Analysing attendance figures can help cultural institutions improve their visitor experience, but does an excessive focus on numbers distort priorities? The National Gallery’s former Director Nicholas Penny, and Bernard Donoghue, Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, go head to head.
On becoming director of the National Gallery in 2008 I was disturbed to discover that attendance figures had become a prominent feature not only of the gallery’s annual review but also of the monthly reports to the trustees. Banishing them would have been rash. The reasons for doing so would have been misinterpreted. And, besides, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport found them to be conveni... Keep reading on Apollo