Widening the audience: cultural institutions and the use of virtual communities: two Belgian cases

Recent developments in Information Technology have resulted in changes that affected our way of living. These technological innovations have made the Internet more accessible. It is found that more people use the Net nowadays within their work and home environment. Through the Internet people can meet with friends and relatives who live close by and far away. Online social networks or virtual communities continue to develop. In some cases this results in a very ‘local’ translation of these ‘virtual’ meetings. ‘Socializing’ on- and offline becomes important. Cultural Institutions try to find their way through these new communication trends. Policy makes them look for new ways of interaction with their audience. How make people participate into culture by using the New Technologies as an extra tool for debate and action in such a way that it enlarges and extends the activities of the Institution? Through two concrete cases one Youth Theatre called HETPALEIS and a cultural centre, CULTUURCENTRUM BERCHEM, we want to illustrate how the integration of an online forum within the website broadened the interaction between the cultural institution and her audience as well as between the collaborators of the cultural institution itself.status: publishe