Abstract

Establishing the concept of social inclusion is still in process in the field of museums. This article considers eight essential categories to evaluate social inclusive practices from a total of nine Chilean public and private art museums, which are located in three different regions. The evaluation categories are safety, diversity, accessibility, communication consciousness, political consciousness, relevant skills, non-traditional educational practices, and work structure. Through qualitative deductive and comparative analysis, the results indicate that four museums maintain social inclusive practices and functions, although each of these museums has their individual strengths and weaknesses in their organization. One category, namely, the work structure, needs to be improved in all museums, including those with inclusive practices, although this aspect does not necessarily and exclusively depend on the museums themselves but also on their type of belonging and financing. Further research could reveal a possible closer relation between work structure and visitor inclusivity, how the inclusion of museum staff and organization correlates with the public.