MusLi (Museums Literacy) - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

94 MusLi - No qualifications needed: museums and new audiences
case 06
b) Focus group:
On June 10 th 2009, after the exhibition closed, a focus group was organized in order to hear from those
who do not attend or participate to cultural events (either local or not) encouraging the focus group
participants to bring out reasons, expectations, fears and other indicators of interest. This evaluation
should be considered as formative because the intention was to improve the organization’s future
proposals and make further initiatives more attractive. The aim is to arouse the interest of all segments
of our users and citizens, while preserving the cultural level of all projects. The meeting, lasting about
90 minutes, took place in the conference room of the Trevi Centre, in a quiet and friendly atmosphere,
involving seven people belonging to the target groups mentioned above.
The participants were asked to briefly introduce the other participants specifying their schooling level.
The group was then asked to answer the following five questions:
1) What are the reasons for lack of participation in cultural events?
2) What are your main leisure activities?
3) What is the image you have of a museum? Of an exhibition? If you have attended a museum or
exhibition in the past, why didn’t you come back?
4) In your opinion what would make a place or an arts or cultural event interesting for you?
5) As a means of communication what method do you think would be most effective for informing
you, your friends and /or relatives about cultural events?
For question 1 multiple choice answers were proposed (see below) and the inputs from the individual
participants were also collected.
Multiple choice answers to question 1:
lack of time / do not know anyone with whom to go / difficulty in getting to the Trevi Centre or other
places / culture costs too much / little interest in arts themes/ culture annoys me / I do not understand
art, music, theatre - I don’t know anything about it / I was not aware of the event.
Focus group outcomes (qualitative):
PARTICIPANTS: they are almost all retired people.
They occasionally attend cultural events on their own (most often involved in the cultural events organized
by the association of which they are members). There is a difficulty in understanding and this is
perceived by them as a lack of cultural background. They prefer music-related events such as concerts
or operetta (some have, or have had, a subscription to the theatre). The choice of the event is related
to personal tastes.