Audience Participation in Cultural Projects: Bringing the Organization Back In

Alice Anberrée, Nicolas Aubouin, Emmanuel Coblence, Frédéric Kletz

Alice Anberrée is a teaching assistant in Management at Panthéon-Assas University and a PhD student at Université de Nantes. She works on the interplay between public participation and the supply/demand balance within governmental and semi-governmental  cultural bodies. Her research concerns cultural policy,  public reception of symbolic goods, public participation  in government policy and consumer participation in organizations.
Nicolas Aubouin is an associate professor at the Paris School of Business (formerly ESG Management School) and a research associate at Mines ParisTech. His research, carried out in collaboration with arts and cultural institutions, focuses on transformations within organizations with the implementation of management tools, profession and practice dynamics, and evolution of the creative process.
Emmanuel Coblence is an associate professor at ISG Paris and a research associate at HEC Montréal and Mines ParisTech. His research, carried out in close cooperation with arts and cultural organizations, focuses on strategic management, business model renewal and innovation processes.
Frédéric Kletz teaches at MinesParisTech and is a researcher at the Centre de Gestion Scientifique. He focuses on the dynamics of organizations, particularly in the cultural sector, and on the way in which the emergence of new management approaches transforms skills and organizations. He has carried out research in collaboration with a number of institutions in the sector.

ABSTRACT 
Based on the observation that cultural institutions are showing increasing interest in developing participatory projects, the authors pose the following question: How and to what degree can participatory projects lead to a transformation of the organization, similar to the activation of the work of art via the gaze of the spectator? They use three case studies to demonstrate that, while audience participation in the cultural field has developed apace and has effectively transformed the relation of participants to the worlds of art, it has not succeeded in penetrating the boundaries of the organization beyond ad hoc services. They discuss this phenomenon in reference to the need to implement organizational change further upstream and to the difficulty inherent in making available specific approaches to evaluating participatory projects.
KEYWORDS
Democratization, visitor support, consumer experience, activation of the organization, crowdfunding
RÉSUMÉ
S’appuyant sur l’observation selon laquelle les institutions culturelles manifestent un intérêt croissant pour le développement de projets participatifs, les auteurs posent la question suivante : de quelle manière et dans quelle mesure les projets participatifs peuvent-ils conduire à une transformation de l’organisation, semblable à l’activation de l’œuvre d’art par le regard du spectateur ? Ils font appel à trois études qui démontrent que, lorsque la participation du public au secteur culturel s’est développée rapidement et a effectivement transformé la relation des participants avec l’univers de l’art, elle n’a pas permis de pénétrer les frontières de l’organisation au-delà de services ponctuels. Les auteurs discutent ce phénomène en se référant au besoin d’implanter le changement organisationnel davantage en amont et à la difficulté à produire des approches spécifiques pour évaluer les projets participatifs.
MOTS CLÉS 
Démocratisation, accompagnement des publics, expérience de consommation, activation de l’organisation, financement participatif
RESUMEN 
Los autores, basándose en el hecho de que las instituciones culturales muestran creciente interés en desarrollar proyectos participativos, se preguntan cómo y a qué nivel los proyectos participativos, al aportar la mirada del espectador, llevan a una transformación de la organización, así como a una activación del trabajo artístico. Utilizando tres estudios de caso, los autores demuestran que si bien la participación del público en el sector de la cultura se ha desarrollado rápidamente y ha transformado efectivamente la relación de los participantes con los mundos de las artes, no ha logrado atravesar los límites de la organización más allá de los servicios puntuales. Se analiza este fenómeno en relación con la necesidad de promover el cambio organizacional en una fase más temprana y con la dificultad inherente de disponer de enfoques específicos para evaluar los proyectos participativos.
PALABRAS CLAVE 
Democratización, apoyo al visitante, experiencia del consumidor, activación de la organización, financiación colectiva