MUSEUMS AND VISITORS: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Museums and cultural heritage centers around the world have demanded creativity in developing and modernizing their activities and funding. This has the effect of expanding the public interest, which can expand public resources and also attract additional resources from foundations, associations, private donations and other means. There are more and more studies on the relationship between these institutions and their visitors, which try to identify the forms of their relationship with society, the different interests involved and the types of people who have access to them. A large number of large, medium and small museums are increasingly interested in getting to know their audience better and communicating better with them. The expanding influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the museum and cultural space is evident in the practices of a growing number of museums worldwide, paving the way for the idea of ​​museums and cultural institutions without walls. In the Brazilian context, we will analyze this trend in relation to the recently reopened Museu do Ipiranga, which includes ideas and technologies that bring it closer to the public.