Reputation Building, Gatekeeping and Cultural Audiences: Some Conclusions from a Survey to Lisbon's Municipal Cultural Offer

The paper draws on some empirical results of a broader research project studying the audiences of cultural facilities and events of Lisbon’s Municipal Cultural Agency (EGEAC). In the scope of this project, an extensive survey was applied, within one year to nine of the main cultural facilities in Lisbon city and to a set of specific events managed by City Council’s cultural firm, providing data from around 6000 individuals that give us a comprehensive picture of the audiences of these diverse institutions (museums, theatres, monuments, event venues).

The aim of this paper is to understand the importance of reputation building mechanisms and gatekeeping processes in these specific facilities, and to comprehend their importance in the respective art worlds, departing from the answers provided to this survey.

Gatekeeping mechanisms and reputation building processes are well documented in the sociological and economic literature as fundamental to influence both cultural provision and cultural consumption. Through the analysis of the motivations expressed by the audiences, the image they associate to each venue and the cross-analysis of their declared cultural habits, we build a framework for the analysis of reputation building mechanisms that is the empirically tested with this data.

After introductory and conceptual sections, where reputation building mechanisms and gatekeeping processes in these art worlds are explored, we present briefly the scope of the study and the venues analysed. Then, the methodological framework of the survey is presented and main results concerning the used variables are analysed. A comprehensive analyse of reputation building processes is then made, crossing the results of the 10 facilities/events, and presenting the challenges they bring to the conceptual framework on reputation building and gatekeeping processes, by the side of cultural audiences. Main findings and principles for urban planning are summed up on conclusion.