Museum inclusion in Spanish museums. An exploratory study of their specific educational programmes

Abstract

At present, museum inclusion is still a pending subject in most Spanish museums. However, there has been a change in the conception of museum institutions, from being facilities that preserve heritage to spaces at the service of society. It is from this perspective that this study is proposed, focusing on the accessibility of museums for all types of audiences. The aim of this study is to know the different inclusive programs developed by national museums, as well as the groups at risk of social exclusion to which they are addressed. For this purpose, a qualitative research has been carried out, where nineteen museums from different autonomous communities have been analysed based on a non-probabilistic purposive sampling. The instrument used to collect the necessary data was a registration table, designed ad hoc for this research in order to know the reality of the museums that contain programs of these characteristics. The main results indicate that, although museum inclusion is starting in our country with the development of relevant inclusive programmes and attending to a significant diversity, quantitatively it is still a task to be developed in most Spanish museums.