This book examines the relationship of audience development to cultural policy and offers a ground-breaking perspective on how the practice of audience development is connected to ideas of democratic access to culture. Drawing from a rich range of interviews with key individuals in the audience development field, the book argues for a re-conceptualisation of audience development as an ideological function of cultural policy. - Provides a new understanding of the relationship between audiences and the arts - Fundamentally changes the idea of audience development and its relationship to cultural policy - Argues that arts management has misunderstood arts marketing and audience development

TRIBUNE. Ne plus envisager la culture qu’en part de produit intérieur brut ou en chiffres de fréquentation ou de consommation est une perversion profonde de la démocratie, s’indigne, dans une tribune au « Monde », Eric de Chassey, directeur de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art