MeeMaakPodia: The road to success for audience vigour in Dutch theatres and Museums.

Abstract

The Dutch Cultural Participation Fund (FCP) wants to set up a new grant application programme called MeeMaakPodia. With this new programme they want to increase audience participation through stimulating professional organisations to open-up to local initiatives from citizens and to increase the bond between the organisation and its community. In this thesis I researched the factors that determine the success and failure of audience vigour within the Dutch cultural field of theatres and museums. I researched this issue by combining a discourse analysis with interviews. In my conclusion I argue that the FCP should try to fill the gap between the needs of MeeMaakPodia and investors. My analysis showed that the policy makers and academics have a discussion on a different level than the people in the field. This explains the difference in success and failure factors that I found during my research and the discrepancy between the financiers and the cultural organisations.