Private View? The Organisational Performance of ‘Privateness’ and ‘Publicness’ at an Art Gallery

This article takes a cultural approach to analysing the profound privatisation of the public in one of the many places in which it manifests: an art gallery. I argue that, as well as categories of political and economic bearing, ‘privateness’ and ‘publicness’ are cultural categories through which lived experiences are made meaningful. They are therefore performable by organisations that have dual public and private accountabilities. I draw on the cultural pragmatics understanding of ‘performance’ as well as a mesosociological attention to groups to study a private view as one example of such a performance. Through the manipulation of arenas, relations and histories I show how the art gallery staff managed to uphold the meanings of both privateness and publicness at this occasion, and manipulate them according to the different desired outcomes of social contexts. In conclusion, I argue that organisational performances of privateness and publicness are in a dynamic tension with one another; that the performative balancing act is a central part of the day-to-day work of such organisations; and that the cultural approach can help us unravel organisational strategies to paper over the social exclusions that characterise their ‘publics’.