Camilla Kennedy Harper
The Tate Gallery and its audience of art enthusiasts
PhD started October 2005
My interest is in traditional audiences for art – the “art enthusiast” and their response to the contemporary changes in public art galleries in the UK. Taking the Tate (Tate Modern and Tate Britain) as the focus for my research, I am looking at the relationship between changes in the field position of the Tate and the transformation of cultural dispositions and lifestyles among core audiences. My research is informed by Bourdieu’s theories on the process of social differentiation and the formation of lifestyles and cultural consumption. I am also using his work on the homology of dispositions between businesses and their customers to analyse the structure of dispositions within Tate, and how they relate to the gallery’s core audiences. My aim is generate fresh data using qualitative methods to provide a detailed study of this important but sometimes neglected group within the art gallery audience, to critique the application of Bourdieu's theories in a contemporary UK context, and to add to our understanding of the meaning and use of legitimate culture in the UK.
Supervisors Team: Tony Bennett, Elizabeth Silva, Helen Rees Leahy
Email: ckh34@student.open.ac.uk