Hesitation before the impact

Abstract

This study has had a twofold ambition; to probe into the life in the museums, and to try out some concepts in a cultural policy research setting. The article does this by analysing encounters between art and visiting audiences with the use of “acontextual” analytic concepts; event instead of experience, affect rather than emotion and a broad understanding of the concept atmosphere. Furthermore, the empirical material for the analysis consists primarily of parts and elements that often are discarded or excluded in examinations. The preliminary conclusions invite to further probing into the interface between visitors and art, between the imagined world of culture and actual concrete events in spaces and settings we tend think of as cultural.