Silvia Filippini Fantoni on Audience Development at Indianapolis Museum of Art

At the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), Silvia Filippini Fantoni (b. 1974) heads the Interpretation, Media and Evaluation department, a role she has held for four years. Her extensive experience includes positions at renowned institutions such as the Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Cité des Sciences in Paris, Getty Museum in Los Angeles, British Museum, and Cogapp in Brighton. Her 14-member team at IMA emphasizes cultural mediation, audience research, and technology integration, utilizing various methods like qualitative and quantitative surveys, Test-it Labs every three months, focus groups, and summative studies to assess impact. Exhibitions are collaboratively created by a team that includes a curator and audience researcher, culminating in a 'big idea' document. With a 150-acre park and a collection of 55,000 objects, the museum's business plan prioritizes audience engagement as vital for resource generation. Filippini Fantoni points to US institutions, such as the Columbus Museum of Art and Detroit Institute of Arts, as exemplary models, while criticizing Italian and German museums for focusing more on curatorial projects than audience development. She believes this is due to public funding diminishing competitiveness and states she would only return to Italy if given autonomy and a budget. Although she teaches at the Sorbonne in Paris, she finds herself seldom invited to speak in Italy.