The muse with a wandering eye: the influence of public value on coproduction in museums

Across management, marketing, public administration and museology literature, coproduction has been presented as an innovative approach to service improvement. This case study of the Australian museum sector contributes to the instrumentalisation debate, by revealing the potential inhibitors to such improvements when coproduction distracts rather than enhances the work of cultural institutions. While public value requires the strategic cultural manager to negotiate between ‘upstream audiences’ (government and funding bodies) and ‘downstream audiences’ (users and the body politic), these two groups appear to exert different levels of influence. This research suggests that upstream audiences currently absorb the attention of museums. As a result, the manner in which museums coproduce, and the motivations for this work, appear to be geared towards advocating the public value of museums to government and funding bodies. This case study suggests that museums sacrifice the service innovations and exhibition enhancements offered by coproduction (intrinsic outcomes) to pursue government funding and support (instrumental outcomes).