About
Veronica is a graduating BA (Hons) Arts Management student with a keen interest in audience engagement.
Since 2022, she has been part of a frontline team, gaining valuable, hands-on experience connecting with visitors and supporting daily operations.
Prior to entering the arts, Veronica spent over a decade working in finance, developing a strong foundation in client service, communication and team management. This career shift has shaped her interest in understanding how frontline staff contribute to the museum visitor experience, especially in contemporary art spaces.
Passionate about creating accessible and inclusive cultural environments, Veronica is exploring how museums can support and empower their visitor-facing teams as part of a broader audience engagement strategy.
From frontline staff to cultural mediators: A critical review of their role in audience engagement in cultural institutions
This dissertation examines the role of front-line staff in cultural institutions and proposes a new definition for them as informal cultural mediators.
While museum practice has become increasingly focused on creating visitor-centred experiences, there remains a gap in current research (museum studies, education, etc.) regarding the extent to which the contributions of visitor-encountering staff are being acknowledged.
Using a qualitative, literature-based approach, this study brings together scholarship from museum studies, cultural mediation and labour theory to identify conceptual gaps surrounding the definitions and values placed upon front-line roles.
Although front-line staff have a marginalised structural position within the institutional hierarchy, they play an important role in shaping interpretive and relational aspects of the visitor experience through everyday interaction. This research uses the case studies of the Tate Modern and the Smithsonian Institution to demonstrate how informal relationships between visitors and frontline staff create meaning and enhance visitor engagement.
Ultimately, this study proposes that recognising front-line staff as informal cultural mediators will challenge the long-standing divide between operationally-oriented labour and educationally-oriented labour. In doing so, it identifies a significant relationship between the relational dimensions of the visitor experience and the opportunity to develop a more cohesive and inclusive perspective of cultural work.
Professional practice
Veronica's research practice focuses on the interaction of audiences within cultural institutions, particularly the role that front-line staff have in shaping visitor experiences.
Using a combination of academic literature and first-hand knowledge gained from working at a contemporary art museum, her research explores how everyday interactions influence visitors' understanding or 'meaning-making'.
Using this framework to re-interpret existing concepts of cultural mediation and museum labor, she hopes to highlight the relational and affective aspects of visitor engagement with museums. He work seeks to contribute to the development of more inclusive and accessible ways for cultural practice to be experienced by recognising the value of roles that engage directly with visitors.
Iman Binte Mohamad Falmi
Saw Ying Sin Summer
Amirra Wardah Binte Shamsul-Bahari
Muhammad Syahrul Syadzwan Bin Mohammad Nazli
Jermaine Chong
Aria Maish Nichani
