Accessibility as an Operational Principle in Performing Arts Institutions: The Institutionalization of Accessibility Policy and the Reconfiguration of Publicness in the National Theater Company of Korea

We examine how the accessibility policies pursued by the National Theater Company of Korea since 2021 have transformed the operational framework and the configuration of publicness within a public performing arts institution. While previous studies have largely focused on accessibility initiatives at the level of individual programs or specific performances, this study conceptualizes accessibility as a core operational principle and a key criterion for shaping institutional strategies, with particular attention to its process of institutionalization. Drawing on an integrated analysis of policy and project documents, audience data, and interviews with institutional staff, we find that accessibility has been implemented across the entire operational process, including planning, creation and production, promotion, audience services, and digital operations. Over time, it has become embedded within the organization in the form of norms, formal procedures, and everyday practices. This process of institutionalization has reconfigured the conditions of access to spectatorship across domains of disability, language, multiculturalism, generation, and digital engagement, leading to changes in audience experiences and an expansion of substantive publicness. Furthermore, we show that accessibility has been integrated into the institution’s performance management system and processes of organizational identity formation, reshaping publicness from a symbolic claim into an operationalized institutional principle. The case of the National Theater Company of Korea demonstrates that accessibility can function not as an auxiliary service, but as a foundational mechanism through which publicness is produced and sustained in public performing arts institutions.