Looking For Non-publics

7. From a Non-Publics of Museums to Publics of Free Admission

Chapter 7 FRom A non-PUbLIC oF mUsEUms to PUbLICs oF FREE ADmIssIon Jacqueline Eidelman cerlis (paris Descartes/cnrs) Even recently evaluations of the ramifications of free admission to French museums and monuments seemed to be governed by no discernible rules: unpredictable sampling, different targeting, heterogeneous methods, non-secant analysis axes. Moreover, a confidentiality clause affecting most of the studies sets limits on data sharing. Even though differing opinions continued to gather momentum, the debate between supporters and opponents of free admission usually took an ideological turn. The most commonly held notion was that free-admission measures raised little more than the interest of the habitual public, either eliciting immoderate usage (bargain effect) or a quick diversion (honeymoon effect). As for its influence on the process of democratizing audiences, it was suggested that this was non-existent or, at best, negligible. It was as if a non-public of free admission existed, in the sense that free access was unable to mobilize the non-public of museums. This three-part study will cast doubt on these two assertions. First, museum attendance for the last half century will be analyzed. Next, the complex nature of visitor identity will be investigated. And last, an experiment in completely free admission to 14 national French museums and monuments in the first half-year of 2008 will be evaluated. The study is placed within a sociology of the individual which renders visible a relationship to culture, freed from its traditional rigidities. 136 | Looking for non-pubLics 7.1. cOntextual elements: tO what extent can we still use the term nOn-public Of museums? Two indicators prompted me to question received wisdom on the concept of the non-public of museums. The first is the very large increase in the volume of visits to museums and exhibitions over a halfcentury . The second is the complex nature of visitor identity. 7.1.1. the evOlutiOn Of attendance flOw Over a half-century, museum attendance in France has experienced considerable growth, explained in large part by a transformation of the museum offer in both abundance and variety. The museum landscape of the 1960s, if not arid then at least shapeless, was the major reason for the lack of interest of a vast majority of French visitors, contrasting with their spectacular mobilization during rare temporary exhibitions. First analyzer: national museums under the jurisdiction of the Ministère de la Culture.1 The Ministry’s Service des études et de la recherche estimated total attendance at these approximately 30 establishments at 5 million visits in 1960, 6 million in 1965, and nearly 7 million in 1970, when figures of paid entrances and of the estimated volume of free entrances2 were taken into account. Only one event really stands out in the 1960s: The Tutankhamen exhibition (Paris, Petit Palais, February 16 to September 4, 1967) occasioning 1,241,000 paying visits.3 In the course of the following decade, the development of a policy of temporary exhibitions, but also an initial grooming of museums, their opening to other themes and collections, the inauguration of several largescale constructions and, above all, the opening of the Georges-Pompidou 1. in france until 2002, museums were divided into four main categories: national museums directly under the jurisdiction of the Direction des Musées de france; museums belonging to the government, some of which depended on other departments of the Ministère de la culture, or on other ministries; museums under the control of territorial communities (including the 15 museums in paris) divided into two groups: classified museums and monitored museums, further subdivided into first- and second-category museums; and finally, private museums, with either the status of a foundation, whether administered or not in conjunction with local communities, or with the status of a partnership, with either for-profit or non-profit activity (sallois, 1995). after the enactment of the Loi Musées 2002, the main distinction has been between institutions labelled Musées de france (which encompass national museums) and other institutions (poulot, 2009). 2. the réunion des Musées nationaux (rMn), created in 1895 and transformed into a public industrial and commercial institution in 1990, collects attendance figures for attendance at institutions and events for which it manages ticket sales. the Ministère de la culture’s service des études et recherche (ser) was created in 1963 and placed under the direction of augustin girard. in 1986, the ser became the Département des études et de la prospective (Dep), and...