Museums as participants in the market game: The political and economic context of the functioning of the museums
Muzeum jako uczestnik gry rynkowej. Kontekst polityczny i ekonomiczny funkcjonowania muzeum

Summary/Abstract: Under the influence of contemporary social and political changes, which have resulted in, interalia, changes in the structure of museum audiences and their expectations, museums have had toimplement new practices and tools which were previously not present in their fields of interest.These processes changed the definition of the mission of a contemporary museum and the way ofcommunicating with participants of culture. Today a museum, like every other institution on theentertainment and leisure market, has to attract recipients of its offer. Museums thus engage in evermore close relationships with the field of economy. Moreover, the model of public financing ofculture subjects the activities of museums to the current politics. This article discusses the ‘spillingover’ of the principles of the fields of economy and politics into the field of museums.The empirical material collected during the realization of qualitative studies among museumemployees concerning their attitude towards the changes taking place in the sphere of museums,both in Poland and all over the world, provided the inspiration to analyse this issue. The followingissues, taken from a wide range of issues related to the assessment of the museums’ place in themarket reality, are examined in this article: sources of cultural and economic values generated bymuseums; the phenomenon of competition between museums; museum attendance as a criterionof the museums’ success; and the required models of financing museums’ activity.Theoretical considerations concerning relationship between the necessity of fulfilling museums’social mission and the expected economic efficacy, as well as the museum’s status among otherplayers on the leisure and entertainment market, were enriched by selected research results, whichare treated as a local (Polish) commentary on the global changes taking place in the operation ofcontemporary museums.

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