Cultural mediation

Cultural Mediation is a visitor engagement practice where art museum and gallery staff journey alongside the visitor in an act of mutual exchange. At the centre of the practice is the concept of the two-way art-centric conversation that enables visitors to experience a richer engagement with art, and supports gallery staff to work with audiences to unpack and interrogate visual art forms and ideas.

Cultural Mediation challenges centuries-old hierarchies of knowledge that exist within museums and galleries, and instead emphasies agency, knowledge sharing, individual and collective reflection, as well as deep and active listening.

UQ Art Museum visitors have the opportunity to engage with and experience mediation regardless of age, background or artistic knowledge (whether they know a little about art or a lot).

Visitors are still welcome to explore our galleries on their own and in their own way, but for those who want to enrich their experience, our Mediators offer a friendly and safe way to learn, reflect, listen and explore together.

A mediator talking to visitors in front of an artwork — Ensayos Collective, "Bog is Good, jVivan las Tuberas!, Hol-Hol Tol", 2022. Installation view, "Oceanic Thinking", The University of Queensland Art Museum, 2022. Photo: Louis Lim.

Banner image: Bagu (some with Jiman) by Girringun Art Centre artists, installation view, "We Are Electric", UQ Art Museum, 2023. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

Why Cultural Mediation?

Research has shown that engaging with arts and culture contributes significantly to individual and collective wellbeing—enhancing prosperity, social cohesion, health, security, and sustainability. This model provides accessible entry points for diverse audiences, fostering empathy, critical thinking, and a sense of belonging. In doing so, Cultural Mediation not only enriches the visitor experience but also contributes to a more connected, resilient, and thoughtful society.

Historically, Western museums and galleries functioned as revered resources of encyclopaedic knowledge and high culture—a place where the public could passively, and quietly, ‘absorb’ the information presented to them. Cultural Mediation emerged in France in the 1960s, within the broader context of social unrest centred in critiques of cultural institutions and universities; it espoused the benefits of culture to society as a means for improving and enriching quality of life. By the 1980s, Cultural Mediation had been adopted more actively in the museums and galleries sector, with a particular focus on visitor and community engagement.

Today, museums and galleries face the challenge of remaining relevant to a society that is not only saturated with choices in how we access and gain knowledge, but also one that is actively challenging the top-down structures on which museums were founded. At UQ Art Museum, we are grappling with the question of what a mediation practice in our region looks like. What does it mean to mediate on stolen land? What does it mean to operate within a Western framework of “art as object” that does not account for the ways in which art is conceived and used in First Nations cultures?

Cultural Mediation at UQ Art Museum

Cultural Mediation at UQ Art Museum began through a collaboration with artist Mel O’Callaghan, a Sydney/Paris-based artist known for her large-scale, durational performance works. Her 2017 solo exhibition Dangerous on the Way at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris featured her most ambitious performance to date, involving over 80 participants in trance-like states. During this exhibition, O’Callaghan worked closely with the Palais’ mediation team to both perform and mediate profound, and at times esoteric, experiences for audiences.

Audiences returned multiple times—not only to witness the performance but to engage in two-way dialogue with the Mediators. This model of deep engagement left a lasting impression on us. In early 2019, UQ Art Museum co-commissioned O’Callaghan’s solo exhibition Centre of the Centre alongside Artspace Sydney and Le Confort Moderne in Poitiers. This marked a pivotal moment in our institutional practice. During our presentation of the exhibition, we formally embedded Cultural Mediation into our operations, signalling a significant shift in how we engage with audiences.

Amplifying artist voices

Importantly, our Cultural Mediation practice is designed to amplify, not replace, artist voices. We consider Mediators as aids to connect visitors to artworks via artist intentions, and during conversations with visitors Mediators are trained to continually draw visitors back to the artwork and the artist’s intentions.

Cultural Mediation is not simply facilitating any engagement with art, but instead facilitating a connection between visitors, artworks and artist’s intentions. This connection begins by meeting visitors where they are at, and journeys forward through a process of ‘finding out together’ between mediators and visitors.

Learning opportunities for UQ students

Our Mediators are UQ students, employed as part of our mission to provide innovative learning and development experiences across disciplines. Students bring a range of work and education experience to their roles and are studying in disciplines including science, law, allied health, international relations, museum studies and art history.

Our Mediators are well-placed to step into employment in the arts and cultural sectors, or to apply the transferable skills they have developed in communication, relationship-building, audience engagement and teaching in other industries. These are essential skills and perspectives that make our students highly desirable candidates ready to contribute, lead and drive positive change within the arts sector and beyond.

Our Mediation program is supported by the John and Barbara Hay Philanthropic Foundation. With this support, UQ Art Museum has been able to develop and deliver training initiatives focused on visitor agency, peer-to-peer learning, mutual exchange and reflection. These initiatives foster a supportive and inclusive environment for the UQ students employed to practice mediation as well as the visitors who benefit from their interactions with our team.

In 2023, our cultural mediation team won the UQ Excellence Award for diversity and inclusion. The all student team was recgonised for their efforts in weaving diversity and inclusion principles through their work, with inclusive adjustments for staff and visitors, continuous learning and training.

Training programs and industry partnerships

Our cultural mediation program has allowed us to establish partnership across Australia and Internationally.

In 2019, UQ Art Museum and Museums and Galleries New South Wales established a partnership to develop and deliver national training in cultural mediation practice. This includes involvement in a national regional tour for Mel O’Callaghan’s Centre of the Centre, and a grant from the Australia Council enabling us to send a UQ Art Museum Mediator to travel to each venue, where they teach and demonstrate cultural mediation practice with staff and volunteers.

In 2023, UQ Art Museum and Creative Australia established a partnership to deliver cultural mediation training for the staff of the Australia Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. This training equipped invigilation staff to engage deeply with international audiences about Archie Moore's powerful artwork kith and kin that won the prestigious Golden Lion award.

In 2025, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art with support from Creative Australia commissioned UQ Art Museum to deliver cultural mediation training for 150+ staff across their visitor services, engagement, curatorial, and education teams through face-to-face and online delivery models. This training explicitly supported the exhibition of Archie Moore's kith and kin at Gallery of Modern Art from September 2025 to October 2026, empowering staff to more deeply connect with audiences through Moore’s artwork.