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Performance, Learning & Heritage

Understanding the audience

There were two audiences for the research project to look at in detail: independent groups/visitors attending performances, and local schools groups (key stage 3) who were taking advantage of the Museum's formal learning programme. There were also a further 100 members of the public who filled in questionnaires immediately post-performance.

Independent visitors

A total of 27 individual audience members in some way had their experiences of the performance tracked through conversations with members of the research team. These were divided into two groups, the first involved only for the day of the performance (group 1 (1.1 in the data trawl), the second (1:2) had its relationship with the performance followed over a nine/ten month period. This was done in such a way in a bid to limit the impact of the research itself on people's longer-term meaning-making and to maximise on incentive payments [see Appendix C.4]. The logic was that for group 1, we would make the research process more 'formal' (in order to glean initial impact, facilitate group discussion and identify areas for further questioning of group 2), and that for group 2 we could investigate long-term impact without having changed the nature of their experience on the day too drastically.

This separation of Independent visitors into two 'types' was intended to produce a variety of comparative data, and to eliminate problems associated with the ongoing impact of focus group activity which became evident in the NMM research.

Educational groups

Two very different schools were chosen (by Manchester Museum ) to take part in this study. They were chosen because they had a prior record of engagement with the Museum, and were open to new opportuni ties. Both were in attendance on different days, one with Year 8 and one with Year 9 pupils.

School 1: Year 9 groups (2x~30), had studied slavery in school, 60+ % pass rate at GCSE, high ethnic minority percentage, low number of statemented pupils.

School 2: Year 8 group (~22), had not studied slavery in school, 11% pass rate at GCSE, mostly white, economically disadvantaged area of the city, high truancy rate.

A combination of the following research methods was used for the school groups: meaning mapping exercises, observation, interviews, filming.

For more information about the individual schools, their records and our contacts there, see the PLH archive.