The values and value of community heritage: visitor evaluation of do-it-yourself museums and archives of popular music in Europe, Australasia and the United States of America

ABSTRACT

Do-it-yourself (DIY) and community-based efforts to preserve popular music heritage often take place in tangible sites open to the public. These places contrast with authorised sites of heritage in their form, but not their function, and are often judged equally by visitors in terms of cultural value. This article analyses Tripadvisor user reviews of 11 DIY institutions of popular music heritage to highlight the tension between the production of cultural value by such places and the expectations of visitors. As unintentional sites of tourism, DIY institutions of popular music heritage find themselves caught between providing access to unique collections and experiences prized by niche audiences, and producing an entertainment value attainable only through the higher level budgets and skill sets found in authorised heritage institutions. This article contributes to an understanding of how the producers and consumers of DIY institutions understand value, while focusing on the neglected experience of end-users in the broader space of heritage engagement. In doing so, it draws attention to the co-creation of heritage experiences in online and physical spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Community heritage
• cultural value
• popular music heritage
• DIY institution
• Tripadvisor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Baker

Sarah Baker is a professor of cultural sociology at Griffith University, where she is the co-convenor of the Heritage and Well-being research stream in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. Her research is underpinned by a concern for cultural justice in heritage practices, processes and policies. Her books include Community Custodians of Popular Music's Past: A DIY Approach to Heritage (Routledge, 2017) and Curating Pop: Exhibiting Popular Music in the Museum (Bloomsbury, 2019).

Zelmarie Cantillon

Zelmarie Cantillon is a Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Her research focuses on the intersections of heritage, tourism, spatiality and cultural policy, with a particular interest in cultural justice. She is author of Resort Spatiality: Reimagining Sites of Mass Tourism (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History (Routledge, 2018) and Remembering Popular Music's Past: Memory-Heritage-History (Anthem Press, 2019).

Lauren Istvandity

Lauren Istvandity researches at the intersections of music, heritage, and memory studies. She is the author of The Lifetime Soundtrack: Music and Autobiographical Memory (Equinox, 2019) and co-author of Curating Pop: Popular Music in the Museum with Sarah Baker and Raphael Nowak (Bloomsbury, 2019). Dr Istvandity is currently a Lecturer in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast and an Adjunct Member of Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University.

Paul Long

Paul Long is Professor in Creative and Cultural Industries, Communications and Media Studies at Monash University. He has written extensively on popular music history, heritage and archives in which a core theme of cultural justice informs much of this work. With Phil Jones and Beth Perry, he has recently published Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities: Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement (Policy Press, 2019).