Cultural institutions increasingly position themselves as catalysts of wider socio-cultural processes. Opening their doors through, for example, urban events, online engagements and outreach activities, cultural institutions seek new alignments with actual and potential visitors and their needs and interests. To further such processes, cultural insitutions need more systematic knowledge about visitors and non-visitors than has traditionally been possible to acquire. Key questions that I will address are therefore: what are the options of engaging visitors in new ways? How can cultural institutions advance a more robust and fine-grained knowledge about their actual and potential visitors? And what do institutions gain by such processes? My answers draw on insights from a current national research and development programme Our Museum, comprising five Danish universitites and 13 Danish museums.

Bio note
Kirsten Drotner is a professor and chair of media and communication studies at the University of Southern Denmark where she also serves as academic director of Our Museum and DREAM. Over the years, her research has involved partnering with libraries, schools and cultural activity centres for children. She is a member of the Ministry of Culture’s strategic museum panel, the Radio and Television Board, and board member of the Danish Film Insitute.

Participation
If you wish to participate, please send a mail before April 18th to Lisbeth Karlsson, lrk@au.dk or phone +45 5056 0092