Cultural Experience in Context: Sense-Making the Arts

Abstract

Recent research on arts and cultural audiences has attempted to go beyond the traditional social science surveys that assess attitudes or attendance to capture an understanding of how audiences actually experience the arts and what benefits or impacts those experiences provide. The study reported here contributes to this growing body of research by presenting in-depth case studies of four individuals and their chosen cultural experiences at various times through their lives. The authors used Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology to guide the informants through highly structured but open-ended interviews designed to prompt self-reflection and elaboration of what each experience meant to them. Informants were selected from a larger database because of the richness of their interviews and the insight these interviews offer to the understanding of people's engagements with culture. By considering multiple cultural experiences for each informant, it was possible to gain a clearer sense of the context in which these experiences took place and how informants were impacted personally. In addition, the case studies showed how informants' respective struggles with personal and identity issues moved with them across their cultural experiences.

Everyday Encounters with Art: Comparing Expert and Novice Experiences

“…The study reported here is part of a larger project that focuses on everyday encounters with works of art (Foreman‐Wernet and Dervin , , , , in press; Foreman‐Wernet et al. ).…”

The State of Family Research and Social Media

“…The sense‐making approach created by Dervin () is a communications model that has been applied to information‐seeking and information‐use studies from various disciplines, including health (Genuis, ; Godbold, ), arts and culture (Foreman‐Wernet & Dervin, ), generational groups (Koh, ; Meyers, Fisher, & Marcoux, ), and virtual information environments such as microblogging and discussion groups (Godbold, ; Heverin & Zach, ). The sense‐making approach is firmly established as a theoretical framework for studies that are focused on understanding everyday‐life information seeking, including purposive (goal oriented) and nonpurposive information‐seeking behaviors (Spink & Cole, ).…”

What’s your CQ? A thought leadership exploration of cultural intelligence in contemporary institutions of higher learning

“…The identity construct is woven throughout this desire, reflecting individuals' fundamental drive for acceptance and belonging. Thus, identity is a relational process that informs organizational membership, commitment, and sensemaking (Foreman-Wernet & Dervin, 2011). Given the multiplicity of identities each individual represents, relational development, maintenance, or dissolution contributes to identity relevance and salience.…”