Voices from the Museum: Survey Research in Europe's National Museums
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Voices from the Museum: Survey Research in Europe’s National Museums Alexandra Bounia, Alexandra Nikiforidou, Niki Nikonanou & Albert Dicran Matossian EuNaMus Report No 5 Voices from the Museum: Survey Research in Europe’s National Museums (EuNaMus Report No. 5) Alexandra Bounia, Alexandra Nikiforidou, Niki Nikonanou & Albert Dicran Matossian Copyright The publishers will keep this document online on the Internet – or its possible replacement – from the date of publication barring exceptional circumstances. The online availability of the document implies permanent permission for anyone to read, to download, or to print out single copies for his/her own use and to use it unchanged for noncommercial research and educational purposes. Subsequent transfers of copyright cannot revoke this permission. All other uses of the document are conditional upon the consent of the copyright owner. The publisher has taken technical and administrative measures to assure authenticity, security and accessibility. According to intellectual property law, the author has the right to be mentioned when his/her work is accessed as described above and to be protected against infringement. For additional information about Linköping University Electronic Press and its procedures for publication and for assurance of document integrity, please refer to its www home page: http://www.ep.liu.se/. Linköping University Interdisciplinary Studies, No. 16 ISSN: 1650-9625 Linköping University Electronic Press Linköping, Sweden, 2012 URL: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-84966 © The Authors, 2012 This report has been published thanks to the support of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research - Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities theme (contract nr 244305 – Project European National Museums: Identity Politics, the Uses of the Past and the European Citizen). The information and views set out in this report are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Cover photo: Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert. Acknowledgements We are very grateful to the museum visitors who took part in the survey, staff from all the national museums who helped facilitate the data collection and to the researchers involved in collecting, analysing and writing up the quantitative data. University of the Aegean Research Team Alexandra Bounia University of Linköping Alexandra Nikiforidou Bodil Axelsson Niki Nikonanou Elin Lundquist Albert Dicran Matossian Hannah Kroksson Evi-Maria Pitsiava Viveca Hellman Vold Aggeliki Zoumbouli Maroussa Tsakogianni University of Tartu Federica Mancini Kristin Kuutma Pille Runnel Data collection teams Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt University of the Aegean Reet Ruusmann Alexandra Bounia Linda Lotina Alexandra Nikiforidou Toms Ķencis Niki Nikonanou Kaspar Jassa Evi-Maria Pitsiava Paavo Kroon Aggeliki Zoumbouli Diana Grahhina Federica Mancini Anita Püsiäinen Laura Jamsja University of Leicester Anna-Stina Kangro Jocelyn Dodd Ergo-Hart Västrik Ceri Jones Maria Jufereva Andy Sawyer Liene Bergmane Andrew Jamieson Ieva Gūža Georgina McMahon Ieva Balode Kaija de Valk Signija Druviņa Willeke Rodenhuis Table of Contents List of tables .................................................................................................................................................. 5 List of diagrams ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Notes on authors ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 13 Key findings ................................................................................................................................................ 16 Chapter 1 – Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 21 National Museums from the Visitors’ Perspective .................................................................. 23 The layout of the report ............................................................................................................... 25 The research process .................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 2 – Context and Museums ......................................................................................................... 39 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 40 Museum Context .......................................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 3 – Who visits national museums and why ............................................................................. 51 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 52 Visitors’ profiles: Who visits national museums? .................................................................... 52 Chapter 4 – National Museums and Identities ...................................................................................... 83 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 84 The role of material culture ......................................................................................................... 84 Personal definitions of identity ................................................................................................. 109 Chapter 5 – What does being a national museum mean?................................................................... 119 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 120 Awareness and definition of a national museum ................................................................... 120 National museums: for whom and why .................................................................................. 144 Agents responsible for the creation of national museums ................................................... 156 Chapter 6 – Perceptions of imageries and identities presented in the national museums ........... 165 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 166 Historical imageries .................................................................................................................... 166 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 199 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................................................ 202 List of tables Table 1: Data collection at the nine museums ....................................................................................... 22 Table 2: Research objectives and questions ........................................................................................... 27 Table 3: Case studies undertaken by each research team ..................................................................... 29 Table 4: Themes of the questionnaire ..................................................................................................... 33 Table 5: Distribution of questionnaires, according to language .......................................................... 34 Table 6: Distribution of questionnaires per museum and language ................................................... 35 Table 7: Annual Visitor Number per museum ...................................................................................... 36 Table 8: Scaling factor ............................................................................................................................... 37 Table 9: Distribution of questionnaires per nationality ........................................................................ 52 Table 10: Distribution of questionnaires per nationality and language .............................................. 53 Table 11: National Museum of Estonia: nationality of respondents Nationalitya ............................ 53 Table 12: German Historical Museum: Nationality of respondents ................................................... 54 Table 13: National Historical Museum of Athens: Nationality of respondents ............................... 54 Table 14: National Museum of Ireland: Nationality of respondents .................................................. 54 Table 15: Open-Air Museum of Latvia: Nationality of respondents .................................................. 55 Table 16: Rijksmuseum: Nationality of respondents ............................................................................ 55 Table 17: National Museum of Scotland: Nationality of respondents ............................................... 55 Table 18: Museum of the History of Catalonia: Nationality of the respondents .............................. 56 Table 19: Nordiska museet: Nationality of respondents