Audience Participation – The Standards of the Circus?

May 17th, 2010

Has the emphasis on audience participation in our galleries and museums replaced aesthetic experience and philosophical enquiry with “fun and explosions”?

Has the Tate Modern been a “spectacular success” in terms of audience participation, but “a disaster in terms of culture and meaning”?

Have we come to judge exhibitions by their “ability to keep [our] kids happy”?

Is curatorship, as a result, now moderated by the “standards of the circus”?

According to Waldemar Januszczak’s article in this week’s Sunday Times, arts participation has gone too far.

Does he have a point? Give us your view here!