia. She hasbeen an arts manager,researcher and consultant inAustralia and in the UnitedKingdom. Her research inter-ests focus on the future ofmuseums in a changing lei-sure environment.

Carol SCott is Manager ofEvaluation and AudienceResearch at the PowerhouseMuseum, Sydney, andPresident of MuseumsAustralia, the nationwidepeak professional body. Herwork focuses on audienceparticipation and visitorexperience in museums. Shehas initiated a series of part-nership projects to explorethese issues on behalf of thesector.

56 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTS MANAGEMENT

in American museum attendance can be sus-tained. Critics point out that the total partici-pation figure masks differences in attendancepatterns among different types of museums.Attendance at American social history muse-ums, for example, is not reflective of the over-all boom (Lusaka and Strand, 1998, p. 60).

In Australia, the Australian Bureau ofStatistics ([ABSJ, 1999a) reports that museumattendance declined 12% between 1991 and1999.

The Environment of MuseumParticipation

• 'lit. EThy is this happening? Why, when moreW money is being invested in establishing

new museums with increasingly high publicprofiles, is attendance "flattening" or declin-ing? To address this question, in 1999 thePowerhouse Museum, in conjunction with theSchool of Leisure, Sport and Tourism at theUniversity of Technology, Sydney, embarkedon a study of the nature of leisure in contem-porary life and patterns of museum visitation.

This research project was the result of an .environmental scan of recent literature, emer-gent questions and statistical trends. This exer-cise revealed that there is no simple answer toour question, but that a complex combinationof factors are involved, including the profileof museum visitors, the impact of technology,

; use, competition, and apparently funda-

mental changes in leisure values and leisureparticipation.

lVho Goes to Museums?

There is overwhelming evidence, substanti-ated by research across the globe, that a lim-ited sector of the population regularly chooseto visit museums (Bennett, 1995; Bourdieu,1991; Hood, 1995). Most visitors to museumsare well-educated, affiuent and versed in deci-phering the museum code.

Significantly,however, the increased numberand heightened profile of museums over thelast 30 years has coincided with the matura-tion of the post-war "baby boom" generation.This population phenomenon has witnessedunprecedented numbers of people who areaffiuent and educated at tertiary levels. Thesheer size of this generation, accompanied bythe requisite "cultural capital," is seen as cre-ating an unprecedented demand for culturalservices: "Part of the middle class, the partcreated as a consequence of the post-warbaby boom, is the real player in this phe-nomenon. It is this social group, increasinglynumerous, affiuent, educated and urbanised,that expressesstrong cultural demand" (Maggi,1998, p. 4-5).

The question remains whether this will bea short-lived phenomenon. A combination ofa declining birth rate throughout the Westernindustrialized world and the impact of ageingon the leisure patterns of the current genera-tion is already having an effect on museum

In the past 20 years there has been an increase-in the construction and development of museums throughout theWestern world. However, this boom has not translated into an increase in the visitor base nor a diversificationof the traditional visitor profile (marked by high income and a high level of education). Indeed the visitor baseappears to be declining. At the same time, there have been shifts in leisure consumption and competition forleisure time. Additionally, changes in working patterns have resulted in much of the workforce experiencing timepressures, insecurity and an imbalance in the home/work split. This research undertaken in Australia focusedon whether leisure patterns and consumption changed over a five-year period, how people now understandtheir leisure/work time, how people behave in choosing free-time activities within and outside the home, andultimately what impact this may have on museums as they compete in the 21st century. The study testedpostmodern theories of leisure, which suggest that contemporary leisure activities are increasingly fragmentedand superficial and demand little commitment from the participant. This is juxtaposed to museums, modernistinstitutions that demand time, engagement and challenge.

Museums, leisure, competition, marketing, visitor studies

VOLUME 5, NUMBER 2 • WINTER 2003 57

attendance. A National Endowment for theArts report (1996) reveals that the declinein arts participation and museum attendanceamongst the baby boom generation is partlyattributable to the increased use of broadcasttechnology such as television, videocassettes,compact discs and computers.

In terms of museums, the question is theextent to which the combined effects of theageing of baby boomers and the decliningbirth rate will affect future attendance.

Enter TechnologyThe impact of broadcast media and home-based entertainment on museum attendanceamong baby boomers encouraged us to widenthe scope of the environmental scan to explorehe potential impact of the technological revo-

lution on museum attendance.Computer ownership, Internet access and

the availability of other home-based entertain-ment systems have grown exponentially overthe last 20 years. Two issues interested theresearch team. The first was the ability ofthese systems to encourage domestically basedleisure with a potential impact on museumattendance. Our scan revealed that more timespent on home computers may indeed resultin less "going out." Statistics Canada reportsthat between 1986 and 1992 people spentone extra hour per day at home and that "themedia can lead to reducing the cultural uni-verse of spectators to the dimensions of thehousehold, leading to social isolation and anincreasing trend to individualised consump-tion" (Pronovost, 1998, p. 131).

The scan also raised questions about theimpact of technology in terms of the ways inwhich an emerging generation may be expectedto both access information and accord signifi-cance to objects.

The hierarchical, linear and narrative struc-tures that characterize the ways in whichinformation is presented in museums differsignificantly from the networked informationparadigm that computers now make available(Kenderdine, 1998). Moreover, as technologyenables people to accessmore and more infor-mation across a wide variety of subjects, it isto be anticipated that the subject authority ofthe museum and its "transcendent voice" willbe challenged (Maggi, 1998; Weil, 1997).

If the traditional role of the museum is toacquire and preserve objects, the collapse ofphysical space in this information-based para-digm may require museums to re-assess theirrelationship with objects and collections. Inthe very near future, the public could demandthat museums serve a function that has moreto do with interpretation than with the collec-tion and conservation of objects. Information,rather than objects, may be the primary com-modity of museums in the future (Anderson,2000; Maggi, 1998).

The virtuality of experiences offered increas-ingly through the Internet is blurring the dis-tinctions between what is authentic and whatis real. Museums have traditionally been inthe "authenticity" business, but the dichotomybetween authenticity and virtuality may not besustainable. This has important implicationsfor museums that position themselves as offer-ing authenticity through objects alone. "What

Depuis une vingtaine d'annees, Ia construction et le rayonnement des musees sont a Ia hausse dans le monde occidental.Cependant, ce boom ne s'est pas traduit par une augmentation du nombre de visiteurs ni une diversification du profil das-sique de Ia clientele (revenu eleve et haut niveau d'instruction). En realite, Ia base de visiteurs semble en decroissance-Simultanement, on constate des changements dans Ia consommation des loisirs et une concurrence pour le temps qui leur estalloue, De plus, de nouvelles formes de travail ont entraine des contraintes de temps, de l'insecurite et un desequilibre dansle partage temps libre-travail. Cette etude effectuee en Australie a cherche a decouvrir si les habitudes et Ia consommation deloisirs avaient change en cinq ans, comment chacun conceit dorenavant son temps de loisirjde travail, comment on choisitses activites de loisir a domicile et a l'exterieur du foyer et, enfin, quel impact auront ces facteurs sur Ia place des museesau XXIe siede, ~etude analyse les theories postmodernes du loisir, selon lesquelles les activites de loisir sont de plus en plusfraqmentees et superficielles et exigent peu d'engagement de Ia part du participant. Cette constatation est juxtaposee auxmusees, institutions modernistes qui exigent du temps et un engagement, et representant un defi.

Musees, loisirs, concurrence, marketing, etudes sur les visiteurs


it [virtual reality] offers is information, lotsand lots of information, and a new, abstractkind of connectedness. What it asks in returnis that we shift our allegiance from the phys-ical world to the virtual one" (Hobson andWilliams, 1997, p. 40).

The Study

The environmental scan had revealed thatthe areas for investigation were not

straightforward. To focus and limit the study,the research partners concentrated on inves-tir~ing changing leisure patterns within thec< xt of postmodernism and cultural change.This in itself posed a number of challenges,to do not only with definitions but alsowith aspects of perception and reality of chang-ing work patterns affecting leisure time andchoice, new entrant leisure competitors, cur-rent consumer behaviour, and the role of thecore values of museums within this complexscenano.

Leisure has been defined as "available" orresidual time beyond the obligations of workand family. In the world of the 21st century,the boundaries between work and leisure arebecoming diffused. Where leisure was onceallocated to evenings, weekends and longannual breaks, the effects of economic glo-balization and economic rationalization have, ght a change. With globalization comesthe demand for business to operate around-

the-clock and throughout the year. The resultis leisure grasped when available rather thanrelegated to specific and identifiable times(Caldwell, 1998; Gibson, 1999).

We wondered if there was evidence for thesuggestion that more hours are being spent atwork, and, importantly, we wished to explorethe possible relationship between increasedworking hours and leisure choice (jonson,1998; Pronovost, 1998).

We also wanted to examine theoretical posi-tions about postmodern leisure that identifya trend to "depthless" leisure characterized byfast-paced, ephemeral and entertaining experi-ences at the expense of intellectual ones (Rojek,1995). The issue for the researchers was todetermine whether there was evidence for thistheoretical position and, if so, the impact onmuseum attendance.'

Leisure in a Changing WorldLeisureitselfis a multifaceted concept, evershift-ing' qualified and dependent on lifestyle, lifestages and socio-economic factors. Overlayingthis concept are "leftover" notions of our classicunderstanding of free time as something that"should" be used to make us "better people,"our contemporary lived experience of timestressand overwhelming pressure, and our post-modern consciousness of a fast and fracturedexistence with multiple leisure choices, fromthe serious to the superficial.

Museums, once great modernist institutionsseen to serve the public well under a model

En Losattimos 20 attos se ha obsetvado un aumento en Laconstruaion y desartollo de museos en todo eLmundo ocddentaL. Sinembargo, taL expansion no se ha visto ocompaiiada de un incremento en Lacantidad de visitantes ni de una diversificacion eneLperfiLdeLvisitante tradidonaL (caracterizado por un aLto niveLde ingresos y de educacion). Por eLcontrario, paredera que Labase de visitantes disminuye. ParaLeLamente,se han dado giras en LoshObitos de consumo en materia de espardmiento y enLacompetenda por eLtiempo dedicado aLespardmienta. Memas, Loscambios en Lospatrones de trabajo hacen que gran partede LapobLadon activa sujra Lapresion deL tiempo, Lainseguridad y un desequiLibrioentre Lavida privada y Laactividad LaboraL.Esta itwestiqacion LLevadaa cabo en AustraLia busca determinar si se produjeron cambios en Lospatrones de espardmiento ysu consumo en un periodo de cinco atios, que idea tiene Lagente actuaLmente de su tiempo de espardmiento y su tiempode trabajo, como se comportan a Lahora de eLegirLas actividades para eL tiempo fibre dentro y fuera deL hogar y, en uLtimainstancia, cual puede ser eLefetia de estas conductas en Losmuseos que compiten en eLsigLoXXI. En eLestudio se examinaronLas teorias posmodernas deLespardmiento, LascuaLessugieren que Lasactividades contemporaneas de espardmiento son cadavez mas fragmentarias y superfidaLes y demandan escaso compromiso deLpartidpante. Esta vision se contrapone con Losmuseos,instituciones modernas que exigen tiempo, compromiso, y desafto.

Museos, esparcimiento, competencia, marketing, estudios sobre visitantes


of public good, are now forced to compete ina client-focused environment of leisure con-sumption. The model of public good is slowlygiving way to a model of culture as a commod-ity and an industry; museums, once the pre-serve of single narratives, are now being askedto provide - and to market - multiple nar-ratives and multiple experiences for ever hun-grier and more fickle leisure.consumers.

These two parallel assumptions - changingpatterns of leisure and museums unsure andself-reflective of their once secure position- informed the foundation of our researchproject, Leisure and Change: Implications forMuseums in the 21st Century.

Overall, the methodological approach tooktwo distinct but ultimately convergent direc-tions. One concentrated on analysing second-ary sources in terms of the emerging theorieson postmodern leisure, changes in museumgrowth and visitor expectations, and the extentto which these assumptions and theories canbe substantiated by existing statistical data.The other focused on our own primary quali-tative and quantitative research investigatingfurther these theories and assumptions.

Secondary Research Findings

Chris Rojek (1993, 1995, 2000) is one ofthe most prolific writers and theorists on thenature of contemporary leisure and culturalconsequence.

For Rojek, a postmodern leisure conditionis one that is marked by distraction rather thanimmersion, indifference to the authentic buta curiosity about the simulated or the fake,short-lived intense social interaction, an everaccelerating pace of life, and an ambivalentand contradictory view of risk and contin-gency in a world that is seen as beyond thecontrol of the individual (1993). Rojek sug-gests that these patterns of leisure engagementare still speculative and the boundaries of whatmight be considered modern and what mightbe considered postmodern are blurred. We aremodern and postmodern at the same time,carrying baggage backward and forward andunpacking it as the context demands (1993).

Rojek also maintains that our notion of lei-sure is caught between two extremes. On theone hand, theorists such as Stebbins suggestthat serious leisure - that which can improve

the well-being, life chances and social interac-tion of the individual and community - is stillpreferable to leisure that is time-wasting, non-productive, anti-social and disengaged (Rojek,2000).

In this paradigm, where might ~useumsposition themselves between serious leisureand casual leisure, between the modern andthe postmodern?

If these' scenarios are not either/or - seri-ous leisure is not always self-actualizing; casualleisure is not always meaningless - the con-text in which leisure takes place has beeninfluenced by three fundamental conditions:the notion of "free time," its perceived oppo-sitional nature to work, and the pace andtake-up of technological change.

Our research, informed by different, com-plex and contradictory theories on the natureof leisure, concentrated on understanding thepractice of leisure within the confines of time,work and technology.

We believed that investigating people's prac-tice of leisure and the constraints on leisurewould give us some insight into how we mighttheorize leisure and what impact this wouldhave on one leisure industry - museums.

TlDle

The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines freetime as "time allocated to social and commu-nity interaction and recreation and leisure"(Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 1998a).This definition implies that there is a rationalchoice on the part of the individual to "allo-cate time" to do something, or even to allocatetime to do nothing. It falls outside the notionof casual or anti-social leisure described byRojek, and consequendy could be described as"acceptable use of time."

Because of inconsistent data-gathering bythe ABS, it is not possible to say that free timehas increased or decreased over a period oftime or along gender/life cycle lines.

In his comparison of average free time avail-ability, Bittman (1999) concludes that therehas been an overall increase in free time forboth women and men (p. 370-371).

It is difficult to draw any conclusions fromthe data in Table 1 alone. In order to state forcertain that free time is decreasing for womenbut increasing for men, we would have toexamine other indicators in conjunction with


this one. These could include the increase inearly retirement for men, increase in paid work(full-time, part-time and casual) for women,re-structuring of traditionally male-dominatedindustries, and increased competition in someindustries as a result of globalization andnew industry/new economy entrants. Bittmanwarns that these trends can be cyclical andsubject to economic booms and busts, whichinfluence work-time pressure on those in theworkforce.

The figures presented in Table 1 becomemore interesting when we overlay them withreports of "feeling time pressure," a more sub-jectivemeasure than the quantitative time diaryrecord. In 1998, the ABS (1998a) recordedfor the first time the nature of perceived timepressure on life cycle. The findings were:

- Fifty-three percent of members of auple with dependent children always or

often felt pressed for time.- Thirty-seven percent of couples with

non-dependent children always or often feltpressed for time.

- Twenty-five percent of those withoutchildren always or often felt pressed for time.

- Forty-one percent oflone parents alwaysor often felt pressed for time.

Because there are no earlier statistical datain this area, we are unable to state that thesefigures reflect perceptions of increasing timedeficit or surplus. However, they tend to rein-force Bittman's findings of the extreme time-poor (middle-aged working parents) and theextreme time-rich. Of significance in these fig-ures is the 41% of lone parents feeling pressedfor time, compared to 53% of parents withpartners.

If this differentiation of free time is all thatis available to us, what do people do with theirfree time?

A comparison of time-use data (ABS,1998a) for the years 1992 and 1997 revealsthefollowing trends:

- decreased time spent on recreational pur-suits in general in 1997

- decreased time spent on sport participa-tion in 1997

- decreased time spent on audiovisualmedia in 1997 (although four out of every fiveminutes of passive recreation was still spentwatching TV or listening to CDs/ radio)

- decreased time spent talking in 1997(although women spent more time than mentalking and participating in crafts and hand-iwork activities, while men spent more timethan women on computers).

Museum attendance has been steadilydecreasing over the past decade. There was adramatic drop between 1995 (attendance rate:27.8%) and 1999 (19.9%) (ABS, 1999a).

It is interesting to compare these data withthose from the national Recreation ParticipationSurvey for 1986 and 1991 (the last timerecorded) (Department of Sport, Recreationand Tourism, 1986; Department ofArts, Sport,the Environment, Tourism and Territories,1991). The figures suggest that visits to muse-ums and gallerieswere decreasing, while social-izing at home, engaging in computer activitiesand, in particular, shopping were all on theincrease - although we should bear in mindthe' seasonality of some activities and the dif-ferent methods of gathering data.

Leisure activities that showed increases wereshopping (which began to be monitored in1993), restaurant dining, house maintenanceand cinema attendance.

Indeed cinema has been the big winnerin attracting audiences. In the past 10 yearscinema attendance has increased by a stagger-ing 290%. In 1987 it attracted annual admis-sions of 30.8 million; in 1999 this figure hadrisen to 88 million (Australian Film Institute[AFI], 2000). Suffering a dramatic decline inattendance primarily as a result of new entrants(videocassette recorders) in the 1980s, cine-mas reinvented themselves. The result is thatcinema attendance has now become the mostpopular leisure activity, cutting across socio-economic factors and life cycles,although there


is a clear indication that women and youngpeople are the most frequent attendees (AFI,1998).

TechnologyThe newest of new entrants is the Internetand digital technology. It is unclear at thisstage what the Internet is replacing as it gath-ers momentum, taking up residence in moreand more homes and becoming indispensablein the workplace. However, a recent study inthe United States found that Internet usageis encroaching on social time, replacing oldmedia with new media (60% of respondentswho were frequent Internet users reported adecrease in television viewing time), encourag-ing people to spend more time at work and towork longer at home and to spend less time•.L'lpping in stores and commuting. Almost

i (43%) of US households have Internetaccess (Nie and Erbring, 2000). The most fre-quent use of the Internet is for e-mail (90%).In Australia the pattern is repeated. Householdaccess to the Internet increased from 14% ofall households in May 1998 to 37% of allhouseholds in November 2000.

WorkAlmost everyone in the workforce believes thatthey are working more now than in the past,and yet this perception is not borne out by thestatistics. What does appear to be happening isa restructuring of a number of key industries,resulting in increasing casualizatiorr' of themale workforce (although women are morecasualized than men), a growing perception of

, insecurity, and the need to work longer ineirher a paid or unpaid capacity (ABS, 1997,1998a, 1998b, 1999b).

Even though working hours have decreasedover the past century in industrialized nations,there is some evidence that employees areworking more than 45 hours per week, takingfewer holidays and feeling increasingly dissat-isfied with the homelife/worklife split (YannCampbell Hoare Wheeler, 1999).

In a survey commissioned by the AustralianCouncil of Trade Unions (ACTU), 55% ofrespondents worked more than 40 hours perweek, with 26% putting in more than 45hours and 12% more than 50 hours. Onlyone third reported overtime payment for addi-tional hours worked. Almost one half felt that

health problems had arisen because of theincreased working hours. Less than half (44%)indicated that they were happy with the bal-ance between work time and family time.

The results of the ACTU survey reinforcethe International Labour Organization belief,reported by Bittman and Rice, that the new flex-ibility demanded by industries "results in a mal-distribution of working hours ... [generating]stillmore unemployment, increasing precariousemployment" (1999, p. 3). It also reinforcesSchor's premise, in The Overworked American,that "the link between economic progress andleisure time in highly industrial societies...[has led] to a decline in leisure and that extraproductivity has been wasted in an insidiouscycle of work-and-spend" (cited in Bittmanand Rice, 1999, p. 4).

This overall view of time availability andthe choices people make in using that timeindicates that, on balance, the less engaged,more simulated and immediately gratifyingactivities are the winners. There is a percep-tion that some segments of the population arefeeling pressed for time and that the pace ofwork and life is spiralling out of control. Thistrend has been developing over time and is inkeeping with the elements that describe a'post-modern condition. Yet at this stage it is stillonly "facts and figures." Our primary researchattempted to throw more light onto this con-dition and the free time/leisure choices thatpeople make as a result.

Primary ResearchMethodology andFindingsWhen we progressed to the primary researchstage, the questions we were interested inexploring were:

- Do people have more or less leisure timenow than they did five years ago?

- To what do they attribute this change?- In terms ofleisure activities,what do they

do more of now compared with fiveyears ago?- In terms of home-based leisure activities,

what do they do more of now?- Are there more leisure activities available

to them now than there were fiveyears ago?- Are they spending more on leisure than

they did fiveyears ago?- Do they think of museums as places to

go for leisure, and under what circumstances


do they visit museums, if at all (holidays, onlywent at school, only went with parents)?

Environmetrics, a Sydney-based consul-tancy, worked in collaboration with theresearch team on administering the qualitativeand quantitative aspects of the research, devel-oping guidelines for focus-group discussionsand refining our questions for an Australiancapital-city Omnibus survey. Both quantita-tive and qualitative aspects of the research cap-tured attitudes and information from visitorsand non-visitors to museums.

Four focus groups were formed: two groupsof young people (aged 20-24), one "museumactive"and one "museum non-active"; and twogroups of older/middle-aged people (35-45),one "museum active" and one "museum non-active."

On the basis of the results of these focus-group discussions, a series of questions wasdeveloped and administered to 1,100 adults aspart of an Omnibus survey in five Australiancities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaideand Perth.

Patterns emerging from the qualitative data

Although we expected leisure patterns andtime availability to be influenced by life-cyclestages, there were surprising elements, rein-forcing many of the assumptions about thecontemporary postmodern/modern split. Themost striking were:

- A perception that more leisure activitiesare available to people now than previouslyand that this change has increased the paceof life. Areas of increased activity cited byparticipants were restaurants, performing artsproductions and venues, festivals and otherevents, and movies. In addition, participantsfelt that they had increased their leisure spend-ing and that leisure had become more com-modified.

- While some people embraced this rangeof choice, indeed doubling up on a number ofleisure activities to fit them in, others felt over-whelmed and longed for the days ofless choice- they were "lost in leisure."

- Notions that leisure has to be earned andthat time has to be filled: [Ij] I have a day off, Ican't waste that day - I plan a number of activ-ities (female youth); we are addicted to beingbusy (female non-museum visitor); I can't go tothe beach if I know there is a chore to do - some-

times I feel I have to set myself a chore.. .I feelguilty if I don't do something (female youth).

- A blurring of leisure, work and obliga-tion time. Many felt that work encroached onweekends and doubled up on activities, withentertaining clients as both a work and a lei-sure activity. Some felt that they were investingin work now to collect leisure later in life.

- Use of the Internet was increasing butthere was no perception that it was a substi-tute for an activity; rather, it was seen as a toolfor communicating with friends and family.Of those who spent considerable time on theInternet, there was a perception that this timereplaced that spent sleeping, using the tele-phone, watching television, reading and doinghousehold chores.

- Most participants felt they were workinglonger hours now than fiveyears ago, althoughsome men had made a deliberate choice todownscale work in order to spend more timewith family. In most instances, participantswere positive about their work, describingit as challenging, productive, stimulating, fun,rewarding and people interactive. Negative asso-ciations included necessity, stressful, enjoy it butwish it would slow down, draining, repetitiveand out of control

- Young non-museumgoers felt that goingto a museum was something you did at schoolor over the age of 40. Once you've been to amuseum, you've seen it (young male). Oldernon-museumgoers liked the idea of museumsbut did not think there was anything there forthem. Still others indicated that their childrenwere not interested in going and that they per-ceived museumgoing as expensive. They didnot want to take a risk with their leisure timedoing something that they would not like orthat would be too expensive.

- Young museumgoers perceived museumsas one activity among many they were involvedwith. They felt that they would remain loyal tomuseum visiting but that this pursuit requiredeffort. Those with children were likely to takethem to museum exhibitions for fun as wellas out of duty and felt that over the past 10years museums have become better designedand more userfriendly.

Patterns emerging from the quantitative data

The most popular activity among the surveyedpopulation was cinema attendance, with 79%


attending in the last 12 months. This is ahigher attendance rate than the national aver-age of just over 62% (ABS, 1997). Attendanceat a sporting event came in at 51% (nationalaverage: 44%). Museum attendance rated 33%(28% in 1997 and 19% in 1999).

In relation to leisure time, the findingswere:

- Compared to five years ago, 51% hadless time, 31% had more time and 11% hadabout the same amount of time.

- Younger people were inclined to reportthat they had less time, those over 50 to havethe same amount of time.

- Changes in availability of time were lpri-marily to do with changes in working hours,followed by family obligations, rather thanincreases in leisure choice.

- The leisure activity reported as increas--5 most compared to fiveyears ago was eating

out (56%), followed by movies (43%), pub!clubs (35%), sporting events (27%), live the-atre (21%), theme parks (16%), art galleries(16%) and museums (13%). The vast major-ity of respondents believed they did more ofat least one activity now than five years ago(80%).

- The home-based leisure activity reportedas increasing most was reading (60%), followedby gardening (55%), entertaining (46%),watching free-to-air TV (39%), watchingvideos (37%), using computers (36%), doingnothing (22%) and watching pay TV (21%).

- Respondents who increasedtheir museum-going also increased their pub!clubgoing andhome-based leisure.

- Respondents who reported more leisuretime were more engaged with cultural activi-ties when going out and more likely to switchoff or do nothing when at home.

- Respondents who reported less leisuretime added only theme park visitation to theirrepertoire and increased their home activity inthe areas of entertainment, computers and payTV:

- Seventy-three percent of respondents feltthat there were more leisure activities availablenow than five years ago; just under 40% feltthat their spending on leisure had increasedover the five-year period.

- Thirty-four percent of respondents didnot include museumgoing on their list of pos-sible leisure activities, while 31% went to

museums only when at school. Fifty-two per-cent reported that they usually visited muse-ums while on holiday and reported an increasein this activity over the five-yearperiod. Thosewho as children had been taken to museumsand galleries by their parents were more likelyto visit as adults and had increased their visita-tion over the five-year period.

OutcomesIn the light of the findings from this study,museums face both long-term and short-termchallenges. In the longer term, museums willbe compelled to consider their role in a post-modern society and key issues, including:

- How do museums define their core busi-ness at the beginning of the 21st century?

- Is this core business of museums sustain-able within the context of the changing valuesof the 21st century?

- How will the changing values of societyimpact on the core business of museums?

- In the short term, museums face imme-diate concerns related to positioning museumsin the context of competition and changingleisure patterns, and capitalizing on motiva-tion to visit.

The remainder of this paperaddresses boththe long-term role of the museum withinpostmodern society and the immediate issuesfacing museums - strategic positioning andsurvival in the competitive leisure industry.

Museums in the 21st centuryMuseums are products of modernity and theirdevelopment is deeply implicated in the for-mation of the nation state. But modernism isending with the new millennium, and with itgo many of modernism's key values of stabil-ity and permanence, authenticity, grand narra-tives and even history itsel£ In a postmodernworld, what are museums and what shouldtheir role be?

In many ways, the position of museumstoday is contradictory and ambivalent. On theone hand, they retain many of their tradi-tional distinctive features - their authoritativeand legitimizing status, their role as symbolof community, their "sitedness," the centralitythat they give to material culture, the dura-bility and solidity of objects, the non-verbalnature of many of their messages, and the factthat audiences enter and move within them


(MacDonald, 1996). On the other hand, theyare challenged by new information technol-ogies, increasingly mobile and heterogeneouscommunities, and the demand for contempo-rary programs that demonstrate usefulness and"relevance."

Within this volatile and changing environ-ment, the final quarter of the 20th centurywimessed a dramatic alteration in the rela-tionship of the museum with its public. Froma position of unquestioned subject authorityand moral superiority in which the museum'srolewas to variously raise the level of and mor-ally elevate public understanding and refinetaste and sensibility, the museum of the late20th century began to redefine its relationshipwith its public within principles of increasingequality and democratization.

Critical to the redefining of this relation-ship were several factors: the emergence of ahighly discerning and educated public con-tiguous with the baby-boom generation; thedevelopment of a consumer- and customer-oriented society, and the integration of princi-ples of customer service into the public sectorbeginning in the early 1990s; the conceptual-ization of a "new" museology in which the vis-itor is recognized as bringing a living reality tothe museum experience rather than the mor-ally and intellectually blank slate assumed bymuseums in the late 19th and early 20th cen-turies; the establishment of principles of insti-tutional accountability for public spending;and the general decline in respect for insti-tutions of authority, public office and profes-sional expertise (Bennett, 1995; Weil, 1997).

All of these factors in combination haverequired the museum to reflect upon andreconsider the terms under which it relates toits public.

It is this redefining of relationship that isat the core of what the museum in a post-modern world may become. In this respect,there is some convergence in thinking. ElaineHuemann Gurian (1996) envisages that muse-ums will increasingly have a role as sites of"safecongregant behaviour" where communi-ties can confront, debate and exchange ideas inone of the few remaining secure public forums,and Weil (1997, p. 260) sees the museumreinventing itself to become a centre "avail-able to its supporting community to be usedin pursuit of its communal goals." This rein-

vention will further alter the power relation-ship between the authority of the museum andthe public. In the near future, he predicts, "itwill primarily be the public" who will makethe decisions.

The increasing focus on the public alsoimpacts on the ways in which museums areusing audience research to inform marketingand positioning. The museum of the 21st cen-tury will be taking account of the changingpatterns ofleisure participation and behaviourevident in the outcomes of this study.

Consumer patternsRespondents in all of the focus groups spokeof an increased pace of life in general: I can'trelax like I used to; there is no down time;[I feel pressureto} do more.This increased paceof life, combined with a perception of lesstime in which to undertake an increasing arrayof leisure options, is creating new consumerpatterns. In many ways these new consumerpatterns are a response to coping with the phe-nomenon of moreto do and lesstime in whichto do it.

Six consumer patterns were identified fromthe qualitative research, reflecting the rangeof individual responses to the phenomenon ofdoing more at a faster pace and in less time.

Leisure achievers cope with the situationthrough careful planning and good organiza-tion of the time available. They are thus ableto experience a wide range of activities acrossthe leisure spectrum and are willing to under-take activities alone in order to fit in as muchas possible.

Others double up by choosing activitiesthat addre~s several experiences in one. Theseare people who listen to a band at a pub whilehaving a drink with friends or who combineattendance at a concert with proximity to anew and untried restaurant.

While the achievers and the doublers areboth characterized by an element of planning,spontaneous consumers do not plan at all.These people, identified as an emerging con-sumer phenomenon (Caldwell, 1998), respondto the moment and will choose to do what ison hand when time becomes available. Theyare generally people in demanding professionaljobs that leave them "time poor" and prone tomaking immediate decisions about where theywill go that day and what they will do.


There are two other groups that are depen-dent on external structure and therefore behavemore reactively in their patterns of leisurechoice. These are the peer driven, whose lei-sure choices are determined by the decisionsof others, and the frustrated, who find it dif-ficult to cope with the multitude of choicesavailable and who seek situations where thedecisions are made for them. These are thepeople who will respond favourably to a lei-sure experience that is packaged.

Finally, families have their own distinct reac-tions to the current leisure situation. Thoughparents sacrifice their own leisure time to facil-itate the leisure needs of their children (driv-ing them to sporting activities, dropping themoff at parties, arranging for them to go toholiday camps, etc.), this same emphasis ongeneration-specific leisure activities results in

ctured family leisure patterns. Parents expe-•..;nce difficulty organizing whole-family lei-sure activities.

An additional factor is the ingredient ofmoney. Both the qualitative and the quanti-tative stages of the study revealed that peopleare spending more money on leisure activitiesthan they did five years ago. Families, in par-ticular, cite the increased cost of new forms ofleisure such as home computers and pay ~and the difficulty of interesting children in lessexpensive leisure pursuits such as going to thebeach, having family picnics, going for a walkand visiting museums.

The study suggests that museums need totake the following into account in their mar-keting plans:

- Museums offer value for money at a time.en leisure is perceived to be increasingly

expensive.- For families, museums offer value for

money and a location for needed family time.- Promotions need to be customized to

take account of different leisure consumptionpatterns.

- In a fast-paced world, people are seekingleisure packages that enable them to undertakeseveral activities within a short space of time.

Leisure positioning

It is evident that perceptual factors may createbarriers to museum participation. The attri-bures associated with museums differ fromthose related to the ideal leisure attraction.

Museums are perceived to be in a differentfield of activity to leisure. The fact that thismuseum "field" is an intellectual and educa-tional experience, requiring some of the mentalengagement and commitment that is becom-ing less attractive in today's world, may be afunher deterrent.

Moreover, the attribures associated withmuseums explain to some extent the reasonwhy museums consistently appeal to a subsetof the population rather than the population atlarge. Overall, museumgoers represent a highlyeducated sector of the population. Familiaritywith the museum code is intrinsically linkedwith class and educational structures (Bennett,1995; Bourdieu, 1991). Those who have beensocialized into museumgoing at an early agetend to seek an educative element in many oftheir other leisure experiences as well (Hood,1995).

Interestingly, many museums could legiti-mately argue that they are offering what thegeneral leisure consumer is seeking. Museumsare fun, they are exciting, they are good placesto take the family, and they offer great value formoney. However, it appears that museums arefailing to capitalize on and claim these attri-butes to demonstrate the valid synergy betweenwhat consumers want and what museums haveto offer. Museums have the opportunity toinclude in their branding not only the attri-butes that they meaningfully own, but also theattributes associated with an ideal leisure expe-nence.

In positioning, therefore, there appear tobe two issues to consider. If museums areto increase attendance, they need to positionthemselves as attractions with many of theattributes associated with the "ideal" leisureactivity.And museums need to promote them-selvesas the owners of another set of attributesthat are unique to museums.

What makes a museum special?Museums are what is known in marketingterms as values brands. Corporate brands andproduct brands are familiar.A values brand hasan enduring core purpose, which creates a long-term bond with those sectors of the populationthat share the same values (Kiely and Halliday,1999). Moreover, there is a desire for a lastingfuture of the brand because of customer alle-giance to the brand's underlying values.


Importantly, museums offer more than theshort-term experience of a visit. They arevalued because they are institutions that con-tribute to social value. The museum "incorpo-rates not only objects but, more importantly,the intellectual heritage, the history, valuesand traditions of society; it also emphasisescontinuity by suggesting the requirements topreserve what is valued from previous gener-ations so that this may be inherited by thedescendants of present members of society"(Department of Finance, 1989, p. 24).

What museums offer differentiates and dis-tinguishes them from the ephemeral, the tran-sient and the depthless. What museums needto celebrate, advocate and promote is their roleas catalyst for building social value.

AuthenticityA further distinguishing characteristic of themuseum experience is authenticity. We wereinterested in whether the increasing penetrationof simulated experiences and information tech-nology into people's daily lives is compromisingnotions of what is "real" to the extent of devalu-ing the authentic experience of the museum.

The results of the present study are some-what hopeful in this regard. Though penetra-tion of computer use was high and use of theInternet was increasing, the qualitative researchindicated that virtual experiences were not yetperceived to be an acceptable substitute for theauthentic experience that museums offer.

However, simulation and virtual reality mayemerge as potent competitors, affecting muse-ums' relationship to their publics in funda-mental ways. The potential impact of virtualversus real remains an unknown but vexingquestion. It may be that, in a postmodernworld, "Authentic and unauthentic experiencesare no longer placed in contradiction to eachother. Indeed the search for the authentic has,in the late twentieth century, become increas-ingly irrelevant if not abandoned. The authen-tic has disappeared" (jonson, 1998, p. 4).

Conclusion

Inthe emerging leisure environment of the21st century, museums face a challenge.

Less time and more to do serve to put pres-

sure on consumers. New leisure activities thatoffer novelty and difference test loyalty to theestablished and the known. A trend to ephem-eral and depthless pastimes is juxtaposed withchoices that require intellectual engagement.What can museums do to ensure a place inthis new, postmodern world?

In our research, visitors and non-visitorsmay have all agreed that museums were ingeneral a "good thing" - who would necessar-ily be against museums or motherhood? Whenit comes to acting on those beliefs, however, adifferent picture emerges. They do not reallybelieve that museums are places where theywill find fun, excitement, or even necessarilyemotional or spiritual fulfilment. Many peoplenow believe that other parts of the environ-ment fulfil that aspect of their being. Whenthey search for meaning, they commune withnature as an antidote to the highly consumer-ist fast-paced lifestyle most embrace.

Our further research is leading us into anexploration of the mind of the consumer: howconsumers make choices about leisure andwhere (even if) museums surface on the land-scape of leisure choice. It is our belief that wecan begin to reposition museums more mean-ingfully if we understand in more depth thefactors involved in making decisions aboutleisure. This is not to place in jeopardy thecore values of museums in research, scholar-ship and education, but rather to better under-stand what value the consumer gives to thesharp end of these core functions: the exhibi-tions, experiences and environments that arethe public face of the museum industry.

Notes1. That there was some initial evidence for this trend camefrom a separate research study undertaken at the PowerhouseMuseum in Sydney (Boomerang! 1998).2. Casualization is defined as work that is characterized as non-permanent, contract, temporary or part-time.

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