Cultural Value: User value of museums and galleries: a critical view of the literature

Whilst recent decades have produced a substantial body of data around the institutional value of museums and their instrumental contributions to economic and social policy, there are few studies focusing directly on the value of museum and gallery engagement for users and a similar dearth of systematic attempts to draw together and critically assess the body of research that exists. This critical review of user experience in museums and galleries occurs as the role of the visitor within the museums and galleries is changing. We interrogate the existing body of research, asking questions of the data to get a better understanding of how users describe their experiences and to develop a taxonomy of user value. We analyse the methodological paradigms and frameworks within which the research data has been captured to provide recommendations for future research studies and to add to the generation of an overall framework to measure cultural value.