Visitors' Motivations to Attend Special Events at Art Galleries: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

With the growth in the number of special events being staged, the special event industry is becoming recognized as one that is influencing developments in tourism and related industries and institutions. Art galleries are one such institution increasingly recognizing the importance of special events to their audience development strategies. Special events enable galleries to make themselves more appealing to both their regular visitors and people who would not normally visit, because such events offer something that is “out of the ordinary” in comparison to what is normally offered. This article presents the findings of an exploratory study investigating the factors that motivate visitors to attend special events in galleries. Visitors were identified as either frequent visitors or occasional visitors. Interviews were conducted with 20 visitors who were attending 1 of 2 different events at 2 different art galleries. The different motivations expressed by the frequent visitors and the occasional visitors are described qualitatively and illustrated by direct quotations from participants' responses.