THEORY VERSUS PRAXIS. RESEARCH AS TOOL IN THE AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT AT THE JÓZEF PIŁSUDSKI MUSEUM IN SULEJÓWEK

Research into the public is a subject of academic investigation, marketing campaigns, and also of museologists’s interest. As a result of changes occurring in culture, these involving Polish museology as well, a closer knowledge of the public’s needs and expectations has become today one of the tasks also challenged by museums. However, as the initial investigation conducted by the National Institute for Museums and Public Collections (NIMOZ) in the 2017 research into the public demonstrates, rare application of the knowledge of museum visitors has seldom translated the results of this research into the practical approach of definite institutions. Several reasons that make museologists refrain from applying the theories used in social sciences to museums can be named. Some of them result from the lack of experience, others from staff shortages; they, however, impede seeing in social research a tool useful for planning changes and for opening up to the community. Nevertheless, despite all these difficulties it can be observed that promoting the research into the public among museologists boosts the impact of the theories on their practical approaches in respective museums. Sharing with other professionals the examples illustrating definite solutions that can be applied in this respect, along with the factual support by NIMOZ providing national research, trainings, and publications, have gradually and effectively been increasing the influence of the knowledge of the public on museum’s operating in social life. An interesting instance of such a process can be seen in e.g. the programme of the research into the public implemented by the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek.