What would it mean for a museum to act not simply as a place people visit, but as a place where people help shape cultural and civic life?
In “Cultural citizenship through museums’ place-based public programmes,” Lucrezia Gigante draws on research involving 21 interviews and ten cultural organizations in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, and the Americas.
Gigante identifies three connected dimensions of effective place-based work: spatial, relational, and political. Cultural organizations must understand the places they inhabit, build sustained relationships with surrounding communities, and accept responsibility for how power and decisions are shared.
The research gives particular attention to “relational infrastructure”: the trust, knowledge, continuity, and human connections that make genuine participation possible. Although essential, this work is often invisible, vulnerable to staff turnover, and poorly served by short-term funding.
Gigante urges funders to value depth over reach, continuity over novelty, and stronger relationships over ever-larger participation numbers. She also offers an important warning: inviting communities to express their needs without a commitment to act can deepen mistrust.
The brief offers museums and other cultural organizations a practical framework for becoming more accountable, locally responsive, and democratic public spaces.
