In the current socio-political and economic landscape, arts institutions are facing the crucial challenge of playing a civic role in society. How can arts institutions operate not just as cultural providers, but as spaces of active citizenship and critical engagement? How can they become spaces of mediation to foster citizens’ engagement in processes of social change? This academic paper presents a case-study on the Foyers and public spaces of the Barbican Centre, as a lens through which to investigate the changing role of arts institutions in relation to their publics and urban surroundings. Given the focus of the Reflective Conservatoire Conference 2018, the paper will provide a significant contribution to the debate on artistic citizenship and civic responsibility of arts organisations.
Renowned as Europe’s largest multi-arts venue and next door to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Barbican Centre has undertaken significant changes in the last decade (2006 – 2016) in terms of spatial transformation (AHMM refurbishments in 2006 and 2016), educational strategies (Creative Learning Department across the Barbican-Guildhall campus created in 2009) and public programming (i.e. Barbican Weekenders, Sound Unbound, Foyers projects).
Adopting a sociological approach and drawing upon theories from the fields of cultural policy, audience studies and social geography, the study discusses the shift from audience participation to new paradigms of publics and typologies of engagement. It investigates how notions of ‘public’ and ‘engagement’ are discussed in literature, how they are understood, practiced and re-assessed from within the institution and how they are challenged or redefined by members of the public in the everyday spaces of the foyers. Alongside findings from archival research on the historical changes of the Barbican Centre against the backdrop of wider cultural policy shift in London and the UK, the paper will include the outcomes of a process of qualitative inquiry including interviews with members of staff from different departments and across various organisational levels (currently under way).
The study will present the initial findings of my research and offer a speculation on the future of arts institutions as agents of urban cultural policies, suggesting that the provision of public space is of increasing importance for the emergence of new publics as active citizens. Attempting to bridge the gap between academic discourses and institutional settings, this paper has the ambition to provide a significant piece of socially-engaged research that can productively effect shifts in practices.