2007-10-09

Museums and Social Inclusion: Exploring the geography of school visits to museums

Recent government funding for museums in the UK has identified museums as vehicles for addressing socio-economic issues such as urban regeneration and social inclusion. This paper examines the role that geography can play in assessing whether museums are engaging with these issues.

Between 2003-2006 three major evaluations were funded by government agencies to analyse the contribution that museum education events make to tackling social agendas. This paper builds on conclusions made in these previous studies by examining in closer detail the locations of the schools and museums and re-examining the geography of visits by considering alternative interpretations of it. The paper demonstrates that by considering the geography of school visits a greater understanding of the socio-economic contexts of museum audiences can be reached. The geography of school visits raises many questions about how museums address social inclusion and the specific contexts and impacts of each school visit, these issues are subjects for further qualitative analysis.

Download the paper: http://www.city.ac.uk/cpm/ejournal/ejournal_Anna_Woodham.pdf

Anna Woodham, University of Leicester