Visual culture and art museums: How do we see art in everyday life?

This study is based on visual culture studies and focuses on art museums and their audiences. It aims to seek answers to questions as "how the art museum culture is formed?", "what does it actually mean?" and "how does the audience experience and reproduce this culture in their everyday life?" Mainly focusing on the Pera Museum, other art museums in İstanbul are also included in the research sample. The data from in-depth interviews is interpreted to find answers to research questions. Afterward, the interpretation of data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 people is conducted to find answers to the questions mentioned above. The findings are gathered in twelve themes under two main titles. Research findings suggest that audiences perceived museums as consumption, socializing, and interaction areas and regarded them as elitist institutions. However, this elitism generates a difference in experience enjoyed by different cultural classes among museum audiences. But, the audiences can also blur the distinctions with specific tactics they develop.