Dancing Museums II – The Democracy of Beings (2018–2021) was an action-research project created to spark and sustain long-term collaborations between dance organisations, museums, universities, and local communities.

Its aim was to co-create inspiring, lasting arts and cultural programmes that resonate with the people they’re made for—programmes that invite genuine participation and connection.

This project built on the foundations of a successful two-year initiative, Dancing Museums – Old Masters, New Traces (2015–2017), expanding its vision and reach. By deepening partnerships and embracing shared inquiry, Dancing Museums II sought to reframe how dance lives and breathes within public and institutional spaces.

In a period of accelerated change, there was an urgent need for professionalism, shared vocabulary and a coherent conceptual framework that aimed to make sense of the many different approaches to audience engagement. In Dancing Museums – The democracy of beings, individuals and arts organisations aimed to share, improve, develop and transfer skills and knowledge needed to broaden and deepen connections and relationships with audiences.

The practice-led research group, composed of artists, dance organisations, museums and universities from 8 countries, looked at how the presence of dance can offer new ways of experiencing art and heritage and help audiences and visitors engage both intellectually and viscerally with artworks. The knowledge and experience generated throughout the project empowered the organisations and artists involved with the skills needed to implement meaningful audience development projects beyond the duration of the project.

To culminate this research project, a new website was created to document discovories throughout the period as well as to give the project an ongoing legacy to urge a change in the position of the audiences and artists alike within the museum context.

Visit the website