International Perspectives

on Museum Management

International Perspectives on Museum Management is the first volume of the

ICOM Museum Practice series. Exploring contemporary practices in the field of
museum management, the book demonstrates how strategic vision and effective
leadership can enable museums to fulfil their varied roles and empower staff to
achieve their individual and collective objectives.
Gathering together contributions that shed light on key aspects of running a mu-
seum in different parts of the world, the volume examines a wide range of topical
issues from a management perspective. Chapters within the volume focus on gov-
ernance and operations, communication and marketing, accessibility and commu-
nity engagement, the decline in public funding, sustainability and risk management,
and planning a new museum or a renewal. As a whole, the book demonstrates that
competent and creative museum management is vital to museums’ ability to sur-
vive and thrive in the face of decreased investment in culture and shifting expecta-
tions on the roles that museums should play within society.
Containing insights from respected museum professionals around the world and
focusing on topical issues, International Perspectives on Museum Management
will be essential reading for museum practitioners working in all types and sizes
of museums. The book will also be of great interest to students and academics who
have an interest in museum management.

Darko Babić (Associate Professor; PhD in Museum and Heritage Studies) is Chair
of the Sub-Department of Museology at the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sci-
ences of the University of Zagreb (Croatia). After earning his MA in Ethnology
and Information Sciences, he gained experience working as a project manager on
international projects, as an organiser of museum and heritage conferences, as an
archivist and as an assistant on national TV. He is active in contributing to the ad-
vancement of the museum and heritage profession serving as Board member and
Chair of ICOM Croatia, as Board member and Chair of ICOM-ICTOP and as a
member of the Supervisory Committee to the European Association for Heritage
Interpretation. His research interests include topics related to museums, heritage
and their development, management and interpretation. He also has working ex-
perience on EU projects and as a freelance consultant in the museum and heritage
sectors, including in non-governmental organisations.
ICOM Museum Practice

Drawing on the expertise of an extensive network of museum professionals, the

ICOM Museum Practice series will provide the reader with an international, multi-
disciplinary perspective, thus leading to a broader understanding of the museum’s
global mission.
Volumes in the series include a mix of analytical articles and real-life case stud-
ies, which offer diverse perspectives on core aspects of museum work and break
down barriers between the various departments in the museum. As a set, the books
will further knowledge on the themes of management, sustainability, the social role
of the museum, and collecting and storage.
The ICOM Museum Practice series aims to encourage innovative, contempo-
rary thinking and practice among current and future museum professionals. Pre-
senting a diverse range of relevant and contemporary case studies, books in the
series will also provide students of museum studies with a unique insight into the
profession.
The following list includes only the most recent titles to publish within the se-
ries. A list of the full catalogue of titles is available at ICOM Museum Practice –
Book Series – Routledge & CRC Press

International Perspectives on Museum Management

Edited by Darko Babić
International Perspectives
on Museum Management

Edited by Darko Babić

Designed cover image: Anapaula García Soto for ICOM
First published 202 5
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 9780367429119 (hbk)

ISBN: 9780367429126 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003000082 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082

Typeset in Times New Roman

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Contents

List of Figures viii

List of Contributors x

Introduction: International Perspectives on Museum

Management: Looking Towards Desirable Futures 1

PART I
Governance and Operations 5

1 Museum Leadership: Where to from Here? 7

CAROL A. SCOTT

2 Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark 2009-2023: Strategic

Planning as a Tool for Adaptation 20
ULLA SCHALTZ AND ANNA-ELISABETH JENSEN

3 Transforming Museum Operations through the

Participation of Friends of the Natural History Museum
in Zimbabwe 30
DAVISON CHIWARA AND SITHOKOZILE MABAHWANA

4 The Alchemy of Museum Planning 38

DARREN BARKER AND ERIC LANGHAM

PART II
Communication and Marketing 51

5 Curating the Museum as a Brand 53

MATTHIAS HENKEL
vi Contents

6 Museum Branding by Social Engagement: A Co-Creation of

Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum, Taiwan 68
JOY CHIH-NING HSIN

7 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 79

INGRIDA KELPŠIENĖ, PEDRO LUENGO, AND COSTIS DALLAS

8 Digital Outreach in Museum Development Strategies 104

JEAN-MICHEL TOBELEM AND MARIE BALLARINI

9 Audience Engagement: Experiences from the European

Audience Development Project SmARTplaces 114
JASMIN VOGEL AND BRITTA LERCH

PART III
Accessibility and Community Engagement 129

10 Museum Accessibility in Italy: Past, Present, Future 131

ANNAMARIA RAVAGNAN AND ENZO GROSSI

11 The Pachacamac Site Museum: A Tool for Territorial Management 142

DENISE POZZI-ESCOT AND CARMEN ROSA UCEDA

12 Reimagining Museums in Belize: Houses of Culture as

Catalysts for Community Engagement 148
SHERILYNE JONES

13 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion: The Uses and

Abuses of Community Engagement 155
HELEN WHITE

PART IV
Decline in Public Funding 171

14 New Governance Models for Museums: The Case of

Organizações Sociais in São Paulo, Brazil 173
ANNA MIGNOSA AND CHRISTIAN MAYER TIBEAU

15 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 184

MAREK PROKŮPEK
 Contents vii

16 Perspectives on Cultural Philanthropy in Museums:

Geneva’s Musée d’Art et d’Histoire and its Philanthropists 198
LAURA ZANI

PART V
Sustainability and Risk Management 207

17 Museums and Sustainable Development: A Case Study of the

First ‘Green’ Museum in South Africa 209
BEVERLEY THOMAS

18 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums 220

CORINE WEGENER

19 Calculating Museum Carrying Capacity: Background, Goals,

Methods 231
IVAN GRINKO AND NIKITA LUCHKOV

Index 241
List of Figures

5.1 The visual impression of the concept of curated communication.

© Matthias Henkel. 57
5.2 A visual impression of the concept of the new visitor journey.
© Matthias Henkel. 58
5.3 The visual impression of the concept of the new visitor journey.
© Matthias Henkel. 59
5.4 The traditional concept of sustainability. © Matthias Henkel. 63
5.5 A new understanding of sustainability. © Matthias Henkel. 64
6.1 ‘All of Daxi is a museum’. Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City, Daxi
Wood Art Ecomuseum. 70
6.2 No.1 Hall, DWAEM’s first building opened to the public in 2015.
Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum. 71
6.3 The process of internal branding in Rijksmuseum (Meyne, 2015,
p. 48). Photo courtesy: Chinese Association of Museums. 73
6.4 Museum logo and CIS signs which won the iF Design Award
2018. Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum. 74
6.5 Corner houses charter ceremony in 2021. Photo courtesy:
Taoyuan City Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum. 75
6.6 Saintly Emperor Guan’s birthday celebration festival and
pilgrimage on Lunar 24 June registered as an intangible asset.
Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum. 76
7.1 Comparison between the number of reviews of three European
museums on TripAdvisor and Facebook (November 2018). 86
7.2 Comparison of ratings for three European museums on
TripAdvisor and Facebook (November 2018). 86
7.3 Word cloud of keywords in English analysed on TripAdvisor for
three European museums (November 2016-November 2018). 87
7.4 Total numbers of comments and count of comments related to
MUSEQUAL dimensions (Display, Subject matter, Facilities,
Services and Staff) in three European museums (November 2018). 88
7.5 Comparison of frequency of MUSEQUAL dimensions from
comments and related keywords in Spanish on the Art Museum
of Catalonia (November 2018). 89
 List of Figures ix

7.6 Comparison of frequency of Facebook reviews for three

European museums across MUSEQUAL dimensions (Display,
Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff). 91
10.1 Continuous Analog Chromatic Scale, Italian Wellbeing ACCS
scale, front and rear face. 137
10.2 Subjective wellbeing before and after the experience at the
Museo Teatrale alla Scala. Histograms show mean values and
whiskers standard deviations. 139
14.1 Evolution of the number of management contracts for cultural
institutions in São Paulo. Unidade de Monitoramento da
Secretaria da Cultura do Estado de São Paulo (2016b). 176
14.2 Attendance in the six selected OSs. Elaborated by the author
based on OSs’ Activity Reports. 179
14.3 Evolution of OSs’ funding structure (2010 and 2015). 179
18.1 Disaster management cycle. © Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. 222
List of Contributors

Marie Ballarini holds a PhD in Information and Communication Science from

the University Sorbonne Nouvelle. She also holds a Bachelor of Law and a
Bachelor of Management as well as a master’s in Digital Economics. Her doc-
toral thesis, funded by the LabEx ICCA (Industries Créatives et Création Artis-
tique), focused on the development of digital fundraising tools in the museum
and heritage sectors. She is an assistant professor at Université Paris III-Sor-
bonne Nouvelle, teaching marketing and economics of the arts and culture. She
is the author of ‘Musées et financements participatifs. Nouvelles pratiques et
représentations’ in the journal Réseaux.
Darren Barker founded Barker Langham in 2005 together with Eric Langham.
They have led the company’s evolution into one of the world’s leading cultural
practices. They are recognised across the sector as pioneering cultural plan-
ners and thought leaders who have shaped the development of iconic museum
projects around the world. Darren has an impressive track record as a cultural
and business planner for landmark projects around the globe. He directs the
company’s work on visioning, feasibility, master planning, business and opera-
tional planning. His approach is defined by a clarity of vision combined with
robust financial expertise and a deep understanding of impact and sustainability.
With 25 years of experience, Darren has contributed to some of the most sig-
nificant cultural developments across the world. In the UK, this includes the
Museum of London West Smithfield, Turner Contemporary, the Natural His-
tory Museum, the Royal Institution and Chatsworth Estate. Internationally, his
work has shaped prestigious projects such as Menokin (USA), the Grand Canal
Museum (China), AlUla (Saudi Arabia) and the UNESCO World Heritage Site
of Al Ain (UAE). He is a lecturer for MA Museum Studies at Nottingham Trent
University, a Trustee of the Florence Nightingale Museum and an adviser to the
UK’s National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Davison Chiwara holds a PhD in Heritage and Museum Studies from the Univer-
sity of Pretoria. He is also a Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, Cul-
tural Heritage and Museum Studies at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe
and Coordinator for the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s African
Museology Project. His research focuses on the conservation of heritage and
 List of Contributors xi

museums and gallery practice. He has presented several research papers at the
American Institute of Conservation (AIC) Annual Meetings; International Insti-
tute of Conservation (IIC) Congresses; The Getty Conservation Institute Sym-
posium on the conservation of living matter; ICOM-CC Triennial Conference,
Culture in Crisis Conference and other regional conferences on cultural heritage
management in Africa. He has published his research in publications including
Museum International and Studies in Conservation (International Institute of
Conservation).
Costis Dallas is Professor and Chair of the Digital Cultures and Communica-
tion department in the Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University, and an
Emeritus Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information, University of To-
ronto. His research focuses on the digital curation of cultural heritage, on the
role of pervasive digital infrastructures in archaeological and humanities work,
and on memory and identity practices on social media. He worked in various
professional positions in the field of museums, cultural heritage policy and
management, and served as a director of the University of Toronto’s Museum
Studies program, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Acropolis
Museum. He holds a BA in History from the University of Ioannina, Greece, as
well as MPhil and DPhil degrees in Classical Archaeology from the University
of Oxford.
Ivan Grinko is Independent Researcher and Museum Designer. He is the author
and co-author of 8 monographs and more than 100 articles devoted to museum
studies and museum management. He graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow
State University Department of Ethnology in 2003 and, in 2007, received a PhD
in History, also from Moscow State University. In 2010, he received an MA in
Cultural Management from the University of Manchester and later worked at
various cultural and scientific institutions: The Department for Museum and
Tourism Development at the State Agency MOSGORTUR (ex-Moscow Cen-
tre for Museum Development), the Heritage Institute (Moscow), the Russian
Institute of Cultural Researches (Moscow), the Centre for Digital Cultures (Le-
uphana University of Lüneburg), the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Ap-
plied and Folk Art (Moscow) and the Museum of Anthropology at Moscow
State University.
Enzo Grossi is the Scientific Director of the Villa Santa Maria Foundation (Tav-
ernerio, Como), and Editor with Annamaria Ravagnan of Culture and Health.
He lectured on culture and health at the Faculty of Arts Tourism and Markets at
the University IULM of Milan from 2012 to 2014 and on Quality of Life and
Health Promotion at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Alma Mater Univer-
sity of Bologna between 2015 and 2016. He is the author of numerous publica-
tions in the field of childhood neuropsychiatric diseases, cultural participation
and health.
Matthias Henkel is Expert in European Ethnology, Archaeology, and Paläo-
Ethnobotanics. He also has extensive, long-standing experience in the field of
xii List of Contributors

strategic communication and branding. He is currently serving as Director of

the Museum Berlin-Neukoelln and as Head of the Department of Remembrance
Culture. Matthias Henkel has held prestigious positions and made significant
contributions to the field of cultural heritage. He has served as a Guest Professor
at the Donau-Universität in Krems, Austria and the Central Academy of Fine
Arts in Beijing, China. In 2016, he founded the Agency Embassy of Culture in
Berlin, further showcasing his dedication to promoting and preserving cultural
diversity. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Center
for Audience Development at Freie Universität Berlin. His professional experi-
ence includes roles as the Director General of the Nuremberg Municipal Muse-
ums and as the Head of Public Affairs and Sponsoring at the Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin, General Directorate. His career began with research positions at the
Germanisches National Museum in Nuremberg and the Weserrenaissance-
Museum in Lemgo, where he gained valuable insights into the field of visual
anthropology.
Joy Chih-Ning Hsin is the incumbent Chief of the Education and Extension Di-
vision at the National Museum of History in Taiwan. She was previously the
Vice-chair of ICOM MPR (2013–2019) and is a member of the Standing Board
of Directors of the Chinese Association of Museums in Taiwan. She teaches at
the Graduate Institute of Museum Studies in Taipei. She received MAs in Chi-
nese Art History and Museum Studies, respectively, from the Chinese Culture
University in Taiwan and Leicester University in the UK, and has a PhD in
Management from Yuan Ze University in Taiwan. She is the Chief Editor and
a co-author of Museum Branding: Redefining Museums for the 21st Century, a
collection of selected papers from the ICOM MPR 2014 Conference published
by the Chinese Association of Museums in 2015.
Anna-Elisabeth Jensen is Deputy Manager of the Museum Lolland-Falster
since 2009; she graduated with a degree in Archaeology from the University
of Aarhus (1985) and a degree in Leisure Management (2010). In 1992, After
occupying different freelance positions in Danish museums and universities she
became Curator and Cultural Heritage Manager at Falsters Minder, Nykoebing
Falster. In 2001–2002, she held a postdoctoral position at the Research Centre
for Maritime Archaeology in Roskilde, and she was the CEO of Guldborgsund
Museum, Nykoebing Falster from 2007 to 2008. She is the author of various es-
says concerning museum mergers and cultural heritage management.
Sherilyne Jones is Doctoral Student at the University of South Florida, in Tampa
Florida. She earned her master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University
of Leicester, UK. As a museum professional from Belize, she has over 18 years
of experience in archaeology and museum management. She was the former
Director of the Museum of Belize, and her academic interests include multi-
culturalism and cultural diversity, museum anthropology, critical museum and
heritage studies, and national narratives. Her current research explores issues
and practices in heritage and its intersection with museums.
 List of Contributors xiii

Ingrida Kelpšienė is Assistant Professor at Vilnius University Faculty of Commu-

nication. She has research interests in the role of social media in cultural heritage
communication, seeking to understand how public participation and people’s
interactions with digital heritage resources on social media shape cultural her-
itage practices. She has led an international project ‘Europeana Archaeology’
and participated in many other projects, including the European Cooperation in
Science and Technology (COST), working in the areas of digital heritage and
digital human sciences. She holds BAs in Archaeology and Economics, an MA
in History and Cultural Heritage, and a PhD in Communication and Information
Sciences from Vilnius University.
Eric Langham founded Barker Langham in 2005 together with Darren Barker.
They have led the company’s evolution into one of the world’s leading cul-
tural practices. They are recognised across the sector as pioneering cultural
planners and thought leaders who have shaped the development of iconic mu-
seum projects around the world. Eric is internationally recognised as a leading
planner of new museums and cultural projects. He directs Barker Langham’s
creative and visitor experience work, and his experience encompasses the in-
terpretive direction and curation of groundbreaking cultural projects across
the globe. Eric’s distinctive approach to interpretation explores the interfaces
between narratives, space, scale and time. His portfolio includes creative vi-
sioning for major new institutions including the National Museum of Qatar,
the House of European History (Belgium), the United Kingdom Holocaust
Memorial, the Grand Canal Museum (China), Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
(UAE) and the Oman Across Ages Museum. He is a Trustee of the Migration
Museum (UK), a Trustee, Fellow and Former Commissioning Editor for the
Association for Heritage Interpretation, a Fellow of the Museums Association,
an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (University of
Exeter) and a mentor and expert adviser to the UK’s National Lottery Herit-
age Fund.
Britta Lerch holds a Diploma in Communication and Marketing from WAM
Dortmund, Germany and studied Social and Organisational Psychology at Fern-
Universität Hagen, Germany. Between 2004 and 2016, she worked in communi-
cation agencies, most recently as head of concept and strategy development, and
as a freelance strategic advisor and concept developer for commercial brands
and cultural institutions. Since 2016, she has been the project coordinator for
smARTplaces – A European Audience Development Project; she has been in-
volved in the project since 2013 at Dortmunder U. She focuses on strategic
planning and concept development, integrated communication and marketing,
and intercultural project management.
Nikita Luchkov is a Postgraduate Student at Likhachev Russian Research Insti-
tute for Cultural and Natural Heritage. He graduated from the Russian State
University for the Humanities in 2013 with a degree in Museology. The author
has worked at the Museum of the History of Chocolate and Cocoa (Moscow)
xiv List of Contributors

from 2012 to 2016, where he tended to the collections of the Red October con-
fectionery factory and participated in the children’s educational programs as a
part-time guide. He was also involved in several projects for the Heritage Insti-
tute in Moscow. In 2018 he was invited to join the Department for Museum and
Tourism Development at the MOSGORTUR State Agency, where he managed
several Moscow cross-museum projects. He is interested in attendance capacity
regulations for museums in the Russian Federation, the KPI system for evaluat-
ing events held in museums, the development of a system for digitising museum
collections and virtual exhibitions.
Pedro Luengo is Professor of History of Art at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
He received his PhD in History of Art from the same institution, working on
18th-century Southeast Asian architecture. In recent years, he has worked on
the application of digital methods in cultural heritage, developing a number of
tools including a large data extractor that scrapes large-scale web content for
subsequent qualitative data analysis. More recently, he has worked on an analy-
sis of quality factors extracted from social media comments on heritage hotels
in Spain and America, using the Critical Incident Technique.
Sithokozile Mabahwana is a Graduate of the Midlands State University. She com-
pleted her BA Honours Degree in Archaeology, Cultural Heritage & Museum
Studies in 2018. Her research focus is on heritage and museums.
Anna Mignosa (PhD) is Lecturer in Cultural Economics at Erasmus University
Rotterdam (the Netherlands), and an Associate Professor at the University of
Catania (Italy). Her research concentrates on cultural policies with a focus on
the rationale for public intervention in the cultural sector, the organization of the
institutions responsible for arts and culture, the tools used and the evolution of
cultural policies in an international perspective. She has written several articles
about heritage, museums and public policy and co-edited the Handbook on the
Economics of Cultural Heritage (with Rizzo, I. (2013). Edward Elgar Publish-
ing), A Cultural Economic Analysis of Craft (with Kotipalli, P. (2019), Springer
International Publishing) and Teaching Cultural Economics (with Bille, T. and
Towse, R. (2020), Edward Elgar Publishing).
Denise Pozzi-Escot is Archaeologist at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San
Marcos (UNMSM). She holds a postgraduate degree in pre-Columbian Archae-
ology from the Sorbonne University, Paris. She is currently the Director of the
Pachacamac Site Museum. She has served as Advisor to the National Museum
of Anthropology in Peru and was a Member of the National Commission of
Archaeology. She is a local researcher at the Institute of Andean Studies and
an associate member of the Peruvian Committee of the International Council
of Museums.
Marek Prokůpek is Assistant Professor in Arts Management at KEDGE Arts
School, KEDGE Business School in Paris. He is also a member of Creative
Industries & Culture Research Center at KEDGE. Previously, Marek was a
 List of Contributors xv

Postdoctoral Fellow at the LabEx ICCA (Industries culturelles et création artis-

tique) in Paris. His research interests lie primarily in the areas of museum fun-
draising and philanthropy and its ethical dilemmas, art market and innovative
business models of arts and cultural organisations.
Annamaria Ravagnan is a member of ICOM CIPEG, the International Commit-
tee for Egyptology, as well as a member of ICOM Italy’s Committee of Arbitra-
tors and a referent of the Board of Directors of the Accessibility Commission.
She is a Gruppo Archeologico Milanese (GAM) councillor and was responsible
for the Local Museum Systems of the Lombardy Region from 2005 to 2017.
Editor with Enzo Grossi of the book Culture and Health published by Springer
in 2012, she currently manages projects concerning the inclusion and accessibil-
ity of cultural institutes and places and is a project coordinator for the inclusion
of people with cognitive disabilities at several museums in Lombardy.
Ulla Schaltz has served as Director of Museum Lolland-Falster since 2009. She
holds a degree in Ethnology and History from the University of Copenhagen
in 1999. She was the Director of Lolland-Falsters Stiftsmuseum from 2004 to
2008, obtained a degree in Leisure Management in 2010 and was Chairman of
the culture ministers’ strategic advisory board (2014–2020). In 2018, she gradu-
ated from the Getty Institute of Leadership (GLI). She is the author of numerous
essays concerning museum mergers and researches the history of cemeteries
and death as treated in museums as well as the heritage managing and preserva-
tion of cemeteries.
Carol A. Scott, PhD, Doctor of Arts, is a consultant who specialises in strategic
planning, impact evaluation and museum value. She has published widely in
these areas, most recently Museums and Public Value: Taking the Pulse and
Museums on a Tightrope: Balancing Value and the Bottom Line both in print
(2019). Her own leadership experience includes membership on the ICOM Ex-
ecutive Board from 2016 to 2022, where she served on the Strategic Planning
Standing Committee, co-ordinated the Internal Review and the development
of the Executive Board Code of Conduct, and was a member of the External
Review and Covid-19 Working Groups. She is a former President of ICOM
UK and Museums and Galleries Australia where, during her term of office,
she brokered a partnership with the Gordon Darling Foundation to establish
the Museum Leadership Programme. She is currently Chair of the Academic
and Programming Board of ICOM-IMREC, an international research partner-
ship between ICOM and Shanghai University. Now based in London, she is
the Director of Carol Scott Associates (www.carolscottassociates.com), a global
consultancy working with museums and heritage organisations.
Beverley Thomas was Director of the National English Literary Museum
(renamed Amazwi South African Museum of Literature in 2019) between
2010 and 2023. She holds a BA (Hons) degree in the History of Art and a
Postgraduate Professional Diploma in Museology. She has worked in muse-
ums for 30 years and published on the topics of vernacular architecture and
xvi List of Contributors

decorative arts. She has served as President of the South African Museums
Association and as Chairperson of the South African National Committee
of ICOM. Her appointment to the then-National English Literary Museum
was predicated on her ability to lead a museum through a process of major
transition.
Christian Mayer Tibeau is Arts and Culture Enthusiast who has developed his
professional career in the fields of strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions
and project management. He holds an MA in Cultural Economics and Entrepre-
neurship from Erasmus ESHCC, and a BA in Business Administration from the
University of São Paulo FEA-USP.
Jean-Michel Tobelem is Associate Professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
University. He holds a PhD in management (HDR). A former member of the
board of ICOM’s International Committee for Museum Management (INTER-
COM) and director of the series Cultural Management at the French publisher
l’Harmattan, he is the author of Musées et culture, le financement à l’américaine
and Politique et gestion de la culture, and a member of the editorial board of
the journal Museum Management & Curatorship. Jean-Michel teaches at the
École du Louvre, as well as at other universities and business schools in France
and abroad.
Carmen Rosa Uceda is an architect with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Ar-
chitecture, Urbanism, and Art of the National Engineering University of Peru.
Since 2008, she has been responsible for the Site Museum and the museological
presentation of the visitor vehicular and pedestrian circuit of the Pachacamac
Archaeological Sanctuary. She is a member and secretary of the Peruvian Com-
mittee of the International Council of Museums.
Jasmin Vogel holds a BA in History and American and English Studies from
Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany and completed an MA in culture
and media management at KMM in Hamburg, Germany. Since 2019, Vogel
has served as CEO of Kulturforum in Witten. She has been working in the
cultural sector since 2008 and has been responsible for various innovation
programs for the (digital) transformation of cultural and educational institu-
tions, including the EU-project smARTplaces. She has subsequently been
awarded international prizes for her work, including 1st prize at Zukun-
ftsGut 2020 for institutional cultural mediation and as ‘European Cultural
Manager of the Year’ in 2021. In Witten, her focus is on the practical testing
of new governance models for the cultural sector, which, based on Agenda
2030, leads to greater diversity, digitality and transformational capacity
within organisations.
Corine Wegener is an art historian and Director of the Smithsonian Cultural Res-
cue Initiative, an outreach programme established in 2012 for the preservation
of cultural heritage in crisis situations. Prior to joining The Smithsonian, she
was an Associate Curator of Decorative Arts at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
 List of Contributors xvii

Wegener has also served in the US Army as an Arts, Monuments, and Archives
Officer, retiring in 2004. She co-founded the US Committee of the Blue Shield
in 2006 and served as Chair of the ICOM Disaster Risk Management Commit-
tee from 2014 to 2019. She holds a BGS in Political Science from the University
of Nebraska Omaha and MA degrees in Political Science and Art History from
the University of Kansas.
Helen White has extensive experience of national, regional and local museums in the
UK and was formerly Head of Museums (Gateshead, Newcastle University, Col-
lections & Research) at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) in north-east
England. She holds an MA in Modern History from the University of Oxford, an
MA in English Local History from Leicester University and an MA in Historical
Research from Birkbeck College, University of London. Helen originally joined
TWAM as Keeper of Social History in 1993, following 11 years at the V&A in
London. She has also held a Lectureship in Museum Studies at Newcastle Uni-
versity. Helen is currently a senior interpretation manager at the Old Royal Naval
College, Greenwich, and undertaking a research degree on Early Tudor London at
Birkbeck College, University of London. Helen is the author of a major V&A pub-
lication, Snuff Bottles from China, and of articles in journals including Oral His-
tory, the Journal of the Social History Curators Group and Museum International.
Laura Zani is the Executive Advisor in charge of fundraising and international rela-
tions at the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva, which she joined in 2004 after
wide-ranging experiences in fields including international fundraising. She lectures
in Switzerland, France and Italy on international relations and cultural philanthropy
for the promotion and protection of museum heritage, regularly participates in in-
ternational conferences, and contributes to a variety of scientific journals. She is a
member of the Advisory Committee of ICOM’s International Committee on Ex-
hibition Exchange (ICOM ICEE) and a member of the board from 2013 to 2019.
Introduction
International Perspectives on Museum
Management
Looking Towards Desirable Futures

As they develop and adapt amid rapidly changing contemporary contexts, today’s
museums are grappling with new concepts, trends and tools. Engaging with every-
thing from digital technologies to accessibility concerns, problems of community
engagement to postcolonial museology, 21st-century museums have seen funda-
mental shifts in the roles that they play within society, how they interact with their
audiences and carry out their missions as cultural institutions and social actors.
Management impacts all aspects of operations, but it may be viewed as a means
to an end, particularly by enabling institutions to properly carry out what are con-
sidered to be the core museum missions – from conservation and research to col-
lecting and educating. Although the term ‘management’ was initially associated
with the business world, the museum sector now clearly recognises the importance
of management and its relevance for not-for-profit institutions, particularly in an
era of profound economic challenges. Strategic vision and effective leadership
should enable museums to fulfil their varied roles, whether technical, logistical and
scientific or social and educational, and empower staff to achieve their individual
and collective objectives. Competent and creative museum management is vital to
museums’ ability to survive and thrive in the face of decreased public investment
in culture, and shifting expectations around the roles that museums should play
within society.
This volume gathers together contributions that shed light on key aspects of
operating a museum in different parts of the world from a management perspective.
While not all aspects of museum operations could be included and given adequate
coverage in a single volume, we have chosen to include topics that we believe are
the most relevant and timely for museum professionals today. It is important to
note that work on this volume began in 2018, and several important global events
have since impacted the museum sector, including a global pandemic. While some
of the contributions included here were conceived a few years ago, we believe they
can nonetheless provide valuable insight to museum professionals working around
the world today.
This book includes chapters focusing on governance and operations, communi-
cation and marketing, accessibility and community engagement, decline in public
funding and sustainability, and risk management. These all address issues that are

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-1
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2 International Perspectives on Museum Management

particularly pertinent in current museum management practice, and that are likely
to be the subject of continued debate over the next decade.
In Part I, Carol Scott analyses the importance of strategic positioning in the con-
text of museums’ evolving roles in the 21st century. Two case studies then provide
examples of successful strategies. The first, from Ulla Schaltz and Anna-Elisabeth
Jensen, outlines the implementation of a new ten-year strategic management plan at
the Museum Lolland-Falster in Denmark, highlighting achievements and setbacks
along the way. The second, from Davison Chiwara and Sithokozile Mabahwana,
explores the transformation of museum operations at the National History Museum
of Zimbabwe through the institution’s friends of the museum programme. Darren
Barker and Eric Langham then propose a three-stage process for a new model of
museum planning, detailing an interdisciplinary approach that includes creative,
curatorial, business, financial and, of course, operational considerations.
As museums continue to look outward, they are becoming more adept at mar-
keting, branding and audience evaluation. Part II reflects on branding as a holistic,
brand-driven communication strategy that involves the entire institution, as ex-
plored by Matthias Henkel in his article on curating the museum as a brand. Joy
Chih-Ning Hsin also explores branding as a co-creation process in her case study
of the Daxi W.E. museum in Taiwan.
New and emerging technologies have greatly facilitated the role that museums
can play in forging connections with their audiences. For example, museums can to-
day undertake new methods of evaluation through the analysis of visitor responses
and interactions on online social media platforms. This topic is explored by Ingrida
Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo and Costis Dallas in their article. Jean-Michel Tobelem
and Marie Ballarini analyse best practices in the use of digital technology for pro-
moting audience loyalty and optimising marketing and communications strategies.
Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch present an innovative audience development pro-
gramme and provide examples and recommendations for audience engagement.
Accessibility, inclusion, community engagement and co-creation continue to
feature prominently in museum discourse and strategy. Comprising three case stud-
ies and one article, Part III examines how museums can successfully integrate re-
lated policies and actions in their institutions. The first case study from Annamaria
Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi highlights Italian inclusion and accessibility initiatives,
underlining the need for an interdisciplinary and participatory approach to ensure
greater accessibility in museums. The importance of including local communities
in the preservation of their heritage, and examples of innovative inclusive program-
ming, are then explored in case studies of the Pachacamac Site Museum in Peru,
from Denise Pozzi-Escot and Carmen Rosa Uceda, and of the Houses of Culture of
Belize, from Sherilyne Jones. Helen White then discusses community engagement
and socially engaged practice in museums in the UK, and provides suggestions for
the development of community engagement strategies.
Part IV focuses on the new responsibilities assumed by museum managers in
ensuring museums’ institutional solvency, and amid a climate of reduced pub-
lic funding. This decline has forced managers to adopt new financial models as
they transition from publicly funded institutions to independent actors within the
 International Perspectives on Museum Management 3

creative economy. A case study by Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau
examines the evolution of museums operating under the Brazilian Social Organi-
sations model, which aims to reduce institutions’ dependency on public funds.
Next, an article from Marek Prokůpek explores ethical concerns related to fun-
draising and highlights common attitudes towards these ethics within the field.
Laura Zani then outlines the opportunities and limitations of public-private part-
nerships, turning to the example of the Musées des arts et d’histoire de la Ville de
Genève, in Switzerland.
Guided by the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the
Paris Agreement, Part V considers museums’ potential roles in cross-sectorial
sustainability initiatives: through their collections, as information resources, as
communicators, as educators, as facilitators, as activists and advocates, and as
users of natural resources. A case study by Beverley Thomas presents the first
‘green’ museum in South Africa, the Amazwi South African Museum of Litera-
ture, which was awarded a five-star rating by the Green Building Council of
South Africa. This chapter also offers readers an overview of risk management
policies and actions. In her article, Corine Wegener provides guidance for mu-
seum managers in the development and implementation of said policies. Finally,
a case study from Russia, by Ivan Grinko and Nikita Luchkov, addresses attend-
ance capacity in museums with a new system for calculating the optimal anthro-
pogenic capacity.
Our overriding intention for this volume is to prompt active discussion and
debate among museum and cultural heritage professionals on questions of in-
stitutional management. The case studies included here provide pragmatic ex-
amples with concrete outcomes, and we hope they will provide meaningful
pathways for application in the context of museum work. We have sought to
combine the voices of seasoned professionals and eminent academics with the
experiences and practices of professionals who have more recently entered the
field, on an international scale. The articles and case studies thus offer inter-
national and intercultural perspectives on what it means to manage a museum
today.
Part I

Governance and Operations

1 Museum Leadership
Where to from Here?

Carol A. Scott

Museum Leadership: Pre-Pandemic Research

What is leadership? ‘Leadership’ is frequently associated with ‘management’,
a term which is defined broadly as ‘the control and organisation of something’
(Cambridge Dictionary 2023) or, more specifically, as the ‘process of planning
and organising the resources and activities of a business to achieve specific goals
in the most effective and efficient manner possible’ (Indeed Editorial Team 2023).
Good management is an important component of successful leadership, but there
is a qualitative difference between the two concepts. If management is about im-
plementing processes and organising tasks to achieve goals, leadership is distin-
guished by the ability of an individual or a group to influence, motivate and enable
people to collectively work towards achieving those goals. In the years immedi-
ately preceding the Covid-19 pandemic, museum leadership became the subject of
several major studies.
This interest was precipitated by several factors. The place of museums in so-
ciety, their social role juxtaposed alongside traditional responsibilities to preserve,
research and interpret collections, their evolving relationships with the public and
stakeholders, their part in colonial narratives and their future sustainability in the
light of decreased public spending have heightened discourse within the sector. Ex-
ternal challenges complicate these internal debates. Museums operate in a global
world characterised by accelerated change, increasing geo-political conflict and
climate crises. Unsurprisingly, the sector has increasingly questioned what skills
and qualities are needed to lead museums in these unsettled times.
Between 2017 and 2018, three UK studies focused attention on this question. A
study by the Said Business School (2017) at Oxford concluded that museum leader-
ship is operating across three, equally important and interrelated dimensions which
they identified as the ‘Three Cs’: culture (core purpose), commerce (funding and
resources) and community (managing multiple stakeholders). The study argued that
these three dimensions arise from the need to establish ongoing sustainability given
rapid declines in public funding, maintain museums’ core purpose while balancing
cultural and commercial imperatives, articulate this purpose to funders and other
stakeholders and adapt to rapid change (Said Business School 2017, pp. 10, 13).

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-3
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8 Carol A. Scott

Of all these issues, the consequences of financial instability and future sustain-
ability were at the forefront of responses from leaders interviewed for the Oxford
study, who emphasised that the need to focus more intently on commerce meant
that they had to become increasingly entrepreneurial while effectively advocating
for their institution.

Linked to the funding and sustainability challenge, museum leaders see

themselves as responsible for articulating and defending the purpose of their
institutions, both externally and internally.
(Said Business School 2017, p. 13)

While the Oxford report focused on museum leaders in the United Kingdom,
but the concerns it raised around financial instability and future sustainability were
reinforced by another, global survey undertaken in 2018 through the International
Council of Museums’ Strategic Planning Committee as part of its mid-point review
of the then Strategic Plan 2016–22. When the association’s National and Interna-
tional Committees and Regional Alliances were surveyed in the first half of 2018,
they were asked to identify major issues facing museums today. The majority of
respondents cited the decline in public funding as the most pressing issue facing
the sector worldwide. However, the responses also noted that the decline in pub-
lic funding had important implications for the skills needed by future leadership.
Greater entrepreneurial skills, openness to new business models and the capacity to
engage stakeholders and build ethical partnerships were all cited. So was effective
advocacy as this global cohort was of the view that a major factor contributing
to the decline in public funding is an imperfect understanding among politicians,
treasuries and bureaucrats of the purpose and value of museums. Rectifying this
situation is critical to the long-term sustainability of the sector and one in which the
advocacy of museum leadership has a major role to play (ICOM SPC 2018, p. 3).
However, there was consensus across the three UK studies that, in addition to
possessing a skillset, museum leaders also require personal qualities: the capacity
to be agile and adaptable, to tolerate uncertainty and embrace change, credibil-
ity and a collaborative leadership style were all mentioned (Consilium Research
and Consultancy 2017; Said Business School 2017; King’s College London 2018).
Many of these qualities were about to be tested as the pandemic struck and uncer-
tainty became the order of the day.

The Pandemic: Museums and their Publics

The onset of the pandemic and the enforced closure of museums for sustained
periods of time throughout 2020 and 20211 only exacerbated the already difficult
financial situation of many museums. During this period, ICOM conducted three
surveys exploring the impact of the pandemic on the global museum sector. Over-
all, the studies found that museum closures severely reduced earned income from
visitor admissions and other sources of self-generated income such as catering,
shops and venue hire. In the absence of exhibitions, sponsorship was moribund.
 Museum Leadership 9

Not surprisingly, the surveys revealed that museums’ most salient concerns during
this period centred on the continuing impact of Covid-related closures on budgets
and the uncertainty surrounding visitor-return post-pandemic. However, in spite of
budgetary freefall in many areas there was one exception where many museums
indicated that they planned increased spending: the digital domain.
Digital technology has gained an increasingly important presence in museums
over the two decades prior to the pandemic, but the crisis provided its coming of
age. Initially galvanised during the pandemic to maintain connections with exist-
ing audiences and stakeholders, digital also proved to be a mechanism for creating
new virtual constituencies and connecting with more diverse publics than those who
would traditionally visit museums (Benoit-Bryan, Smith and Linett 2022, p. 11).
With only a digital presence to rely on, museums found opportunities to innovate
and reimagine their offers. In its second Covid survey conducted during lockdown,
ICOM found that 76.6 per cent of responding museums had already rethought their
digital strategy, 74.8 per cent had increased their digital offer, 43.2 per cent had in-
creased their budget for digital and 28.7 per cent had increased the number of staff
dedicated to digital (ICOM n.d. p.18). The response from the public to these initia-
tives exceeded the expectations of many museums and created unexpected impacts.
While museums’ pivot to digital initially focused on maintaining engagement,
there were other unintended outcomes. Reporting on the situation in the US,
Dilenschneider (2020), found that digital had impacted public perceptions of the
social role of museums. Citing a sample of 150,000 US citizens during and after
Covid lockdowns, she found an increase in public acceptance when museums rec-
ommend actions related to social causes. She attributes this to four factors. Firstly,
public trust in museums as sources of information has been sustained since re-
search was first published by Griffiths and King (2008) for the US Institute of Mu-
seum and Library Studies (IMLS) in 2008. Secondly, declining confidence in US
government and media as sources of reliable information has redistributed trust,
with museums emerging as one of the trust-recipients. Most recently, museum de-
livery during lockdown earned public respect in the US because it demonstrated
museums’ value and commitment to communities. And, finally, at a time when peo-
ple were grappling with false information and fake news during the 2020 American
presidential election, the museum content delivered during lockdown was notewor-
thy for being associated with reliable and credible expertise (Dilenschneider 2020).
Two further US studies reveal that public expectations of museums evolved
during the Covid crisis, with important implications for leadership. These were
undertaken as special projects of Culture Track.2
The first report, Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis surveyed
124,000 people during Covid to gain insights into what the public valued about
cultural organisations and what they were seeking from cultural experiences
during and immediately post-Covid. The report (LaPlacaCohen and SloverLinett
2020), began by situating the pandemic within the context of general global up-
heaval. Climate change, armed conflict, increasing geo-political instability, and the
Black Lives Matter movement, the contested 2020 Presidential election and the
MeToo campaign, were signalling a time of profound social change. Museums are
10 Carol A. Scott

not divorced from this context. Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis found
that 96 per cent of survey respondents expressed a desire for museums to change, to
become more inclusive, more community focused and, particularly, more socially
relevant.

Americans want arts and cultural organisations to become more active par-
ticipants in their communities and they want to see these communities better
reflected in these organisations.
(LaPlacaCohen and SloverLinett 2020, p. 27)

The following year, the second of the Culture Track reports, Culture and com-
munity in a time of transformation (2021), not only confirmed these findings but
identified a wide range of social issues, which 76 per cent of respondents wanted
cultural organisations (including museums) to address. These include systemic
racial injustice, income inequality, climate change, political division (in the US),
food insecurity, the pandemic and the opioid epidemic (LaPlaca Cohen, Slover-
Linett and Yancey Consulting 2021, p. 31). Moreover, the public has clear ex-
pectations of what they want the museum experience to be and how they would
like museums to operate post-Covid. Accessibility and inclusivity are high on the
agenda; on the audience side, there was emphasis on engaging young adults and
on the operational side, there was the expectation that museums would be fair and
equitable employers of a diverse staff. Innovation and maintaining ‘relevance’
emerged as important, with respondents showing a desire for a changing pro-
gramme of new exhibitions. The American public want museums to engage more
with the local community while also providing new perspectives from beyond
the local community. And the implications for leadership? ‘Lead with empathy,
include the excluded and build a digital bridge to the future’ (LaPlaca Cohen and
SloverLinett 2020, p. 33).
These three sets of studies—focusing on museum leadership, institutional crises
brought on by the pandemic and public expectations of museums post-Covid—are
also reinforced by another global study of museum leaders which is the subject of
the next section.

According to the respondents [museum leaders], the most significant impacts

of Covid-19 on museums were the use of digital technology in programming,
the increased commitment to the social role of museums, new approaches to
audience engagement, the reassessment of the museum’s value and the crea-
tion of impact with fewer resources.
(INTERCOM 2022, p. 29)

The Pandemic: Museum Leaders Speak

There has been much written about museum leadership, but when INTERCOM,
ICOM’s International Committee on Management, launched the first global
study of museum leadership, it provided a rare opportunity for the sector to speak
 Museum Leadership 11

for itself. The INTERCOM survey was conducted between November 2020 and
May 2021, translated into seven languages3 and received over 900 responses from
museum leaders in every major region of the world. It was further supplemented by
in-depth interviews across a global sample.
If we wonder how equipped museum leaders are to deliver on the accelerated
change mandate described in the previous sections, the INTERCOM study revealed
fault lines. The first finding is the disconnect between the qualities that institutions
are seeking in the selection and appointment of museum leaders and the day-to-day
requirements of the job. For selection committees, experience working in museums
or the cultural sector is of prime importance (25 per cent). Academic expertise
and reputation (18 per cent) and the capacity to implement a vision (16 per cent)
follow, while the ability to lead people (10 per cent) and a leadership qualification
(7 per cent) rank even lower on the scale INTERCOM 2022, p. 47).
Museum leaders paint a somewhat different picture of what is required to do
the job on a day-to-day basis. They place a higher value on the personal qualities
that enable a leader to ‘engage others to achieve the museum’s mission and vision’
(18 per cent). Ranked equally are openness to change and experience in the mu-
seum field (16 per cent). The capacity to manage internal and external stakehold-
ers comes next (12 per cent), followed by adaptability and the ability to manage
resources (11 per cent). However, academic expertise (6 per cent) is not ranked as
a high priority by leaders themselves (INTERCOM 2022, p. 47).
Curiously, at a time when declines in public funding raise questions about future
sustainability, sound financial skills and fundraising abilities did not rank highly:
in either selection criteria or the list of capacities that respondents claimed were
most important for doing the leadership job. This is inconsistent with the current
discourse on new business models and entrepreneurial leadership (INTERCOM
2022, p. 49) and is further perplexing given that the research coincided with pan-
demic lockdowns, when museum closures were causing concern about income
loss.
At a time when the discourse indicates the need for proactive, visionary leader-
ship, the INTERCOM report contains interesting findings about the capacity of
museum leaders to influence change. About 69 per cent of respondents expressed
high levels of confidence in being able to influence programming and content, as
well as policies on digitisation and decolonisation.
Effecting organisational change is, however, more problematic due to varying
levels of leadership in the areas of budget, staff restructuring and human resources.
About 45 per cent of those surveyed claimed that budgetary changes are not easy to
effect and 23 per cent said they find it either very difficult or impossible. Changes
to human resources were hard to implement for 39 per cent of respondents and
impossible for 23 per cent. Organisational change was hard to make for more than
37 (per cent?) of the respondents and for 24 per cent it was either very difficult or
impossible (INTERCOM 2022, p. 41).
Much of this relates to the levels of autonomy that museum leaders are granted
within key areas. In terms of budgetary control, 35 per cent of the sample said that
approval was required from the board of trustees, 29 per cent require it from both
12 Carol A. Scott

the board and the government and 9 per cent claim that they cannot decide how
their annual budget is used at all. Half of the leaders surveyed (50 per cent) had
full freedom to appoint new staff, but 38 per cent need approval from the board
of trustees or government; 12 per cent claimed to have no independence at all in
recruiting new employees (INTERCOM 2022, pp. 51, 55).
Findings demonstrating the low level of importance placed on financial skills
and fundraising abilities for leadership selection and performance combined with
the lack of autonomy in the area of budgetary control raise questions about the
whole notion of the ‘entrepreneurial’ leader. While the UK studies give prominence
to this area, the global picture suggests that levels of financial autonomy vary, other
aspects of leadership are considered more important and budgetary checks and
balances abound suggesting that the concept of the entrepreneurial leader requires
further interrogation. Entrepreneurial activity involves risk and there is insufficient
clarity about who assumes risk in this model, particularly within publicly funded
organisations. The model of the entrepreneurial leader has emerged as public fund-
ing has declined, and it is tempting to wonder whether the notion of the entrepre-
neurial leader represents an attempt to individualise responsibility for the financial
sustainability of the institution, rather than confronting the systemic reasons for
declining investment by governments in many countries.
To add to these challenges, the pandemic illustrated how the most successful
museums and the best-made strategic plans could be derailed by unexpected exter-
nal crises. The findings from this study revealed that dealing with the unexpected is
neither confined to the pandemic nor an isolated phenomenon. Fully 30 per cent of
respondents had dealt with unanticipated external events related to climate change,
military conflict or terrorism, making dealing with the unexpected an unequivocal
part of the museum leader’s job (INTERCOM 2022, p. 37).
The INTERCOM report is significant because it looks beyond the skills, per-
sonal qualities and experience which the discourse suggests are needed by today’s
museum leaders. It explores the contextual factors, ambiguities and contradictions
that may challenge even the most competent individual. Given the findings, we
may well ask ‘where to from here?’

Supporting Museum Leaders

From across the various studies surveyed, it is evident that change is the new norm:
leadership must be able to accept and adapt to the demands of a constantly chang-
ing environment by exercising mental agility and showing the capacity to tolerate
uncertainty and ambiguity. Significantly, the single-authority model of leadership
is losing ground to more collaborative, team-based approaches which share author-
ity. As Lonnie Bunch put it in a personal communication with the author, ‘The
smartest leader is a facilitator of collaborators’.4
A review of some of the major leadership training programmes5 in the
English-speaking world further reveals that leadership courses are focusing on
a combination of personal qualities and professional skills to do the job; they
encourage people to find their own leadership style based on an honest personal
 Museum Leadership 13

appraisal of their strengths, weaknesses and values. The importance of personal

compassion is increasingly recognised, both as self-care for leaders who are
under considerable, ongoing pressure and as the compassion needed for oth-
ers as a hallmark of a more collegiate leadership approach. Strategic planning
and creating a vision, organisational culture, diversity, inclusion, and change
management feature in most programmes. Business modelling and financial en-
trepreneurism are seldom evident, but this is likely to be a factor of diversity in
funding across the types of museums and varying patterns of government fund-
ing in different countries.
These subjects are covered across a range of professional development options
ranging from intensive residential schools, modular and digital programmes and
workshops and fellowships; but as the King’s College study on leadership con-
cluded, learning styles vary and there is no question of a ‘one-size-fits all’ approach.

Research indicates that leadership development is most effectively delivered

through a combination of formal training, learning through others and on-
the-job experience, with practical application in the workplace playing the
most significant role.
(King’s College London 2018, p. 6)

In this spirit of programme diversity, INTERCOM has developed both a vir-

tual mentoring programme and a digital platform to provide ongoing support for
museum leaders. The mentoring programme, undertaken between 2022 and 2023,
developed regional webinars with museum leaders in Latin America, Africa, South-
east Europe and South Asia. Given the limits to leaders’ autonomy revealed in
the INTERCOM report, these webinars enabled museum directors within a region
to discuss common issues of concern and be paired with a local mentor to work
through solutions. Some of these workshops have been loaded onto INTERCOM’s
Digital Knowledge Platform.6

Back to Basics
During the 2022 Leadership session at the ICOM conference in Prague, the two
keynote speakers, Lonnie Bunch and Hilary Carty,7 were asked the following ques-
tion: ‘In a changing world, on what can leaders depend?’ Their answer was that the
role of museums in society, their purpose and value are ‘constants’ to which we
can return. Reviewing museums’ role in the light of a changing world, reassessing
the value that museums can create, reconsidering who museums are for and whom
they serve is leadership work. Respondents to the INTERCOM study concurred
that this is an essential part of the leadership role and one which over which 56 per
cent felt they could exert some influence (INTERCOM 2022, p. 47). The process
of interrogating purpose, mission, vision and value and using these fundamentals to
strategically position a museum generates dividends and speaks to the hallmarks of
contemporary leadership: collaboration, inclusion and sustainability. The follow-
ing case studies illustrate the power of this approach.
14 Carol A. Scott

The Value of Purpose

Clarifying purpose, mission and vision is a collaborative process which ‘… cre-
ates a collective passion among staff that drives an organisation forward to achieve
a shared goal’ Collins (2005, n.p.) London’s Natural History Museum (NHM) is
an institution which has found its purpose in a proactive response to the climate
crisis.

We must act now; we must act on scientific evidence and we must act to-
gether… Our vision is of a future where both people and planet thrive. Our
mission is to create advocates for the planet.
(NHM 2019, pp. 3–4)

‘Values’ are what an institution stands for, and the mission and vision of NHM
are supported by four core values: respect for biodiversity, using scientific evi-
dence, recognising global connectedness and believing in creative solutions to
combat environmental disaster.
The dividends from clarity of mission, vision and values are multiple. They
create internal cohesion based on a common sense of purpose. Making the case to
public funders from a position of knowledge and surety establishes a positive ba-
sis for negotiations. Sustainable audience engagement is achieved when there is a
values-match between the personal values which publics are seeking to satisfy and
the values for which the institution stands.
Importantly, clarity around purpose, vision and values forms a basis from which
to identify strategic partners with similar principles and avoid the pitfalls of mis-
alignments which can cause reputational damage. NHM knows that its goal of
creating advocates for the planet requires adequate resources and it has developed
an enviable array of partners ‘… who share our vision and want to make a differ-
ence’ (NHM 2019, p. 22). to help it resource this important work until 2030.8 NHM
has consciously decided to capitalise on the museum’s intellectual assets to build
a mixed economic model: developing touring exhibitions, negotiating licenses,
publishing, applying for research grants and developing commercial opportunities
where the aim is to balance ‘… profit-driven and mission-led activities’ (NHM
2019, p. 22).

Uniqueness and Difference

Clarifying mission and value can also deliver dividends in relation to differ-
entiation so that a museum can position itself within a competitive attractions
environment.
In the experience of Arthur Cohen, CEO of LaPlaca Cohen and initiator of the
Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis Research Project, ‘… museums that
have articulated their unique purpose are not only surviving—they are flourishing’
(Cohen 2013). Knowing what a museum does best and capitalising on its unique
strengths makes it possible to differentiate its offer from other competitors and to
 Museum Leadership 15

establish a clear brand message. Whatever a museum’s size or type of collection,

establishing its special selling points is crucial to marketing and promotion.
An example can be found on the south coast of England, in the small town of
Chichester. Pallant House Gallery opened in 1982 with a founding collection of
modern British art. Although it is a relatively young institution and a regional gal-
lery located outside of the capital, it is a major force in the contemporary British art
world because it has positioned itself selectively as the best offer in one particular
period: British modernism. Its exhibitions say ‘something new about British art
from 1900 to now’ and celebrate not only well-known artists but those who are
‘… overlooked and emerging’. Its public programs engage people of all ages and
backgrounds ‘… to discover how art can have a place in their lives’ (Pallant House
Gallery, n.d.). Selecting, building on and celebrating its period, Pallant House has
built its brand by carving out a special niche in the crowded British art scene and
in 2023 was shortlisted by the Museum and Heritage Awards for its community
engagement programmes.

Delivering Social Impact

Although the recent Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis report found that
relevance was expected by today’s post-Covid audience, John Cotton Dana (1917),
the founder of the Newark Museum in the United States, argued over a century ago
that a museum’s value was measured by its public relevance and usefulness. This
idea has gained momentum with an increasing discourse about the social role of
museums. Commentators including the late Stephen Weil (1999), Lois Silverman
(2010) and Carol Scott (2019) argue that it is the purpose of museums to make
a positive difference in the lives of the individuals and communities whom they
serve. There are also pragmatic reasons for taking a broader civic role, as the report
from King’s College London (2018) points out:

To be effective at a community level, particularly in the context of continuing

financial pressures on local authorities, leaders need to justify more robustly
public investment in the cultural sector and to advocate the social value of
their organisations.
(King’s College London 2018, p. 14)

Scott (2002) and Korn (2013) stress that making a positive difference requires
an intentional decision, knowledge of audience needs, appropriate strategies and
the measures to evaluate whether intended impacts have been achieved.
All of these components are evident in the House of Memories programme at
the Museum of Liverpool,9 which involved collaborations with local people liv-
ing with dementia. In intentionally deciding to work in this area, the Museum of
Liverpool leveraged one of its unique strengths: the capacity of objects to stimu-
late memory and reminiscence. This formed a key component for a customised
training programme developed by the museum in partnership with the Department
of Health, Skills for Care and the Liverpool Primary Care Trust to train personal
16 Carol A. Scott

and professional carers working with people diagnosed with dementia. Since its
inception in 2011, the programme has become a model for similar initiatives,
both domestically and internationally. Evaluations at each stage of its devel-
opment have reported significant positive attitudinal change among caregiv-
ers towards people living with dementia and the role that museum objects can
play in connecting dementia sufferers with themselves and others (NML 2012,
pp. 39, 41).
By 2016, 10,000 family and professional carers had received training, and the
excellence of the programme, its practical utility and its creative approach have had
a profound impact on the positioning and reputation of the Museum of Liverpool
and National Museums Liverpool.

The positive reputation of House of Memories and the subsequent trust

placed in NML has been a key driver in the success of the programme.
(NML and NHS Health Education England 2016, p. 18)

The programme’s success resulted in National Museums Liverpool being for-

mally commissioned by Health Education England to work with the National
Health Service (NHS) Trusts around the country.
Clarity about mission, vision and values assists museums’ sustainability in two
ways. It provides a standpoint from which to seek like-minded partners and de-
velop appropriate commercial opportunities and it provides a framework within
which a museum can make decisions about where to focus resources for the opti-
mum return. As Korn (2013, p. 37) states:

As much as museums would like to be all things to all people and achieve
discernible results among everyone, achieving value across all public sectors
at any one time may not be a realistic result in terms of a museum’s limited
capacity and resources.

Strategic positioning gives the institution permission to be selective about

where it should concentrate its efforts. It provides the rationale to defer, post-
pone or jettison programmes that neither fulfil the institutional purpose nor
align with its intended impacts. Ultimately, it allows a museum to be more
targeted in the deployment of resources, and more focused when it comes to
identifying the business model needed to fund the strategic directions a mu-
seum has chosen.

Museums have to work within the resources available to them. The sustain-
able answer may be to do less, but do it better […]. Museums need to be
clear about their purpose and ensure that their most important activities are
sustained.
(Davies and Wilkinson 2008, p. 7)
 Museum Leadership 17

Conclusion
Both Dilenschneider (2020) and Cohen see the Covid crisis as a turning point for
museums. Cohen describes it as a transformational moment, providing an opportu-
nity for museums to redefine their essential purpose in society—albeit with impor-
tant implications for leadership.

For a museum leader, then, this means a constant focus on outside-in assess-
ment, enhancing organizational expertise by infusing it with the concerns,
needs, hopes, and dreams of those the museum serves. In the past, the idea
of ‘collaborative leadership’ has focused on collaboration between direc-
tor and staff, and perhaps with the board. Now and in the future, I believe,
‘collaboration’ will be defined in a more porous and expansive way that en-
gages many voices in a truly equitable manner and creates new models of
cultural exchange and experience where people can find not just beauty and
inspiration, but also meaning and relevance.
(Cohen 2020, p. 30)

This transformational moment comes with its fair share of challenges. In

parallel with the discourse around collaborative leadership, we expect museum
leaders to embody a highly individualised set of qualities and skills which set
the bar increasingly high. As the INTERCOM study revealed, the leadership
landscape is full of checks and balances, limits and possibilities. We need to take
this into account, planning ongoing support and developing reasonable expecta-
tions for our leaders. Leadership is a key component in the future sustainability
of museums, but the sector has a responsibility to sustain its leaders.

Notes
1 In some countries, lockdowns extended into 2022 and 2023.
2 Culture Track is a national online survey of audience behaviours, attitudes, motiva-
tions and barriers to cultural participation, which has been conducted by LaPlaca Cohen
since 2001. Culture & Community in a Time of Crisis: A Special Edition of Culture
Track (2020) was a collaboration between LaPlaca Cohen and SloverLinett Audience
Research which surveyed 124,000 Americans in 2020 about their expectations of cul-
ture during and post-pandemic. A second wave surveyed 78,000 people in 2021 and was
published as Culture & Community in a Time of Transformation.
3 English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese.
4 Lonnie Bunch III—Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Personal Communication,
March 2022.
5 The Getty Institute at Claremont, (US) The Clore Leadership Program, (UK) The
Museum Leadership Programme (Australia).
6 https://dog-drum-2stw.squarespace.com/.
7 Lonnie Bunch III—Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, USA and Hilary Carty
OBE Director of the Clore Leadership Program, UK.
8 https://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/urban-nature-project.html.
18 Carol A. Scott

9 National Museums Liverpool encompasses the Museum of Liverpool, the World Mu-
seum, the International Slavery Museum, the Merseyside Maritime Museum, the Walker
Art Gallery, Sudley House and the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

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2 Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark
2009-2023
Strategic Planning as a Tool for
Adaptation

Ulla Schaltz and Anna-Elisabeth Jensen

At the beginning of this millennium, a fusion wave passed through the Danish Mu-
seum world following the country’s municipal reform of 2007. Two hundred and
seventy-one municipalities merged into 98, ideological structures within museums
broke down and a new structure, centered around larger and more professional mu-
seums emerged (Jensen & Lundgaard 2015; Marker & Rasmussen 2019). Museum
Lolland-Falster was created as part of this wave. This chapter reviews the first
decade of its existence and examines how the museum might establish a strategic
role in the region.

The Danish Museum Landscape and the Danish Museum Act

Since 1958, The Danish Museum Act (2006) has set the framework for how Den-
mark’s state-approved museums must operate. The purpose of the Act is to protect
the country’s cultural heritage, and the network of Danish state-approved museums
carry out the necessary archaeological, architectural and ethnological fieldwork
and research on behalf of the ministry. These state-approved museums are spread
across the country. The vast majority of state-approved local historical museums
offer very local perspectives, narrating local history and prehistory (Kulturminis-
teriet 2018; Statistics Denmark n. d).
A large number of local cultural history museums emerged in the second half
of the 19th century. They were conceived and developed by local enthusiasts and
entrepreneurs who wanted to preserve local history in changing times, that notably
saw agricultural communities replaced by industry. They went about establishing
a large number of museums, many as small national museums with broad collec-
tions spanning ancient times to the present day. While most of the held objects were
largely collected to testify to rural life and work, several of the old museum col-
lections in the province also include, for example, ethnographic objects. Intangible
testimonies were also collected in the form of memories, songs, performances and
dialects.
The late Danish professor Bjarne Stoklund wrote about the creation of museums
in the country, and the requirements for their, development in his book Tingenes
Kulturhistorie (2003). As he notes, museums were created in the 19th century as
an attempt to maintain some of what was on the way to being eradicated by rapid

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-4
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark 2009-2023 21

cultural development. This applies not least to the country’s ‘folk museums’, which
illustrate the work practices and ways of life of previous generations (Stoklund
2003).
However, contemporary museum audiences tend to place new demands on insti-
tutions. No longer content to merely view objects in displays, they also wish to en-
gage in more interactive and multisensory ways, using their other senses (Gilmore
& Pine 2007). Nevertheless, general interest in individuals’ personal history is as
profound among the Danish population as ever, as are demands for dissemination
of cultural behavior and artifacts. It is strange that only a few existing studies ad-
dress the material culture and relationships between humans and things that are
so close to us in time but which radically differ in substance from modern life.
Just as it is necessary to study modern consumer culture, it is equally important
to study the processes that have created it, as well as its historical starting point
(Kongsgaard & Hulvej Rod 2018). At local cultural history museums in Denmark
during the first half of the 20th century, it was customary for volunteer board mem-
bers to take responsibility and perform practical museum work. They were respon-
sible for collection, registration, preservation, research and dissemination of local
cultural heritage. From 1887 onward, Danish cultural history museums could ob-
tain state approval for their work and receive subsidies from the state to preserve
and convey the history of the country. This decentralized museum landscape still
exists: one that functions in accordance with a common museum law and a network
of museums that functions in accordance with the national museum law, and that
forms a network of institutions that use common tools to perform museal tasks. Of
Denmark’s more than 600 museums, 95 are currently state approved.

Merged Museums on Lolland-Falster

Until 2009, three smaller museums, two of which were more than 100 years old,
were state-approved museums with a heterogenous workforce, covering the 13 mu-
nicipalities of Lolland-Falster in the southeastern corner of Denmark. Following
the aforementioned municipal reforms of 2007, the 13 municipalities merged into
2 and the Ministry of Culture called for voluntary museum mergers. The three
museums outlined below successfully merged into today’s state-approved Museum
Lolland-Falster, a cultural heritage authority according to the Danish Museums
Act; these have professional staff and are responsible for local cultural heritage on
Lolland-Falster.

Lolland-Falsters Stiftsmuseum

Lolland-Falsters Stifts Museum in Maribo opened in 1890. In 1879, the local mer-
chant Lauritz Schrøder donated his collection to the municipality of Maribo. The
opening of Lolland-Falster’s Stiftsmuseum was praised in several newspapers
across Denmark. It conducted archaeological investigations under the supervision
of the National Museum in the early 1900s and established an open-air museum
in 1927. In 1965 the museum hired its first professional director. Stiftsmuseet was
22 Ulla Schaltz and Anna-Elisabeth Jensen

given the status of a regional museum for Lolland-Falster in 1973, requiring it

to employ a professional museum educator. Stiftsmuseet also employed its first
professional archaeologist in 1973. Until 1984, archaeological excavations in con-
nection with large-scale construction work were a state agency responsibility. The
revision of the Danish Museums Act in 1984 added archaeological investigations
in connection with construction projects to local museum responsibilities. Prior
to the merger in 2009, Stiftsmuseet was the cultural heritage authority concerning
cultural history and archaeology of the nine municipalities on Lolland.

Falsters Minder

The Falsters Minder Museum in Nykoebing, on the island of Falster, was created
in 1913 by citizens from all 27 parish municipalities on the island. The museum
hired its first professional director in 1979. In 1986 Falsters Minder employed its
first professional museum educator and its first professional archaeologist. The mu-
seum’s board wanted to see the archaeological work for Falster transferred from
Stiftsmuseet in Maribo, which was responsible for the very extensive archaeologi-
cal work prior to the establishment of the Southern Highway on Falster. Before
the merger in 2009, Falsters Minder was the cultural heritage authority concerning
cultural history and archaeology of the four municipalities on Falster and ran the
local Archive in Nykoebing.

Reventlow Museum

The Reventlow Museum opened in 1940 in the main building of the Pederstrup
manor after the Reventlow family put the manor up for sale in the 1930s. In the late
18th century, the statesman C.D.F Reventlow instigated the Danish Agrarian Re-
forms. The museum’s present appearance is the result of the 1940 restoration and
reconstruction of the Empire-style manor house C. D. F. Reventlow commissioned
in 1813–1822. Today, the main building is one of just a few remaining buildings
in Denmark that were built in the Empire style. Before the merger of the munici-
palities in 2007, the Reventlow Museum was state-approved as a special museum
for manor culture in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster, with a focus on C. D. F.
Reventlow. However, the museum experienced challenges around complying with
the conditions for state approval. These were resolved following the fusion with
Museum Lolland-Falster in 2010.
In 2007, the 13 municipalities on Lolland-Falster merged into 2 new and larger
municipalities. Seven of the nine municipalities on Lolland formed Lolland Kom-
mune. The remaining two, alongside the four Falster municipalities, together
formed Guldborgsund Kommune. The Danish Ministry of Culture demanded
that the museums in Nykoebing and Maribo should align their geographical re-
sponsibilities with the new municipal boundaries. Consequently, Falsters Minder
changed its name to Guldborgsund Museum. Guldborgsund Museum was thus
given responsibility for the cultural history and archaeology of Guldborgsund Mu-
nicipality according to the Danish Museum Act, while the Stiftsmuseet was given
 Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark 2009-2023 23

responsibility for the Lolland Municipality. Finally, on 1 January 2009, Falsters

Minder and Stiftsmuseet merged into the newly established Museum Lolland-
Falster, a local museum with responsibility over the cultural heritage of Lolland-
Falster, i.e., Lolland and Guldborgsund Municipalities.

What Led to the Merger?

Prior to merging, the existing museums underwent a particularly turbulent period
during the first years of the 21st century. Municipal subsidies were far below na-
tional averages, storage facilities in Stiftsmuseet did not meet the state-approved
museum standard and Falsters Minder suffered a management crisis after the pass-
ing of its director. These sorts of problems are difficult enough for any museum but
were reinforced by the fact that the small museums simply did not have sufficient
staff to cope with critical situations.
At the same time, greater demands were being placed on the state-approved
museums’ handling of research, strategic collection, appropriate storage of objects,
digitization and so on. Finally, it was planned that large antiquarian investigations
(i.e., archaeological, architectural and ethnological) were to be carried out in Lol-
land prior to the construction of a tunnel from Denmark to Germany under the Feh-
marnbelt. Strategically, it was therefore necessary for both museums to create more
robust organizations that would be able to face the coming challenges. Merging the
two museums was a viable solution to create a financially sound, professional and
sustainable institution.

Structural Changes
During these years, the Danish Museum world underwent major structural changes.
In 2010, there were approximately 150 state-approved museums in Denmark (Kul-
turministeriet 2011). That number has now fallen (at the time of publication) to 95,
divided into three categories: art museums, natural history museums and traditional
local history museums. Twenty-seven of the local history museums are respon-
sible for archeological heritage management and excavations in their attributed
geographical region. Museum Lolland-Falster is responsible for the archaeological
heritage of the Lolland-Falster, Lolland and Guldborgsund municipalities. Dan-
ish cultural heritage management is described in Chapter 8 of the Danish Mu-
seum Act. ‘Safeguarding the cultural and natural heritage in connection with the
physical planning and preparation of construction work, agriculture and forestry
activities, etc., including archaeological and natural-history investigation tasks in
relation thereto’ (The Danish Museum Act 2006). The responsible museums must
assess whether damage to the cultural heritage will result from construction work
or changes in building structures. The statutory work also applies to the latest mod-
ern cultural development.
There has been a push-and-pull effect related to museum mergers over the last
15 years. The concerned museums must be able to live up to the requirements of
the Museum Act but, at the same time, remain attractive partners for universities,
24 Ulla Schaltz and Anna-Elisabeth Jensen

municipalities, for various different interest groups and to attract volunteers to mu-
seums. In addition, municipal reforms have meant significant changes in the mu-
seum sector in Denmark. The national decree that there only be one museum with
heritage management responsibility per municipality led to nationwide museum
mergers, like the Museum Lolland-Falster merger.

How Did We Merge?

The decision to merge Lolland-Falster Stiftsmuseum and Guldborgsund Mu-
seum was initiated by leading staff at the two museums. The museums’ boards,
municipalities and, not least, the Cultural Heritage Agency backed the idea.
Once work on the merger started, the municipalities promised to raise the nec-
essary grants for the state approved museum. There was a relatively large and
diverse group of employees from both museums who worked on the merger,
the formalities of which took less than a year to complete. The merger resulted
from the recognition that two very small museums would find it difficult to solve
large problems and honor the demands and expectations for new exhibitions,
programs and communications. In addition, a large statutory archaeological ex-
cavation was necessary prior to the construction of a tunnel between Denmark
and Germany. It became the largest Stone Age excavation ever undertaken in
Denmark, conducted between 2013 and 2022. The building of the Tunnel Fac-
tory was going to destroy an entire fiord landscape beneath massive marine sedi-
ments. During the excavation, sites with exceptional preservation conditions for
organic materials were found. The newly merged Museum Lolland-Falster was
in charge of the excavations in accordance with The Danish Museum Act (Groß
& Rothstein 2023).
The priority was to get the newly merged museum administration up and run-
ning, and to encourage staff working together on a professional basis (Hedegaard
Hein 2012) to be able to collaborate on various tasks, both through scaling up the
number of employees from 40 to 110 and downscaling again to a staff of 50. During
the merger of the first two museums, the Independent Reventlow Museum failed
to meet the daily challenges and the day-to-day operations were left to the Lolland
Municipality. In 2010, the Reventlow Museum became part of Museum Lolland-
Falster. Since 2011 Museum Lolland-Falster has operated from the local Tourist
Information Bureau for Guldborgsund Municipality in Nykøbing Falster, and since
2017 has shared a building in Maribo with the Tourist Information Bureau for Lol-
land Municipality.
In 2012, the preparation for the enormous excavation project in connection with
the tunnel between Denmark and Germany began. For three years (from 2012 to
2015), the museum had a field station near the construction site with up to 60
archaeologists working on the excavations for shorter or longer periods. In 2015
the developer Femern A/S temporarily suspended the archaeological fieldwork for
political reasons. Museum Lolland-Falster was forced to downsize dramatically
for three years, and only resumed its activities in 2018 when the fieldwork re-
commenced. The primary fieldwork was completed in 2022. Reporting, scientific
 Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark 2009-2023 25

analyses, international research and publication and dissemination of results re-

lated to this fieldwork will continue for the next decade (Groß & Rothstein 2023).

Museum Lolland-Falster, 15 Years On

Was the merger a good idea? This is a reasonable question to ask since merging two
museums significantly alters conditions for managers, employees, volunteers and
the surrounding environment. In 2011, The Danish Ministry of Culture published
an investigation into Danish museums (Kulturministeriet 2011), and recommended
the preparation of a mission and vision statement for the entire museum system:
a systematic definition of national strategies that set out frameworks, goals and
standards for qualitative and professional development of the system; it also laid
out guidelines for the continuing professionalization of museum management, in-
cluding one stipulating that museums follow the Ministry of Culture’s recommen-
dations for good management of self-governing cultural institutions.
Museum Lolland-Falster operates according to those recommendations on a
local level. When the museum’s first goals around becoming a professional and
sustainable institution were reached, Museum Lolland-Falster changed its vision to
become ‘a museum for all’, in line with international trends of perceiving museums
as venues and drivers for transformation (Museums Association 2015). In its first
five years of existence, Museum Lolland-Falster developed new strategies for all
the relevant responsibilities in the Museum Act; these were subsequently published
on the museum’s official website.1

Strategic International Collaboration and Upgrading of Staff

International cooperation qualifies the cultural-historical core tasks for museums
located in a border region (Jensen 2005; Keil 2013). Museum Lolland-Falster’s
geographical scope is Denmark’s and Scandinavia’s southernmost region, with
Lolland-Falster situated in the middle of the Western Baltic Sea. The location
naturally invites international cooperation. The cooperation with museums and re-
search institutions across the Baltic Sea in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-
Western Pomerania is necessary to understand the importance of our own area
through conflict, periods of decline and prosperity, stretching from the Ice Age to
the present day.
Museum Lolland-Falster engages in international collaborations to qualitatively
improve the museum’s ability to carry out its core missions/activities and for the
long-term development of its methods (Guldborgsund Kommune 2018). Interna-
tional cooperation is a tool that lifts the museum’s long-term perspectives and strat-
egies. On the one hand, we can receive external and international inspiration and
establish contacts and networks that can enrich our museum’s management. On the
other hand, we are aware of the possibilities of exploring and communicating simi-
larities and contradictions woven throughout the common cultural heritage across
the Baltic Sea. Thus, Museum Lolland-Falster not only promotes itself but the
whole area of Lolland-Falster and the Baltic Sea region (Bötel & Bøggild 2017).
26 Ulla Schaltz and Anna-Elisabeth Jensen

In its 15-year lifetime, the museum has been increasingly aware of the op-
portunities and resources that lie in an international commitment; it has therefore
invested from the outset in several long-term international collaborations. From
2009, Museum Lolland-Falster has entered into new collaborations and partner-
ships at local, regional, national and international levels (The Danish Ministry of
Culture 2017).
The professional staff at the museum is composed of several project manag-
ers, archaeologists, ethnologists, historians and project leaders. Investment in en-
hancing professionalism among museum staff must inevitably comprise deeper
development of upper management skills. Accordingly, in 2018, the Deputy Head,
Anna-Elisabeth Jensen, was certified as a fundraising manager. Moreover, Mu-
seum Lolland-Falster needed to be able to act in a more market-oriented manner as
public subsidies were being reduced and the administration needed to effectively
manage up- and down-scaling within the museum as required. In particular, the
middle managers needed to optimize teamwork, motivate employees and, in do-
ing so, enhance their own leadership skills. With the director at its helm and its
prime geographical location at the center of the Baltic Sea, the museum should now
be equipped to better respond to significant international changes. In effect, the
Museum Lolland-Falster’s executive management skills were notably boosted in
spring 2018 through the director’s participation in the Getty Leadership Institute’s
international museum management program in Los Angeles, California.
The Museum Lolland Falster’s middle managers have additionally been engag-
ing in international cooperations and collaborations with other professionals in the
museum’s global network. This has notably taken place through sharing experi-
ences around collections management with colleagues from Germany and Sweden,
participation in Musund museum collaborations across Oresund, as well as Nord-
mus Danish-German museum collaborations across the Western Baltic (Nordmus
2023) and the Network of Museums in the Baltic. Among other things, this has led
to discussions with colleagues around the Baltic Sea on navigating global changes.
Museum Lolland-Falster’s employees have also participated in Interreg cultural
bridge projects across the Baltic since 2003. The museum has, in its first 15 years,
become an experienced lead partner in the Interreg region Denmark-Germany,
building Nordmus as a sustainable museum organization across the Femern Belt.
Museum Lolland-Falster has also participated in a South Baltic Manors project in
the South Baltic Interreg Region. The goal for the 12 partners was to present the
landscape, nature and culture of the region as a unified destination, both to attract
tourism and provide leisure opportunities for local communities during the cold
season. For Museum Lolland-Falster, the purpose of joining the South Baltic Man-
ors Project was to develop a sustainable plan for operating the Pederstrup Manor in
the future. However, the biggest challenge faced by the subsidized Interreg inter-
national partnership is undoubtedly long-term project development. Working hours
and resources are sometimes invested in projects that are never realized due to lack
of funds, so risk-averse resources are necessary (South Baltic Manors n. d).
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Museum Lolland-Falster (like most museums
globally) experienced an inability to take physical meetings with its different
 Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark 2009-2023 27

international partners but also made increasing efforts to use different digital
communications tools and participate in online meetings. In a sense, the pan-
demic resulted in a more effective workflow and highlighted the importance of
international perspectives in a global crisis situation: one in which exchanging
knowledge and experiences with international partners is worth its weight in
gold.
In early 2021, The Association of Danish Museums (ODM) was able to assess
that Danish Museums lost more than a third of their visitors in 20202 due to the
Covid-19 pandemic compared to 2019 (ODM 2021). The few museums that gar-
nered higher turnover during the crisis pointed to the opening of new displays to
visit, i.e., new museums and/or new exhibitions and a good summer season in 2020
as the main factors for growth. The most distressed museums were clearly the large
museums that focused on experience economy with large scale events, catering
and restaurants, etc., at the expense of traditional core tasks, heritage protection
and heritage dissemination, etc. Conversely, those that performed best during the
pandemic were smaller museums that typically attracted fewer visitors and had a
more broad-based economy with collaborations with local schools, NGOs and lo-
cal municipal administrations.
The Covid-19 pandemic represented an opportunity to rethink Danish mu-
seums’ business models, their practices as cultural institutions and their rela-
tionships with the state and municipalities. Denmark’s state subsidy should
accordingly be seen as an investment in cultural heritage, an investment that
secures society’s collective memory and supports society’s resilience and co-
hesion. Subsequently, the Danish Minister of Culture has initiated a revision
of the Danish Museums Act in order to provide a fairer and more transparent
distribution of public funds to museums based on an ongoing analysis of their
performances.

Conclusion
In the first 15 years of the merger that resulted in the Museum Lolland-­Falster,
the museum has, above all, focused on becoming recognized as a cred-
ible partner on the local, regional, national and international scenes. Museum
Lolland-­Falster’s reputation as a trustworthy international partner is now well-
established, and the time has come for the institution to use this role strategi-
cally within its focus areas. In an increasingly globalized world, international
cooperation is a necessity for cultural institutions located in border regions,
which must have a vision of becoming inclusive museums for all (Schaltz &
Jensen 2013). The museum director and board thus plan for the continued de-
velopment and upgrading of the museum, allowing it to evolve from a tradi-
tional institution into a robust and flexible project-oriented organization. In the
future, the museum shall increasingly emphasize its role as a strong player in
the strategic and cultural development of Lolland-Falster, in cooperation with
local municipalities and through the involvement of new audiences and stake-
holders (Museum Lolland-Falster 2023).
28 Ulla Schaltz and Anna-Elisabeth Jensen

Note
1 The first set of strategies can be found at: https://museumlollandfalster.dk/wp-content/
uploads/2021/03/2015_kvalitetsvurdering.pdf. The most recent set of strategies can be
found at: https://museumlollandfalster.dk/en/forside/om-museet/

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MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Groß, D. and Rothstein, M., eds. 2023. Lollands Lost Landscapes. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
Guldborgsund Kommune. 2018. Center for Borger & Branding. Internationalt Samar-
bejde. Årsrapport Internationalt Samarbejde Guldborgsund Kommune 2016–2018.
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alt Samarbejde.
Hedegaard Hein, H., 2012. The motivation and management of highly specialized creative
employees. In: A. Davila, M. M. Elvira, J. Ramirez and L. Zapata-Cantu, eds., Under-
standing Organizations in Complex, Emergent and Uncertain Environments. London:
Palgrave Macmillan, pp.164–184.
Jensen, A. E., 2005 Archäologie und Museen. 120–123 Ausstellungen zur Archäologie in
Lübeck 8. Lübeck.
Jensen, J. T. and Brændholdt Lundgaard, I., eds., 2015. Museums—Citizens and Sustainable
Solutions. Copenhagen: Kulturstyrelsen. Danish Agency for Culture.
Keil, D., 2013. Museer og regional identitet—et muligt Interreg projekt inden for Femern
Bælt regionen. Museum Lolland-Falster. Månedens Artikel. (Feb. 2013). Nykøbing Fal-
ster: Museum Lolland-Falster.
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3 Transforming Museum Operations
through the Participation of Friends
of the Natural History Museum in
Zimbabwe
Davison Chiwara and Sithokozile Mabahwana

Introduction
The Friends of the Natural History Museum programme in Zimbabwe was launched
on 16 May 2012. It is an association of volunteers and supporters who are either
individuals or corporations with an interest in heritage; they help in any way they
can to conserve this heritage for posterity. The Friends offer their diverse exper-
tise to the museum on a voluntary basis and help the museum through material,
financial and moral support. They pay annual subscriptions to the museum, and the
Friends encompass six types of membership: scholar, individual, family, society,
corporate and honorary. One becomes a member upon payment of a membership
fee. The Friends play a critical role in sustaining the operations of the museum at a
time when some museums across the globe are scaling down operations and others
are closing due to financial challenges. They are engaged in entrepreneurial activi-
ties with an embedded social purpose, and this work has transformed the opera-
tions of the museum, notably by permitting it to stay afloat in a difficult economic
environment.

Challenges Affecting Museums

Museums that are funded by governments have witnessed the scaling down of
budgets allocated to them in recent years and a drop in support from the corporate
world (Anderson 2004; Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO)
2011; Mork 2004). Boschee and McClurg (2003, p. 3) further highlight the chal-
lenges affecting the operations of museums:

The rules of the game for nonprofits have changed dramatically during the
past 20 years. Operating costs have soared, resources available from tradi-
tional sources have flattened, the number of nonprofits competing for grants
and subsidies has more than tripled ….

Due to financial challenges in the wake of the 2008–2009 global economic re-
cession, some museums such as the Newseum have shut down as they lack the
necessary resources to operate (Associated Press 2019). Other museums that have

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-5
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Transforming Museum Operations 31

shut down include the Marciano Art Foundation and the Main Museum, both
in Los Angeles; Pasadena Museum of Californian Art; Sishang, Shanghe, Yang
Gaung, the Upriver Gallery and the Dongyu museums, all in China; La Maison
Rouge in France; and the New Church in Cape Town, South Africa. Their closure
is mainly attributed to inadequate funding (Adam 2020). In England, museums
and art galleries also experienced budget cuts, amounting to nearly £400 million
over a period of eight years, forcing hundreds to close down (Busby 2019). In an
effort to reduce operating costs some museums have scaled down their operations
by reducing operating hours and cutting staff. A case in point is regional museums
outside London, UK, which have reduced their operating hours and cut staff as a
result of austerity measures adopted by local authorities (Kalia 2019). However, in
some cases the austerity measures imposed on the culture sector have led certain
museums to engage in unorthodox activities, such as selling their collections. The
Wereldmuseum in the Netherlands for the past years has contemplated selling its
African and American collections due to economic hardships (Ramanujam 2011).
Meanwhile, in the United States, the Rose Art Museum closed due to poor funding
from its parent organisation, Brandeis University, and its collections were put on
sale (Kennedy and Vogel 2009; Rizzo 2010).
The Covid-19 pandemic has compounded the financial challenges faced by mu-
seums, leading to even more closures. In the United States, a number of small
museums have not been able to cope with the pandemic and have closed down,
among them the World of Speed Motorsports Museum in Wilsonville, Ore; the
Tahoe Maritime Museum in California, and the KGB Museum in Manhattan. A
survey conducted in October 2020 by the American Alliance of Museums, charting
the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the financial situation of museums in the
United States, indicated that over half of the 850 museum directors who responded
to the survey said their institutions had six months or less of their financial operat-
ing reserve remaining. The survey also showed that museums that reopened were
operating at only about a third of their capacity, and just over half have laid off staff
since March 2020 with nearly 70 per cent of frontline employees affected (Bahr
2020). Conversely, the 2021 International Council of Museums (ICOM) global sur-
vey on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on museums reported a dire financial
situation for museums, especially those relying on their own revenues. The survey
showed that the percentage of museums that reported a loss of income of more than
half of their annual revenues rose to 44 per cent during the period of the Covid 19
pandemic, compared to 31.9 per cent in Autumn 2020. Furthermore, the survey in-
dicated that smaller museums have been mostly affected by the negative effects of
the Covid-19 pandemic, and the possibility of permanent closure was much more
likely than for medium to large museums (ICOM 2021).
Zimbabwe’s national museums are also affected by these financial challenges.
The country’s economy underperformed between 1997 and 2009, due largely to
corruption and a volatile political situation that saw the closure of many compa-
nies, as well as record inflation that crippled the operations of many institutions
including museums. From 2009 to 2011 the economy improved due to the legali-
sation of the use of foreign currency in the country, particularly the US dollar.
32 Davison Chiwara and Sithokozile Mabahwana

This change was introduced by the inclusive new coalition government that com-
prised rival political parties. However, this positive change did little to improve
the fortunes of national museums in Zimbabwe, and they continued to struggle to
remain operational (British Council 2016).
Rampant corruption in the Zimbabwean government post-2011 to the present
day has worsened the economic situation and thus affected the operations of mu-
seums, whose budgets have been significantly cut by the government. Moreover,
support for most national museums from the corporate world has been poor, since
most of the companies have shut down and those that have remained operational
are unable to support museums since they are operating below capacity. The prob-
lem has been worsened by a decrease in attendance in most national museums due
to a perceived lack of attractive offerings, thereby depriving museums of much-
needed income to support their operations. This decline in funding has resulted
in shortages of materials and staff with relevant skills needed in various opera-
tions of the museums. This has negatively affected museum activities such as re-
search, documentation, conservation, exhibitions and outreach programmes. Some
of these activities are being carried out on an ad-hoc basis, while others have been
temporarily discontinued. Capital projects for some museums such as the National
Aviation Museum and the National Museum of Mining have not been completed
since they were launched in the late 1980s and 1990s, respectively. Due to the
challenges mentioned above, most national museums are struggling to fulfil their
social missions.

The Roles of Museum Members

In light of these challenges, museum membership programmes, such as the
‘Friends’ of the Natural History Museum in Zimbabwe, can offer much-needed
support for museum operations. A member is any individual who gives annually to
an organisation and receives specified benefits. Members are not simply sources of
earned income; they can be important donors and form a solid foundational base
for future major gifts (Watkins 2011). Members can serve as a group from which
major and planned gifts can be cultivated and through their numbers may lend
political clout (Flanagan 2000).
The two most significant reasons for creating a Friends programme at a mu-
seum are to bring in unrestricted revenue for the institution and to mobilise a core
group of supporters that attend and promote the museum’s programmes, events
and exhibitions (Rega 2011). A range of membership levels is typically offered
with increasing benefits or recognition accruing to higher levels of participation.
Lower-level benefits might include free admission to the museum and tickets to
shows organised by the museum, while higher-level benefits might comprise pri-
vate tours with head curators and breakfasts with the director (Paswan and Troy
2004). Museums therefore see membership benefits as a way to introduce people
to the organisation, and as an attractive incentive for donating on a regular basis.
We conducted a study to appraise the programmes run by Friends of the Nat-
ural History Museum and to assess the material, human and financial resource
 Transforming Museum Operations 33

contributions by museum members to the operation of the Natural History Mu-

seum. Interviews were used to gather data from four staff members of the Natural
History Museum. This was complemented by a survey of the museum’s website,
and Facebook pages of both the museum and Friends of the Museum. The follow-
ing summarises the findings of our research.

Programmes Run by Friends of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe

The Friends of the Museum organises and runs income- and non-income-generat-
ing programmes, which are both entertaining and educational for the public. These
programmes consist of the following events and activities:

• Movies: The Friends initiated a movies programme at the museum. They offer
a range of film screenings for children and families, as well as screening docu-
mentaries on fauna and flora. The museum charges entrance fees for visitors to
view the movies or offers free admission and requests donations from partici-
pants. The screened films are both museum mission and non-mission oriented.
• Night in the Museum: Evening children’s programmes are organised by the
Friends of the Museum in the form of plays on specific themes to entertain and
educate children.
• The Conservation Club: This programme, which targets schoolchildren from
10 to 13 years old, was designed to promote a sense of appreciation and stew-
ardship for the country’s cultural and natural heritage, such as animal species
and cultural heritage sites. Members of the Conservation Club meet every Fri-
day during the school term and currently pay $2.50 per session.1
• The Friends of the Natural History Museum also conduct fundraising pro-
grammes in the form of Treasure Hunts, Golf days and Fun days. These pro-
grammes raise money to support the museum’s operations. In August 2015,
the Friends raised $3,800 through a Golf Day towards the construction of the
Khami Site Museum, which is administered by the Natural History Museum.
The Friends also organised the Easter Egg/Bug Hunt programme, and the funds
that were collected from that programme were used to purchase furniture for
the museum.

The Friends of the Museum are therefore playing an important role in increas-
ing the Natural History Museum’s financial resources. Since the inception of the
Friends in 2012, they have contributed $8,000 over a period of five years. Their
financial contributions have also helped the museum to set up a dedicated website
and purchase a projector to screen films.

Material and Human Resources from the Friends of the Natural

History Museum of Zimbabwe

The Natural History Museum benefits from material support donated or sourced by
the Friends. Members have assisted in sourcing donations to revamp the galleries,
34 Davison Chiwara and Sithokozile Mabahwana

replace carpets and lighting, paint the walls of the museum building and install
comfortable seating areas for visitors. They also aided in the renovation and instal-
lation of the Hall of Man Gallery with the support of Acol Chemicals, Wildlife
and Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ), the University of the Witwatersrand, and a
private donor. The Friends also carry out voluntary work and provide expertise at
the museum: for instance, they helped reframe flags showcased in the galleries. The
Friends, working in collaboration with other partners, have additionally sourced
building material donations towards the rehabilitation of the Khami Site Museum
at the Khami World Heritage Site, which is also administered by the museum. They
have also contributed to the installation of animal sounds such as roaring lions,
tweeting birds and trumpeting elephants in the Livingstone Sango-Moyo Gallery,
which immerses visitors in a virtual wildlife setting. Other work carried out by the
Friends is presented below:

• Conducting themed discussions with the communities around Bulawayo on

environmental issues and the conservation of wildlife, such as Managing Land
for Vulture Conservation. The talks are insightful and educational on the topics
of wildlife conservation and the environment in general.
• Playing a critical role in marketing the museum. The Friends have a Face-
book page called the Friends of the Natural History Museum Bulawayo and are
also present on the museum’s website. They use both the Facebook page and the
website to market museum events and activities. These platforms are very active
and are constantly updated to feature programmes taking place at the museum.
The Friends also market their programmes at the museum using posters and
leaflets, which they prepare for visitors.
• Supporting various other museum projects, including the installation of the
Hippopotamus gallery, mounting of the gallery of live snakes and the revamping
of the Herpetology displays, printing of the Museum Guide Book, and installa-
tion of Information Panels at World’s View Matobo, a national monument and a
World Heritage Site administered by the museum.

Social Entrepreneurs
The programmes initiated by the Friends reflect the work of entrepreneurs with a
social mission, who help the museums fulfil their mandate of serving the public
(Dees 2001). Strong social ties enhance the probability of opportunity exploitation
(Aldrich and Zimmer 1986, cited by Clausen 2006). The Friends have developed
such strong relationships with individuals, corporations and private donors that
contribute to the functioning of the museum. These ties have become the basis
for pooling human, financial and material resources in support of the museum’s
operations.
Social entrepreneurship combines the social mission of an organisation with
innovation and a mission to create and sustain social value (Dees 2001). The
Friends’ innovation is seen in its fundraising and educational programmes for
the museum. As described above, programmes such as Golf Day, Night in the
 Transforming Museum Operations 35

Museum, Easter Egg/Bug Hunt, Fun Day, and movie screenings have helped raise
much-needed revenue. Despite the broad economic challenges detailed earlier,
the Friends have pursued innovative opportunities to source funds in order to
renovate and create new exhibition galleries for the enjoyment of the museum’s
visitors.
The Friends are acting in the face of the limited resources currently at hand and
have been persistent in providing material resources and expertise. They are find-
ing solutions to overcome challenges affecting the museum’s operations. This has
been evident in the work they did on the renovations of the site museum for Khami
World Heritage Site as well as the installation of signage and visitor amenities at
this site and World’s View Monument in the Matobo World Heritage Site, which
are both administered by the museum. Social entrepreneurs use scarce resources
efficiently, and add to their limited resources by collaborating with others. They
explore all options, from donations to commercial methods used in the business
sector. They are not bound by sector norms or traditions, and they develop resource
strategies that are aimed at supporting their social missions (Dees 2001). This is
reflected by the work that is being done by the Friends of the Museum, which
involves collaborating with others in supporting the museum’s projects, seeking
donations and embarking on fundraising initiatives in support of the museum’s
mission.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The Friends of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe have shown a sense of
innovation and resourcefulness in the way they conceive and structure their pro-
grammes and services at the museum. They are generating much-needed income
through stimulating programmes and providing human and material resources in
support of the functioning of the museum. They are, moreover, not held back by
limited resources in their drive to ensure that the Natural History Museum fulfils
its social mission, using entrepreneurial techniques such as online marketing and
fundraising programmes to support the institution.
Despite the success achieved by the Friends of the Natural History Museum,
subscription to its membership remains low. There is a need for increased promo-
tion of the work of the Friends to expand its membership base and attract potential
new members. This might include publicity campaigns in communities that are not
represented or are under-represented in the subscription profile of the Friends. Gen-
eral members of the communities served by the museum should also be targeted
to ensure they join the Friends and participate in activities that help the museum
in various capacities. The museum should additionally improve its membership
incentives to attract more members and retain current ones. These might include
free entrance on special occasions for Friends and their immediate families to the
museum as well as Khami World Heritage Site and World’s View National Monu-
ment in the Matobo World Heritage Site, discounts on books, souvenirs and other
merchandise sold by the museum as well as other services such as library and in-
ternet access. We believe such incentives will motivate current Friends to help the
36 Davison Chiwara and Sithokozile Mabahwana

museum while also attracting new members. This will ultimately aid in growing
the Friends’ membership and continue to transform museum operations.

Note
1 All monetary figures in this chapter are expressed in US dollars.

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4 The Alchemy of Museum Planning
Darren Barker and Eric Langham

This publication appears at what seems to be an unprecedented and challenging

moment for museums, but, we think, also an extremely exciting one, with tremen-
dous scope for museums to experiment and to create a deeper impact in society. By
any measure – social, cultural, economic or political – museums today are expected
to be more and do more for a wider range of audiences than ever before. In meeting
those expectations, they have to contend with a rapidly changing world: new tech-
nologies; demographic shifts through migration, gentrification and urbanisation;
global cultural upheaval; economic uncertainty; pandemics; and ever more gloomy
forecasts of climate catastrophe. How can museums acknowledge and respond to
all these constantly shifting factors?
Museums are widely celebrated as a redemptive force in society. They have
been hailed as catalysts for economic growth (Tuck 2015), complementary medi-
cines to be prescribed by health services (Napier et al. 2014), community hubs
that bind people together, alleviating loneliness and marginalisation (Sandell and
Nightingale 2012), and as agents of political activism, offering space for debate
in an era of environmental crisis, discrimination and economic injustice (Brown
et al. 2009).
Equally, however, museums are sometimes described as being themselves
in need of redemption (Dibley 2005; Graham 2012). Within the last 30 years,
we have seen a growing movement to decolonise museums and memorial land-
scapes (Knudsen and Andersen 2019), as well as efforts to democratise col-
lections and broaden participation along race, class and gender lines (Kreps
2011; Onciul 2015). Where once, in their guise as the guardians of knowledge
and culture, museums may have claimed to be politically neutral, today, few
scholars or professionals are willing to accept this stance. It is no longer the
case that the conservation of material culture for posterity automatically justi-
fies public spending on museums; by many accounts, it is no longer the case
that museum visitors are content to cede responsibility for narrating the past to
experts and elites (Schofield 2014). At the same time, as the need to drive par-
ticipation intersects with the ‘experience economy’ (Pine and Gilmore 1998),
gallery design is rarely signed off without at least some discussion as to its
‘Instagrammability’.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-6
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 The Alchemy of Museum Planning 39

Because museums increasingly face such complex and diverse demands, it is

inevitable that museum planning is a complex process. It is at once a materially
grounded and constrained practical task, and a philosophical endeavour, demand-
ing serious reflection on the work museums do in society. Museum planning calls
for an acute awareness (not to say a mastery) of technical detail: market access,
environmental conditions, financial liability and so on. And yet, it is far from be-
ing an exact science. Rather, as a profoundly human process, museum planning
requires space to breathe; it relies on instinct, on moments of inspiration and, in
our experience, it benefits from a certain openness to risk. Above all, perhaps, in
a field that tends to cherish permanence, it calls for nimbleness, flexibility and the
ability to respond to change.
In this chapter, touching on several iconic case studies, we offer a two-part
introduction to the task facing planners as they approach the development of
a new museum or the significant redevelopment of an existing institution. Part
one details a planning process, targeted in particular to the production of an
overall museum masterplan. In part two, we share three key principles that
underpin our own approach to museum planning. Developing an understanding
of museums as relational, and inescapably future-oriented, institutions, we
go on to question what it means for museums to be sustainable, and outline
how sustainability might be achieved. In each case, examining these different
qualities yields insights into the skills required to plan a successful museum
and poses questions that museum planners may find helpful to consider as they
go about their work.

Part One: The Planning Process

The museum planning process as we conceive it is, in abstract terms, quite straight-
forward. It comprises three phases: first, a situation analysis, concluding with the
production of a brief; second, an options appraisal designed to refine the brief and
build consensus around a preferred strategy for development; and third, the pro-
duction of a masterplan: a single, shared, roadmap to the future. As a whole, the
process is geared towards first defining the essential need(s) the museum will seek to
address and, subsequently, towards understanding how each facet of the museum’s
design and operation contributes to serving those needs. The process is recursive,
with the output of each phase applied as input in the succeeding phase. It must be
reflexive, demanding that all those engaged in the process are prepared to question
the assumptions they each bring to it. And it should be collaborative, ensuring that
key stakeholders are brought along with the process, with individuals’ relevant skills
and knowledge utilised to the fullest. Finally, each of these three phases should con-
tain two linked moments: analysis (breaking things down into their simplest parts to
identify problems) and synthesis (building those parts back up again into something
new). With these more general comments in mind, we will now address in greater
detail each of the three phases of the planning process in turn.
40 Darren Barker and Eric Langham

Phase One: Situation Analysis

The most critical task in any museum development or redevelopment is to pinpoint

and, if necessary, prioritise the needs it is intended to meet. Simple as it may seem,
this is also very often the task that proves most difficult to complete satisfactorily.
To overcome this hurdle, our approach as museum planners is to begin each new
project by conducting a situation analysis. This phase of the planning process in-
corporates several activities, as follows:

1 The planning team should enter into honest discussions with key project stake-
holders regarding their respective aims for the museum and their understand-
ing of the museum’s particular purpose, its strengths and its weaknesses. This
process may involve working with both internal and external stakeholders (e.g.,
trustees and prospective funders would be consulted, as would members of rel-
evant local communities). It will likely require a range of different approaches;
from one-to-one conversations, to controlled focus groups and workshops, or
more free-form community open days. The aim at this stage should not be to
force consensus among the various groups and individuals consulted. Instead,
this process is about bringing differences out into the open as the basis for re-
spectful and empathetic dialogue.
2 Planners should conduct a thorough review of the museum’s assets; both tangi-
ble (including the museum’s collections, buildings and grounds) and intangible
(including its brand and the stories it can tell). In completing this review, the
team should scrutinise both the opportunities those assets afford the museum
(e.g., as resources for storytelling, programming or marketing), as well as what
constraints they may impose (e.g., in terms of the care and conservation they
require). If the project concerns the redevelopment of an existing museum, plan-
ners should also work to understand the nature of the current visitor experience
and to map the range of activities and programming the museum currently offers
to its various audiences.
3 The team should seek to understand the museum’s positioning, considering,
firstly, how its work relates and responds to specific social needs, and secondly,
how it relates to other relevant organisations and services (for example, other
museums, media outlets, educational charities, community groups, care provid-
ers, theme parks, etc.), and how it might therefore complement, compete with or
unnecessarily replicate others’ work.
4 Finally, the team should identify a range of comparator organisations (other
visitor attractions that share key characteristics with the museum in question,
whether in terms of subject matter, function or location). The team should then
work to assemble baseline data regarding those organisations’ visitor numbers,
audience demographics, entrance and event pricing, their offer to local schools
and so on.

Having worked through these steps to gather data, the next task is analysis.
Findings from the above should be read critically and in light of one another.
 The Alchemy of Museum Planning 41

This will help to contextualise and prompt reflection on the core question of the
museum’s purpose. During this process, it may become clear that certain key stake-
holders hold differing ideas of what needs the museum should be designed to serve:
can these be combined and reconciled, or is further dialogue required to reach a
decision? Equally, the situation analysis may make it clear that the new museum
proposes to fulfil a need that is already being met elsewhere. Can the project be
adapted? Will it be financially viable if it seeks to enter into competition with an
existing service provider?
In the situation analysis, it is precisely these kinds of fundamental questions
that must be teased out and given rigorous consideration. The process should then
conclude with the production of a brief, which, as well as summarising relevant
research findings, will clearly define and document the following:

1 The grand vision behind the museum: What will it do? Who will it be for? How
will it serve those people? And why?
2 A series of agreed critical success factors that define the terms by which the
museum’s performance will be judged. Examples might include: the achieve-
ment of financial sustainability; the creation of local economic impact; building
relationships with specific audiences; the conservation of historic materials; or
providing a flexible infrastructure for future development and growth.

Phase Two: Options Appraisal

While the situation analysis will end, ideally, with agreement on the vision that un-
derpins the development or redevelopment, it is nevertheless likely that there will
be more than one way of actualising that vision. It is now the planner’s task to en-
sure that these options are thoroughly explored. In the options appraisal, therefore,
planners need to work creatively and critically to develop models of the different
kinds of experience and functionality the museum might offer. While these options
may have been raised in the course of the situation analysis, this is the moment
at which to carry out indicative costings (building upon and supplementing the
baseline data already assembled and factoring in, as an example, different possible
financial, social, environmental or political scenarios), to begin to draft the princi-
ples (or perhaps a number of competing sets of principles) for a curatorial plan, or
to commission or review existing research into likely audiences’ behaviours, needs
and motivations.
The aim here – in a process that blends creative, imaginative thinking with rig-
orous modelling and pragmatic research into relevant precedents – is to create a
number of options for how the museum might look, feel and operate when it opens
and then, by comparing and contrasting those options, to understand each more
comprehensively and more critically. In drawing the options appraisal to its conclu-
sion, planners should refer to the previously defined critical success factors, which,
appropriately weighted, can be used as the basis for a clear numerical ‘scoring’
system. By rationalising and presenting options in this way, it quickly becomes fea-
sible to gain consensus from key stakeholders as to the best way forward. From this
42 Darren Barker and Eric Langham

point on, the planning process can accelerate, with all team members confident of
which ideas are being taken forward, which are to be left behind, and why.

Phase Three: The Masterplan

The final phase in our planning process is the creation of a masterplan. Members
of the planning team will work together, across different disciplines, to create a
brief that combines architectural, curatorial, interpretive, audience programming
and business planning strategies – with each aspect of this work taking into account
agreements reached in the earlier phases of planning. As the project evolves, it will
likely incorporate new team members or contractors, all of whom will bring their
own assumptions and ideas to the project. In this context, a key responsibility of
the planning team is to ensure that all developments and decisions that are fed into
the plan still correspond to the museum’s original core vision and allow it to meet
the success criteria set out in the brief.
Again, the masterplanning phase needs to feature a series of linked moments of
analysis (breaking ideas down and testing them in light of the museum’s purpose)
and synthesis (pulling together a new unitary model of those ideas that survive
analysis). The ultimate expression of that synthesis comes in the production of the
final masterplan, which is a single, shared document that details the following:

• The vision behind the museum

• Its mission
• The high-level spatial organisation of the museum (and any planned building
or other works)
• Conservation standards
• Curatorial plan, including key stories and interpretation principles
• Audience and engagement strategy
• Marketing plan, including key messages
• Detailed business plan and commercial strategies
• Organisational design, human resources and governance structures
• Operational strategies
• A high-level timeline and budget for delivery.

Drawing together details of every aspect of the new or redeveloped museum-to-

be into a coherent whole, this masterplan will not only guide the project team and
any external contractors going forward; it may also serve as a helpful communica-
tions tool elsewhere. A slimmed-down version of the masterplan may be produced
to share with potential funders, to build public excitement about the project or to
gain buy-in from senior stakeholders.

Part Two: Planning Principles

In the first part of this chapter, we summarised the practical steps one must navi-
gate to produce a masterplan suited to guiding a major museum development or
 The Alchemy of Museum Planning 43

redevelopment. The masterplan will enable those who use it to understand and
measure their own activities in light of the overall vision for the museum. It grants
a degree of flexibility to those charged with delivering the project while simultane-
ously making clear the critical success factors that each aspect of the development
must respect. As we have seen, both the vision and the success factors that guide
the development or re-development of a museum should be arrived at through a
process of careful analysis and synthesis.
We now turn to a discussion of the three critical ideas that underpin our own
approach to planning. These ‘planning principles’ are intended to cast light, not
on the mechanical process of museum planning, but on some of the philosophical,
sociological and ethical challenges it poses. They can help to inform and enrich
each of the three phases detailed in part one, offer ways of viewing the museum as
an institution and inspire questions to ask of it.

First Principle: The Museum Is a Relational Entity

As museum theorist Sharon Macdonald and her colleagues suggest, ‘No museum
is an island’ (2018, p. 138). Museums cannot be understood in isolation from the
world around them. Rather, they become meaningful and functional spaces, and at-
tain the legitimacy and capacity to act, only in connection with their surroundings.
So, we use the term ‘relational’ to emphasise the multiple ways in which museums
are continually and reciprocally produced and reproduced in and through their rela-
tions with social life and the environment.
The relations in which museums are embedded exist at a multitude of scales
(both temporal and spatial – see Graham et al. 2000; Harvey 2015) and across
a number of different domains with almost infinite permutations. These relations
could be long-term and sometimes very physical (for example, the relations be-
tween objects and the heat, light and moisture they are protected against in storage),
or they could be at the same time both short-term and long-range (for example, a
temporary exhibition that marks an event distant in both time and space).
For the museum planner, it is important to try to achieve as comprehensive
a grasp as possible of all the conditions (cultural, epistemological, political, in-
frastructural and so on) in which a given museum operates. However, one una-
voidably significant set of relations is that which exists between museums and
the economy. Whether in terms of working towards an institution’s own financial
sustainability (Lindqvist 2012) or growing the direct and indirect economic, so-
cial and environmental impacts of museums as part of a wider ecosystem (Frey
1998; Plaza and Haarich 2009), examining these economic aspects helps to em-
phasise both the importance and the complexity of adopting a holistic approach
to planning.
In this brief exploration of just a few aspects of museums’ relationality, one
hugely important area is what might be termed the prevailing ‘common sense’ of
any given society. As museum theorists have long observed (e.g., Bennett 1995,
1998; Pearce 1995), museum practice is shaped in numerous ways by often com-
pletely unquestioned structures of thought and categorisation that guide how we
44 Darren Barker and Eric Langham

perceive, understand and hence represent the world. In museum displays, for ex-
ample, objects are often grouped by nation, by historical period, or according to
their scientific or decorative value – with each method of grouping opening up
some paths of understanding while closing off others.
This common sense is, in many respects, enormously helpful. As a kind of
shared language of meaning, it is the basis for all kinds of social interaction. Yet, it
can also serve to constrain our imaginations, including by embedding some basic
assumptions about what a museum is and what it does. For example, in Western
Europe and North America, it has for decades been commonplace to think of mu-
seums as destinations: spaces apart from everyday life to be visited rather than
inhabited. Likewise, at least in the United Kingdom, one often encounters an un-
derstanding of ‘heritage’ as a resource or a set of objects quite divorced from the
present (see Lowenthal 1985).
Yet there is no good reason why this need be the case. In our work on the re-
development of Qasr Al Hosn, a mixed-use Cultural Quarter including the oldest
building in the city of Abu Dhabi, we set out to reimagine and rebuild the links
between the site and the everyday life of the city. Working with a host of archi-
tects and city planners, and guided by a desire to redress the way in which Qasr
Al Hosn is now dwarfed by the city it once proudly loomed over, our plan for
the site placed it at the heart of a new ‘superplan’ to physically and conceptually
link disparate parts of the city and create a walkable environment from which
cars could be removed over time. Today, access to the landscape and Cultural
Foundation is free for all, and both locals and visitors are free to incorporate it
into their daily routes and routines. This approach harmonises with an Emirati
notion and experience of heritage, which is often highly dynamic and embed-
ded in everyday activities (Exell and Rico 2013; Barker and Langham 2014). It
has also borne fruit by attracting new businesses to the area, stimulating more
development, investment and tourism in what remains a very important part of
the city.

Second Principle: Museums Create the Future

Building on the idea of relationality, a second principle that always informs our
planning is the recognition that museums are future-oriented institutions. That is,
while they may concern themselves significantly with the care, remembrance and
display of material remnants of the past, every facet of a museum’s activity has to
do with the shaping of particular futures. This recognition of a museum’s intimate
relationship to the future is hardly new (see Hall 1999; Labadi and Long 2010;
Zetterstrom-Sharp 2015), but it could scarcely be more important to our work. Un-
derstanding this truth helps to prevent the museum from being conceptualised as a
passive storehouse (a place where the past accumulates as if by its own volition)
and instead demands that we think about museums as active leaders and pioneers
in society, with all the responsibility that implies to weigh the manifold costs and
benefits of their actions. With this perspective in mind, every decision takes on an
added and weighty significance: deciding what kind of museum to build and where
 The Alchemy of Museum Planning 45

to build it, if and how to renew an outdated institution, choosing what stories to tell,
or not to tell, and how to tell them.
We experienced for ourselves, very keenly, this responsibility museums have to
the future on a recent project when we were invited to advise on the development
of the new United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial. As Alice Greenwald (2010) ob-
serves in her poignant discussion of the process of planning the National Sep-
tember 11 Memorial Museum in New York, memorials to atrocity pose particular
challenges for those charged with delivering them. Greenwald’s role demanded
that she confront and strive to balance a number of duties that were not necessarily
complementary: to document, commemorate, educate, debate and preserve; and
respect local, national and international perspectives on what had been a global
event.
In London, the task was no less complicated, but it was a determination to un-
derstand and develop the memorial’s relationship to the future as much as its rela-
tionship to the past that ultimately guided the project team. As well as remembering
and mourning those killed in the Holocaust by erecting a fitting monument to their
lives, a collective decision was made to build a supporting centre that would chal-
lenge elements of Britain’s own history, such as the nation’s refusal to accept more
refugees, or questions over whether more could have been done to disrupt the Final
Solution. The memorial would thus become a place that consciously and pointedly
encouraged reflection on Britain’s responsibilities in the world today – exploring
how hatred, prejudice and apathy led to the Holocaust; how those factors have
given rise to subsequent genocides; and hence why and how they must be guarded
against now.
Thinking about museums in terms of their impact on shaping the future does not
mean neglecting to honour the past – far from it. It does, however, mean reflecting
upon and committing to a vision of how the world might be changed for the better.
Alongside a duty to respect, remember and celebrate the past, the museum planner
also has a responsibility to imagine and to lead.

Third Principle: Sustainability – Planning for Evolution, not Survival

Many museum professionals have the concept of sustainability hardwired into their
brains. Bearing in mind the issues discussed above surrounding relationality and
futurity, however, we want to conclude this discussion of principles by scrutinis-
ing the term and exploring how it might influence the decisions museum planners
make and the ways in which they work.
Sustainability can mean different things in different contexts. For much of the
second half of the 20th century, many museums made it the larger part of their work
simply to preserve and protect the items held in their collections. Their actions
were oriented on the whole to sustaining traces of the past in the future. In the 21st
century many museums have come under increasing pressure to also become finan-
cially self-sustaining. While talk of money changers in the temple among museum
professionals dates back at least to the 1980s (Harney 1994), it is an inescapable
fact that today, more than ever, museums are coming under pressure to reinvent
46 Darren Barker and Eric Langham

themselves as places of commerce – whether through the creation of specialist

retail offers (Larkin 2016), or through the cultivation of ticketed programming ad-
dressed to previously untapped audiences (see Kotler and Kotler 2000; Barron and
Leask 2017; Frey 2019). Similarly, where public funding for museums is retained,
institutions are increasingly called upon to justify their spending by evidencing the
broader economic outcomes of the work they do in terms of underpinning urban
regeneration (Plaza 2006; Butler 2012; Hewison 2014); fuelling job creation (Tuck
2015); or, less directly (within a framework of ‘social inclusion’), supporting mar-
ginalised groups in society to build confidence, develop skills and ultimately be-
come economically productive (Matarasso 1998; Young 2003; Tlili 2008; Bishop
2012).
It is important to note some of the contradictions that may arise between differ-
ent versions of sustainability. For example, Nick Merriman (Merriman 2008, c.f.
Fredheim et al. 2018) has argued that, in their efforts to preserve ever more traces
of the past, museums are creating a wholly unsustainable ecosystem for the next
generation to inherit. Collections are, quite simply, too big to store and too costly
to care for. Rather than creating a valued inheritance for those in our wake, they
may wind up becoming an unmanageable burden. Another contradiction concerns
many museums’ perceived need to offer, as far as possible, something for every-
body (shopping, education, entertainment, sensation and so on). This dubious quest
creates the risk that museums overstretch themselves and then fail to maintain ac-
ceptable standards across their vast portfolio of activities. A diluted, forgettable
museum experience risks alienating both existing and potential audiences.
Sustainability and how to define it throws up yet another contradiction with re-
gard to the challenge posed by calls to repatriate objects removed (often illegally)
from former colonies by imperialist collectors (Fforde et al. 2004). How Europe’s
‘universal’ museums respond to that challenge is again a question of balancing
two opposing notions of sustainability. On the one hand, the desire to preserve the
long-term integrity of collections may lead to institutions refusing applications for
repatriation; on the other hand, relinquishing stolen objects may be the only way of
maintaining an institution’s moral and ethical integrity and avoiding lasting repu-
tational damage.
Finally, there are contradictions relating to the stories museums tell and the
reasons they may have for telling them. Considering the ‘activist’ role of the mu-
seum mentioned earlier, if we imagine an institution dedicated to campaigning on
a single issue (the UK-based Museum of Homelessness (2018), for example), logic
dictates that such a museum must aim ultimately to eliminate the need for its own
existence. Or, that it is prepared to plan for an eventual radical change of purpose,
shifting from campaigning against present injustice to remembering past injury.
The definition of sustainability, in this case, would be the mission to drive and then
respond to change rather than merely maintaining stasis.
For the museum planner trying to build sustainability into their practice,
there are numerous tools and ideas that may be helpful. The notion of the
triple bottom line (TBL, protecting people, planet and profit) has gained great
traction in the business community since the mid-1990s (Elkington 1999).
 The Alchemy of Museum Planning 47

Kate Raworth’s (2017) ‘doughnut economics’ elaborates and extends the no-
tion of environmental and social sustainability embedded in TBL and updates
it for present times. For Glenn Sutter and Douglas Worts (2005), museums can
promote and centre sustainability in their work by rethinking the way they plan
for and measure social impacts: both working with communities to define de-
sirable outcomes that respond to their own everyday lives (cf. Graham 2017),
and conducting evaluation less egotistically (with a view to demonstrating au-
dience satisfaction) and more ecologically (understanding how museum initia-
tives have and might further support visitors to reflect upon and act responsibly
with regard to society and the environment). With specific regard to processes
of museum planning, meanwhile, Alberti et al. (2017) suggest making special
provision to ensure that amid the upheaval or major redevelopments, collecting
institutions retain and develop their capacity to carry out research, and remain
abreast of developments in contemporary society that they may wish – or need –
to respond to.
Considering the multiple and often competing demands the contemporary sus-
tainability agenda can make on museums brings us to our final example. In recent
years, we have helped to plan and develop the Bin Jelmood House in Doha, Qatar:
the first museum in the Arab world to focus its attention on slavery. In the con-
text of the region, the idea to develop this museum was a brave and radical one;
many remain in denial about the slave trade and slavery in Qatar, with the practice
banned there only relatively recently, in the mid-20th century. Furthermore, con-
temporary issues had to be addressed concerning Gulf countries that are still faced
with accusations of modern-day slavery.
For us, the long-term sustainability of the organisation – ensuring it became an
established part of Qatar’s cultural and historical landscape – was vitally important.
The museum’s future could not be risked by alienating potential audiences amid a
storm of controversy. As a result, we formulated an approach that favoured a long-
term capacity to promote dialogue over short-term impact. As well as working with
a range of international scholars to obtain globally recognised academic validation
for the content and story the museum shared, we also created exhibitions that dem-
onstrated a degree of restraint. The museum does not say everything; rather, it starts
an unfolding conversation, and that conversation has continued since the museum
opened. In essence, Bin Jelmood House seeks to ensure its own sustainability with
the goal of achieving more equitable social outcomes in the Gulf, ultimately lead-
ing to more sustainable, long-term political futures.

Conclusion
In this chapter, we have shared our understanding of museum planning as both a
systematic process of analysis and synthesis, and as a philosophical and creative
challenge. We have proposed a three-phase process for undertaking museum plan-
ning, moving from a situation analysis, through an options appraisal, to the creation
of a masterplan. Finally, we have set out three complementary principles that can
help us approach thinking about a museum’s purpose and place in society.
48 Darren Barker and Eric Langham

In closing, we want to reflect on what a museum planner’s role is, and what
qualities will help them flourish. Our belief is that the museum planner’s role is at
once that of the author of a blueprint, an inventor and a coordinator of dialogue.
As a person or a team of individuals, planners must have the ability to take a long,
broad view on economic, social, political, cultural and environmental conditions,
and they must also (within reason) be able to understand how these domains in-
tersect and impact one another. They should be sensitive to the constraints society
imposes, the opportunities it affords and the needs it has waiting to be fulfilled.
Planners have a complex emotional and psychological role in delivering major
projects. While, on the one hand, an important part of their job is to inspire con-
fidence and create consensus when contemplating taking new approaches, on the
other hand, they need to know when and how to introduce doubt into others’ minds
in order, ultimately, to arrive at a more robustly tested certainty. The planner, then,
acts both to soothe and to disrupt and must be capable of empathising with others
in order to know which approach is required at any given moment.
Lastly, planners should value and be guided by research – but not be bound
by precedent. Just as we have suggested that museums have a responsibility to
the future, to recognise and weigh their stake in it, so too must planners be able
to account for the impact their work will have on society. As they face the future,
planners should, therefore, be willing and able to provoke, but also, and most im-
portantly, create the strong consensus that is always needed to move confidently
into the future.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Dr Paul Tourle for his valuable contribution to this
chapter.

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Part II

Communication and
Marketing
5 Curating the Museum as a Brand
Matthias Henkel

When it comes to museums, there is often talk of curating, but only in terms of
exhibits and exhibitions. However, since we live in a hyper-communicative and
multi-medial world, it is also important to curate communication. That means
we have to be careful about what and how we communicate: focusing on the
perspective, interests and language of our potential recipients, in line with our
own goals.
This also means that the new way of communicating about the museum must be
located at the intersection between traditional forms of communication, traditional
educational work and a new understanding of audience development. That leads us
to strategic communication. In accordance with Louis Sullivan’s statement, form
follows function (Cloninger 2009) communication for a museum must follow the
content.
From the perspective of museum management, communication and marketing,
we can understand museums as a kind of social media, in the sense that:

• Museums deal with social, historical and arts phenomena

• Museums communicate with different target groups
• Museums are storytellers
• Museums create experiences
• Museums are stakeholders in cultural added value

For centuries, the main task of museums was to put objects into an explanatory
context. The core activities of the museum were defined as collecting, preserving,
researching, presenting and communicating. The museum established itself as a
place of originals; as a place where auratic objects were exhibited. Today, museums
should be understood as cultural institutions that are predestined to act as reposi-
tories of value-oriented information, not only for the storage of objects. In view
of today’s common visitor orientation, the provision of information for different
target groups is also one of the core tasks. Through elaborately designed exhibition
spaces, curators developed what we now call scenography. However, our tradi-
tional perception of the world has been shaken over the last decades. We are living
in an era that Jürgen Habermas once called the ‘new complexity’ (Habermas 1985).

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-8
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
54 Matthias Henkel

On the one hand, museums can be perceived as extracurricular places of education

and spaces of experiences; on the other they can be understood as an institutional
component of the cultural tourism infrastructure (Dickinson 2018). Beyond their
cultural or artistic relevance, museums therefore also have an economic dimension.
This reasoning makes it clear that museums participate in a wider competition tak-
ing place in the cultural sector: one aimed at gaining the attention of target groups
and audiences.

Covid-19 as an Accelerator for Communicative Visibility

Visibility and perceptibility are important when the discussion centers on
whether an institution is considered systemically relevant. However, the
Covid-19 pandemic temporarily disabled museums’ most important organ of
communication: the exhibition space. Due to the temporary closure of mu-
seums, they disappeared from public perception. During this time, many
museums attempted to attract attention with increased social media activity
(Agostino et al. 2020).
Against this background and notwithstanding all of the pandemic’s negative ef-
fects, the Covid-19 crisis also served as an accelerator for more visibility, for devel-
oping new, creative communication strategies, and for digitization in the museum
sector (Henkel 2021). It would have been even better, however, if it had not just
been about pure communication. The aspect of communicating one’s own brand in
addition to the content was often neglected.

No Brand without Content

At first glance, this chapter’s heading sounds like marketing. However, I am
concerned with a deeper understanding of branding (Ferreiro-Rosende et al.
2021). Branding is primarily based on an institution’s core competence: it has
to do with the values and beliefs that an institution represents to the public:
‘Brand orientation is more powerful, since it provides a holistic and balanced
perspective on an organization’ (Gromark and Melin 2013, abstract). It is about
capturing the attention of potential visitors. In order to get the attention of spe-
cific audiences in a competitive environment, it is necessary to follow a strate-
gic, brand-oriented communication approach: the goal is to resonate with the
audience.
However, to successfully develop an appropriate strategy, a truly holistic ap-
proach is required. This is a process that ideally needs to be developed with all
members of a museum’s personnel, to ensure that the values can be authentically
represented to the public by the entire team. In this way, a tangible and credible
brand promise is developed: both for the audience and for the team. Ideally a brand
promise consists of one or two sentences (Explore Museum Branding in 3 Compre-
hensive Steps n.d.). It both corresponds to an experience that a museum visitor can
expect and conveys core values (Finkle 2019). It is about what the museum does
for whom – and, most importantly, it is about the why (Sinek 2009). It is first and
 Curating the Museum as a Brand 55

foremost about intrinsic motivation: a deep belief in the value of one’s own tasks.
Based on this shared inspiration, team members are able to create holistic experi-
ences for visitors.
A brand promise should be simple, memorable and inspiring, e.g. Berlin-based
Museum Futurium’s: ‘Futurium - a house of futures’ (Futurium n.d.). This brand
promise makes clear that there will be more than one future. Another example: The
brand promise ‘for nature’ from the Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of Natural
History) in Berlin makes it clear that the museum is also committed to environmen-
tal preservation (Museum für Naturkunde n.d.).

No Brand without a Logo

A logo is one of the central elements of brand identity, but it will never appear in
isolation. A complete visual identity also includes fonts, colors, pictures, frames
and, last but not least, the way of thinking and communicating about the museum:
corporate design (CD). The development of a brand can easily be compared to the
growth of an individual personality (Richardson 2019).
A brand story is something like the biography of a given museum. It informs
the target audience about the museum’s history, its core values, its goals and its
overall vision. This leads us to the question of the purpose of the museum: topic
that has in recent years been intensively discussed among the global ICOM
community, finally leading to a revised museum definition in 2022 (ICOM
2022). At the moment, the ICOM Code of Ethics is being revised. In general,
differentiations must be drawn between a museum’s definition, mission and
vision:

A mission statement is a sentence or short paragraph that defines the ex-

istence of … [an institution]. Mission statements get at the heart of why a
company exists, rather than how it exists. In other words, a mission statement
isn’t a business plan.
(Ward 2020a, n page)

For Ward, moreover, the mission states where the museum stands in the present:

A vision statement is sometimes thought of as a picture of your … [institution]

in the future, but it’s much more than that. When creating a vision statement,
you’re articulating your hopes and dreams […]. Your vision statement is your
inspiration, and it will serve as the framework for all your strategic planning.
(Ward 2020b, n page)

Finally, the vision states where the museum is going, if the development of
the institutional identity can be successfully shaped, a corporate identity (CI) will
evolve over time. This means that staff members identify with the brand.
56 Matthias Henkel

‘It’s Easier to Love a Brand When the Brand Loves You Back’

The above quote from Seth Godin (2012) underlines that brand-based communica-
tion is a special way to develop a dialogue strategy between the museum and its
audiences. The first key element is ‘love’ – in other words, the emotional approach.
The second aspect illustrates that communication is a process based on reciprocity,
since the museum is not only a disseminator of messages but also a receiver, able
to perceive the messages and moods of the visitors in order to become a place of
dialogue: what Oldenburg (1989) called a ‘third place’. In the present day, we no
longer understand visibility in purely visual terms; it is instead understood as a
state of multi-sensory perception. The point is thus to develop the brand in a way
that appeals to as many of the senses as possible. In addition to the visual identity,
for example, it is also important to develop a ‘corporate sound’ that has a high
degree of recognizability. In this way, even waiting on the phone can become an
acoustic pleasure, if the ‘hold music’ is also perfectly curated.

Holistic Quality: The Thread of Communication

Should Never Break
Following the four-sided model elaborated by Friedemann Schulz von Thun, com-
munication takes place on four different and interconnected levels: (a) factual in-
formation, (b) appeal, (c) self-revelation and (d) relationship (Schulz von Thun
n.d.). I would argue that only communication that encompasses all these levels will
ultimately be successful.
Communication is an ongoing process, which is why the threads of communica-
tion between museums and their visitors should never break. To achieve this, it is
necessary to establish communication without ‘media breaks’; this means seam-
lessly connecting different types of media with one another (i.e. print, online, of-
fline). In this respect, successful communication is based on a comprehensive and
holistic understanding of quality. This also includes successively developing the
brand with attention, care and consistent action.
The purpose of a museum is not to make financial profit, but to create added
value for society. Nevertheless, certain principles derived from the market econ-
omy also apply here: notably meeting the needs of potential visitors (visitor needs).
At the same time, it is a matter of society enabling museums to develop appropriate
cultural offerings (museum tasks) (Figure 5.1). The advancing digitalization and
the rapid development of AI now perceptible in the public consciousness will pro-
foundly change our entire lives. It is important that the museum sector also proac-
tively addresses these developments. In any case, both operational actions and the
possibilities for using the new technology will also fundamentally change everyday
museum life. This affects all of the museum’s traditional fields of activity – not
only ways of exhibiting and dealing with objects but also communication strate-
gies. The term ‘digital strategy’ is often used in this context. However, I believe
that this is too narrow a focus, notably because it does not take into account the
idea of developing a holistic, and truly hybrid, strategy (Kiolbassa and Kranz. n.d.).
 Curating the Museum as a Brand 57

Figure 5.1 The visual impression of the concept of curated communication. © Matthias

Henkel.

The Visitor Becomes a User – the Visit Becomes a Journey – and

the Journey Becomes an Experience
In the past, a museum visit was often seen as an act of education. Today we un-
derstand museum visits as a kind of journey in which visitors can make their own
decisions: the visit to the museum begins on the sofa in the living room. In other
words: the museum visit becomes a real (hybrid) journey.
In the future, audience development and visitor relation management will take
place on four different and simultaneous levels. We can identify these different lev-
els and touchpoints between the museum and its potential visitors in the following
way (also visualized in Figure 5.2 below):

1 ON SITE—visitors at the analogue museum

2 OFFSITE—visitors outside the analogue museum—for example, in a public
urban space or traveling to the museum.
3 ONSITE—potential visitors surfing the museum website
4 ONLINE—potential visitors surfing the web or using social media

These four different levels, which naturally overlap, should be connected to one
another. A clear distinction should be made between the different visitors in order
58 Matthias Henkel

Figure 5.2 A visual impression of the concept of the new visitor journey. © Matthias Henkel.

to be able to develop customized offers. To achieve this, we need to divide the audi-
ence into the following groups (also see Figure 5.3):

• VISITORS – people who have a direct presence at the museum, whether in per-
son or online. They enjoy an analogue visit and may take advantage of digital
offerings built into the museum.
• USERS – people who are either outside the museum and use the museum’s
digital offerings, or people who are in the museum and also use the museum’s
digital offerings.
• SURFERS – people who are outside, who are looking for content related to the
museum in the museum’s digital offering.
• FOLLOWERS – people located offsite and online who connect to the museum
via social media platforms.
• CONTRIBUTORS – people who actively engage in intellectual or operational
exchanges with the museum – whether onsite, or offsite, online or offline.
 Curating the Museum as a Brand 59

Figure 5.3 The visual impression of the concept of the new visitor journey. © Matthias
Henkel.

With the aid of this double differentiation (connectivity and function), it is pos-
sible to precisely describe the individual touchpoints of visitors/users on their way
to the museum, during their visit to the museum – and of course on their way back
home. This offers us the opportunity to create individual visitor journeys – with the
overall aim of building a lasting relationship with the visitor/user (visitor loyalty).

‘The Museum Is a Place of Permanent Conference’

The above quote, from artist Joseph Beuys, not only underscores the museum’s
communicative competence but also illustrates the dialogic character of the mu-
seum of the future:

• The museum enables visitors to engage in a dialogue with the objects and their
contexts.
60 Matthias Henkel

• In addition, it opens up the possibility of self-reflection, self-knowledge and

opinion-forming for visitors.
• Moreover, because a museum visit is often seen as a social event, the museum
encourages dialogue between visitors and the museum.

As a result, a visit to a museum can be understood as a thoroughly communica-

tive process. The point is that we empower visitors to enter into such a dialogue.
This means that we impart relevant knowledge or offer opportunities for relevant
experiences to be gained.

Relevance, Reliability, Meaning and Sensemaking

We live in very dynamic times. Many values and norms are being questioned;
there is a polarization of social relationships: for example, in some societies, the
importance of religious conviction is growing, while in others secularized views
are gaining ground. As a result, the search for meaning and the creation of meaning
are global phenomena, which generate different approaches to solutions depending
on the given social environment.
Sensemaking is a personal construction process in which each individual
constantly creates their own social reality based on their own experiences. This
knowledge production is a complex process which comprises cognitive and emo-
tional-intuitive aspects. The museum of the future should become a place that ena-
bles this process of creating meaning. Following Karl Edward Weick, sensemaking
is a multi-layered process. For Weick, sensemaking is:

• grounded in identity construction

• retrospective
• enactive of sensible environments
• social
• ongoing
• focused on and by extracted cues
• driven by plausibility rather than accuracy (Weick 1995, p. 17)

To summarize, sensemaking is a permanent process of writing, read-

ing and re-writing – one could describe it as an internalized machinery of
storytelling – ­always striving to produce meaning based on individual activi-
ties and experiences. For the museum, the process of sensemaking represents
a huge opportunity but also a great deal of responsibility. Especially in the age
of fake news and so-called ‘alternative facts’, reliable information is a very
important asset.
As an institution, the museum has earned a good reputation with respect
to informational credibility, as it is usually based on scientific analysis and
historical sources. For this reason, museums have historically been very well
regarded by the public. In the future, the museum can also view itself as a cul-
tural service provider of reliable information: one that encourages members of
 Curating the Museum as a Brand 61

the public to form their own opinions on historical, social or artistic issues on
the basis of reliable sources.
Content is relevant to us if it engages us emotionally. Applied to the context
of museums, I would describe this as building a bridge of relevance. Nina Simon
(2017) has written a book on this topic, entitled The Art of Relevance. Relevance
arises when we deal with facts, some of which we know and some of which are
new to us. It is about whether the museum can convey aspects, contexts or – more
generally – content that is in some way important to the current lives of its visi-
tors and users. Through such an approach, the museum also gains a stronger social
reputation while sustainably strengthening its own brand.

Cultural Overlap and Curated Communication

In traditional classification systems, distinctions are often drawn between press and
public relations, advertising and marketing, digital communication, strategic com-
munication and branding, as well as visitor relations management; there is also a
fine distinction to be made between internal and external communication.
We live not only in an increasingly global world but also in a world that is
becoming more and more diversified. After all, museums are places where strange-
ness and friendship, similarity and otherness can be experienced in a peaceful way;
they are unique places where people can meet in real time and space and share
(often intergenerational) experiences.
In the future, museums can use their expertise in intercultural communication
to facilitate dialogue between different communities. In this regard, the Indian
philosopher Ram Adhar Mall defined the concept of cultural overlap. This seems
to me an extraordinarily useful approach for the museum to ‘function as a forum
for social dialogue’ (Mall 2013, p. 11). Viewed in this light, it’s not just about
curating exhibitions; it’s also about curating the communication that accompa-
nies them.

Museum and the City: Tourism, Sponsoring, Lobbying, Influencing

The museum is an institution that is intricately connected with cultural and social
welfare; it is part of the infrastructure of a town, city or country. This means that the
museum should place a high value on its own social embeddedness:

• As a vital component of cultural tourism infrastructure, museums have the op-

portunity to offer customized programming to create travel occasions for tour-
ists. In order to enable strong cooperation with the tourism industry, strategic
agreements and long-term planning are crucial.
• Sponsoring, lobbying and cooperation with influencers are activities that re-
quire long-term and strategic communication work in order to achieve success.
It is certainly helpful if the museum has already established itself as a strong
regional brand.
62 Matthias Henkel

• The interface between strategic communication and curating relevant topics is

particularly interesting to underline: sooner or later, it always pays to focus it
always pays for museums to focus their programming work on topics that are
regionally important.

Data Is the New Oil

In previous eras, museums might have been described as object-centered institu-
tions. Then came a phase that saw museums place greater focus on the needs of
visitors. Finally, there was a phase in which the focus expanded to also include
non-visitors. The points addressed above make it clear that the field of commu-
nication has expanded significantly over the last decade. In order for museums to
work on branding and communication in a sustainable fashion, it is necessary to
understand building communication strategies as a real cross-sectional task: one
that extends across all departments.
Over the past decade, the topic of visitor research has become more important
(Recupero et al. 2019). Activities related to visitor research are often carried out by
the press relations or media departments within a museum. In a time of dwindling
financial resources, it makes sense to focus programming and content develop-
ment even more on the interests of potential audiences. Against this background, it
makes sense to invest a share of the budget in visitor research.

A New Understanding of Sustainability

We are currently living in a disruptive age; just a few months ago, a global pan-
demic showed us how vulnerable our way of life is; political and cultural conflicts
are escalating; natural resources are dwindling; the climate is changing due to still
increasing emissions; the world order that has been in place for decades, as it devel-
oped after the end of the Second World War, is being called into question. All the
skills and knowledge that mankind has conceived, learned and invented so far have
brought us to the point we are at today: the abyss. We do not have a single problem,
but we are witnesses to a stacking crisis.
It is my belief that museums should be involved in developing a new and deeper
understanding of sustainability. Until recently, sustainability has typically been un-
derstood as a combination of three components: the social, the economic and the
ecological, which overlap to create three intersections: fair, worth living of life and
reasonable (Henkel 2023, p. 241).
This existing model is not incorrect (Figure 5.4), but it is, in my view, an inad-
equate model to deal with the challenges we face in as indicated above. The prob-
lem is that we humans do not necessarily pursue a goal when it is useful. We need
a special level of motivation and of emotional involvement to perform an action.
Nina Simon argues that relevance cannot be defined from the outside but is de-
termined by the people themselves. It is about including their experiences and al-
lowing them to play an active role in shaping and participating. It emphasizes that
relevance is not static, but changes over time and in changing contexts. It requires
 Curating the Museum as a Brand 63

Figure 5.4 The traditional concept of sustainability. © Matthias Henkel.

continuous reflection and adaptation to ensure that facts continue to be seen as

meaningful (Simon 2017, min 1:45 ff.). How could – based on these arguments –
­the framework for a new understanding of sustainability be designed? How might
emotional involvement arise to generate motivation to act? How can we use the
tools of the museum to transform the useful into the meaningful?
Only when we embed this existing system in a cultural (artistic-historical) frame-
work (Figure 5.5) can a genuinely sustainable and valuable foundation emerge.
The language of art is particularly capable of touching us emotionally. This
emotional approach with the means of art could be exactly the way to spark a
value-based and action-guided motivation. For this reason, I do not advocate a
four-pillar model, but rather a three-pillar model that is supplemented by a cultural-
artistic foundation that works with the means of art and culture. It is precisely
through this new interface that museums can make their own socially productive
contributions. They might apply their intercultural, historical and contemporary
skills in new contexts, and thus vividly signal their local, regional and supra-re-
gional relevance within cultural-political environments by actively demonstrating
their willingness and ability to engage in discourse. Museums should also be aware
of their social responsibility: one that is based on facts, that demonstrates transpar-
ency and an emotional, sensorial approach, one that is authentic, both offline and
online (hybrid). Following this roadmap, museums will become places of trustwor-
thiness and sensemaking – to the great benefit of diverse societies.
64 Matthias Henkel

Figure 5.5 A new understanding of sustainability. © Matthias Henkel.

Conclusion: The Museum as a ‘Social Sculpture’

In order for museums to successfully communicate with their audiences while
navigating the tensions between leisure, knowledge and society, a strategically ori-
ented, culturally shaped, emotional and brand-based institutional communication
strategy is required. Brand-based communication is key, and it is essential to enable
purposeful communication inside and outside the museum.
In the end, the museum is both: the place of original exhibits – and the ‘place
of the permanent conference’ (Beuys 1980). This is a challenge – but also an enor-
mous opportunity. We have to communicate the museum as a brand, to design the
acquisition of knowledge as a holistic emotional experience. However, we should
not imagine museums only as friendly places: They also deal with serious, some-
times even depressing content (e.g. crimes against humanity, robbery or colonial-
ism). In this respect, it is also important to communicate the museum as a place of
factual information about ethical issues.
Ultimately, we can also understand museums as places that, in the real, digital,
medial and also mental sense, only come into being through the fact that each of us –
with our abilities and our imperfections, actively contribute to the shaping of society.
In the sense of Beuys, we thus create a ‘social sculpture’; a museum institution that is:

• accessible to all
• committed to the development of society
 Curating the Museum as a Brand 65

• oriented to the needs of visitors (Rand 1996)

• dedicated to its own institutional requirements
• responsive – technologically and in a social way
• relevant – not political but topical
• bridging the past, present and future

In the end, it is essential that all of the museum’s processes are carried out
with the utmost attention, and with a truly distinct understanding of quality in
the holistic sense. This makes communication – both internal and external – an
absolute key skill that museums need to develop. The final message of the mu-
seum emerges only through the mental or sensory cognitive process triggered in
the visitor or user by the experience of the visit – or let’s call it cognitive journey.

Epilog
In earlier generations, empirical knowledge had a very high significance precisely
when the institution of the museum was invented. In our time, which is character-
ized by rapid change, the importance of empirical knowledge will decline and the
importance of orientation knowledge will increase significantly.
Working on the museum’s identity – curating the brand – is sustainable when it
is based on the holistic self-understanding of capabilities and boundaries as well
as the institutional mission and vision. On this basis, it is possible to develop (in-
ternal) communication that creates the foundation for authentic (external) strategic
communication. This raises expectations that can actually be met by visiting the
museum or using its digital offerings.
There is currently a debate about whether the use of artificial intelligence threat-
ens jobs and fields of activity. The use of such tools will – whether we like it or
not – be understood in retrospect as a new cultural technique; we have no choice
but to learn skills in dealing with it – culturally based and value-oriented. At the
moment, AI is used more to generate answers to questions. Nevertheless, it remains
to be hoped that humanity will continue to recognize the great appeal of ‘the mu-
seum as a place of permanent conference’ (Beuys 1980) and democratic discourses
as the 21st century progresses.

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6 Museum Branding by Social
Engagement
A Co-Creation of Daxi Wood Art
Ecomuseum, Taiwan

Joy Chih-Ning Hsin

Museum Branding in a Changing World

Museum branding provides a shared understanding of a museum’s value internally,
while presenting a consistent image of the museum and its organisational identity
externally. Amid increasing complexity and uncertainty in the 21st century, muse-
ums need to reinvent their approach to branding. Anderson’s (2012) perspective of
reinventing the museum represents a systemic shift in attitude, purpose, alignment,
and execution for museums that relates to the paradigm shift of museum man-
agement and reinventing the museum in terms of institutional values, governance,
management strategies, and communications. As Janes and Sandell (2007) state,
increasing complexity has by necessity forced creativity in museum organisations,
their leadership and new development directions. An important challenge for mu-
seum marketers is to build brands around ideas that are less tangible than customer
service and efficiency. Such ideas could include community, shared ownership and
collective identity and could be based on the use of marketing techniques to build
brands that produce emotional identification and take credit for the public value
that museums create (Janes and Sandell 2007, p.4).
This chapter presents a case study of the Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum (DWAEM)
in Taiwan to demonstrate its innovative approach to branding, particularly high-
lighting its initiatives since 2013. Daxi was historically well-known for its wood
carvings and as a distribution centre for tea, camphor, and lumber in the 19th cen-
tury. The Daxi District, situated in southeastern Taoyuan City, the sixth municipal-
ity of northern Taiwan, still has many core businesses that have spun off from the
original woodworking industry, including master woodworkers’ shops, factories,
artists’ studios, and furniture stores. DWAEM opened in 2015 with two historic
buildings and four corner houses and defined its interpretation of ecomuseums
within the local context. The museum is supported by the municipal government
and uses a participatory model for the development and growth of the museum.
The value of the museum is not manifested by the government but is instead co-
created in consensus with the local community. The entire community falls within
the museum’s scope, and local residents are involved in the process of branding
through social engagement. This chapter demonstrates the reinvented approach of
this collaborative form of branding on the local community.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-9
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Museum Branding by Social Engagement 69

The Identity of Daxi: From Community Building to a Living Museum

Situated along the Dahan River, Daxi was a transportation hub for commercial
activities in the 19th century. Important goods such as tea, camphor and timber
could be shipped through Dahan River, making Daxi an important canal city in
northern Taiwan (Zhuang 2015, p. 7). The wealthy gentry took residence in the
area, and master craftsmen built their family mansions of wood, laying down the
foundation for the wooden products industry. Shops and studios established a
middle class. Various immigrants became residents, increasing the community’s
diversity. The Saintly Emperor Guan’s birthday celebration festival and pilgrim-
age on Lunar 24 June, in particular, has been registered as an intangible cultural
heritage asset by the Ministry of Culture. The area’s tangible and intangible as-
sets have shaped the distinctive cultural landscape of Daxi and made it a tour-
ism destination. Over time, its distinctive characteristics shaped the planning of
streets: for instance, Heping Old Street, known for selling wood products, and
Zhongshan Road, the residential street of the gentry where important historical
monuments are located.
In 1994, the central government in Taiwan launched community-building as
part of its cultural policy by establishing close social ties with community resi-
dents. Daxi began its community-building work at the same time, and over the
past 25 years many concerned and idealistic community-building groups have
been formed. These groups have the autonomy to devote their time and resources
to local history and culture studies and advocate for the preservation of Old
Street townhouses and heritage. Lan-yen Huang, who was the section chief of
the governing body and initiated the creation of DWAEM, observed that the turn-
ing point was when community groups called for the preservation of Japanese-
style dormitories in 2012. The local authority applied for funding to establish a
residential workstation on the site, as a base to meet with Daxi residents and to
discuss and develop the idea of viewing Daxi as a living museum (Huang 2015,
pp. 167-168).
Based on the foundation of 20 years of community building, the local govern-
ment aspires to develop an unconventional museum which would be supported, on
the one hand, by the public authority and operate with active engagement by local
residents on the other. The museum’s name, Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum, Taoyuan,
was initially abbreviated as ‘Daxi W.E. Museum’ before the acronym ‘DWAEM’
came into usage, which represented ‘WE: OUR museum’ and furthered the mu-
seum vision with the slogan ‘All of Daxi is a museum’. It could be summed up as a
museum created by the public, with town residents serving as de facto museum di-
rectors, and the spirit of the museum not being limited to a single building (Huang
2015, p. 170; Huang 2016, pp.90-91) (see Figure 6.1).
The museum corresponds to the definition of an ecomuseum ‘an instrument
conceived, fashioned and operated jointly by a public authority and a local popula-
tion’ (Rivière 1985, p. 182) as conceived in France in 1971. Davis (1999) stated
that ecomuseums are more properly defined by what they do rather than by what
they are. DWAEM governs with local shared values, taking pride in collaborative
70 Joy Chih-Ning Hsin

Figure 6.1 ‘All of Daxi is a museum’. Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City, Daxi Wood Art
Ecomuseum.

action, and acts as an important platform through which the community can con-
tribute to preserving its heritage and enable new approaches to make meaning out
of conserving its local distinctiveness. Therefore, the museum operates with fewer
than 20 official personnel and has more than 100 volunteers and 91,887 residents
on staff (Huang 2015, p. 170; Huang 2016, p. 90).

Social Engagement to Branding: Corner Houses as Co-Creators

According to Zhuang (2015, p.13), the objectives of the DWAEM are to promote
wooden art, preserve local working-class culture, restore the glory of craftsmen,
and give impetus to the revival of the area. The museum was established by the
city’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, but continues to grow in collaboration with local
residents, with the aspiration of transforming all of Daxi into a museum without
walls. As Huang (2015) notes, initially abbreviated ‘WE’ from the museum’s name
is both a brand and a strategy to establish Daxi’s cultural identity. Yi-Lan City in
northeastern Taiwan, aimed to establish a similar brand to Daxi but through a dif-
ferent approach, the Lanyang Museum, opened in 2010, was built and developed
as a core museum responsible for facilitating cooperation and interaction among
the region’s organisations, groups and individuals to establish the brand ‘Yi-Lan
is a museum’ (Hsin and Lin 2015, p. 159). Taoyuan City, instead, renovated herit-
age buildings one by one in the Daxi area instead of constructing a new facility.
The Japanese-style dormitory of Daxi Primary School, built in the 1920s, became
DWAEM’s first building; it was named ‘No.1 Hall’ and opened to the public in
2015. (see Figure 6.2) Daxi Police Bureau Dormitory Complex, Samurai Virtue
 Museum Branding by Social Engagement 71

Figure 6.2 No.1 Hall, DWAEM’s first building opened to the public in 2015. Photo cour-
tesy: Taoyuan City Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum.

Hall, and other heritage buildings were renovated between 2015 and 2019 as the
museum’s public operations’ spaces for exhibition, education, workshop studios,
and so on. As of 2020, there were a total of six public museums, and this number
has increased to 11 in 2023.
In addition to its public heritage spaces, the museum also facilitates what it calls
‘corner houses’ as co-creators in branding the DWAEM through social engage-
ment. The museum’s Planning Committee invited shop owners, acting as directors
and interpreters, to share their understanding, personal memories and stories of
Daxi with local youth and tourists. Four corner houses opened in 2013, the first
year of the museum’s operation, and all of these were shops making and selling
wooden implements along the main Old Street. Five more corner houses opened
the following year, including a farm, a blacksmith’s shop, and a creative product
shop (Huang 2015, p. 171). When the DWAEM officially opened in 2015, there
were 15 corner houses in the network; this number increased to 21 in 2018, reflect-
ing greater diversity and expanding locations (DWAEM 2019b), before reaching
over 30 in 2023.1 The museum provides funding and resources to facilitate these
corner house partners, providing them with external experts for their professional
growth in terms of museum studies, historical research, and product marketing
through training, seminars, and evaluation. Meanwhile, the museum organises an-
nual activities with marketing partners such as Museums on the Corner, Daxi Fes-
tival, and Daxi Field School and publishes a bimonthly journal, A Volume of Daxi,
to disseminate local knowledge.
72 Joy Chih-Ning Hsin

The work of corner houses represents the key elements of social engagement
which Zhang, Jiang, and Carroll (2011) analyse, including participation and in-
teraction in collective activities, social exchange, and individual autonomy. Chu
Kuan Hsu, director of the Taiwan Association of Urban and Rural Development
(TAUD) and one of the long-term external experts who has facilitated corner
houses, shared his insights, observing that the approach of co-creation, and en-
couraged corner house owners/operators who were unfamiliar with the concept
of a museum, or an ecomuseum, to become active agents or ambassadors for
the brand identity.2 Hsu also notes that corner houses operators had seen trans-
formations in their self-identities, from shop owners or small business market-
ers to museum directors and social actors. The sense of belonging and earned
value through active engagement, well-being, and connectedness facilitated by
the corner houses prove how the co-production approach enables collaboration
and cooperation between the public and private sectors and facilitates network-
ing and ongoing community involvement driven by shared values and mutual
equity (Scott 2010, 2013, 2015). The corner houses act, on a functional level, like
‘economuseums’3 to promote the preservation of traditional knowledge and the
products of local craftspeople and cultural heritage. However, the identities of
the corner houses themselves represent not only the shops and their own stories
but also the local knowledge of Daxi as a whole. Accordingly, the government-
operated cultural heritage spaces and privately run corner houses are all part of
the DWAEM, a Daxi-based ecomuseum. Both public spaces and corner houses
continue to increase in number, expanding from old central streets in Daxi to
the periphery. Branding and social engagement networks thus emanate from the
centre and ripple outwards.

Branding the Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum

Meyne (2015) completed an internal branding strategy for the Rijksmuseum
(Netherlands) during renovations ahead of its reopening in 2013. The process and
phases of the branding strategy (see Figure 6.3) included the search for a brand
identity, incorporating the brand’s values in the organisation, communicating with
audiences, internal and external stakeholders, visualising the brand, naming staff
as brand ambassadors, anchoring the brand’s essence and values in the business
processes of the museum and developing a coherent brand identity for external
marketing (Meyne, 2015, pp. 48-54). This branding strategy for the Rijksmuseum
could, to a certain extent, be generalised to apply to other museums. The Daxi
Wood Art Ecomuseum took similar steps in its own branding process. Particularly,
the DWAEM considers the corner houses to be brand ambassadors, exemplifying
a co-learning methodology and collaborative actions that anchor the brand, con-
stantly enhancing the identity of Daxi as a living museum.
DWAEM Director Hui Chien Chen has stated that the core purpose of the mu-
seum was to act as a mechanism for local residents to represent themselves and to
tell their own stories (Chen 2019, pp. 1-2). More public spaces have been renovated
 Museum Branding by Social Engagement 73

Figure 6.3 The process of internal branding in Rijksmuseum (Meyne, 2015, p. 48). Image
courtesy: Chinese Association of Museums.

for museum use, and more corner houses have joined the network in locations
outside of the old street. Implementing co-learning as its primary methodology,
since 2015 the museum has organised serial coaching programmes for the corner
houses that include museum studies workshops, expert consulting, study trips, and
seminars (DWAEM 2019a, pp. 55-56). The corner houses receive accreditation
when they complete the programme and take collective actions to preserve local
knowledge, organise exhibitions, and join annual festivals. Directors of the corner
houses revealed that the greatest challenge for them was finding the time to get in-
volved, to communicate with one another, to understand and to work together. Each
corner house is unique and autonomous, and together they form a diverse network
(DWAEM 2019b, pp. 69-70).
The Chung Yuan Christian University developed DWAEM’s visual identity. The
museum logo shows hills and a river, representing the forest and Dahan River,
74 Joy Chih-Ning Hsin

Figure 6.4 Museum logo and CIS signs which won the iF Design Award 2018. Photo cour-
tesy: Taoyuan City Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum.

which were the source of the carpentry, livelihood, and history of the region.
Furthermore, the design team has created four visual images and colour plans to
present the ‘Forest’ of nature, the ‘Water’ of life, the ‘Street’ of culture, and the
‘Museum’ of production (DWAEM 2019b, p. 21).4 The museum logo won the Dis-
cipline Communication award at the 2018 iF DESIGN AWARDS (see Figure 6.4).
The DWAEM arguably demonstrates many of the ideas and values advocated
by ICOM, such as museums interacting with their communities, museums and
cultural landscapes, and museums fostering strong connections with new publics
and new approaches. Along the lines of Anderson’s (2012, pp. 3-4) paradigm shift
of museum management, the DWAEM reinvents the museum in several ways.
Grounding itself in the brand identity ‘All of Daxi is a museum’, the DWAEM co-
creates ownerships and institutional values with community participants, and the
corner houses in particular form collective accountability. The corner house owners
act as directors, interpreters, and educators, and the museum governs its operations
through shared leadership, collective decision-making and collaboration. Taking
up a co-learning organisation as a management strategy, the museum co-creates
with the corner houses and facilitates the exchange of knowledge through men-
torships, training courses, workshops, seminars, and even conferences. In doing
so, the museum acts as an intermediary: a platform, a catalyst and a generator of
branding, as well as developing the vision of Daxi as a fascinating place to live and
visit. (see Figure 6.5).
 Museum Branding by Social Engagement 75

Figure 6.5 Corner houses charter ceremony in 2021. Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City Daxi
Wood Art Ecomuseum.

Conclusions
DWAEM is unique in two ways. First, the museum brand is a reinvented interpreta-
tion of an ecomuseum which reflects the 21st century and local contexts in Daxi,
Taiwan. This ecomuseum is authorised and supported by the local government, yet
it is not restricted as a subordinate institution. It is more than a single building and
brand; the entirety of Daxi has effectively become a museum without walls. The
museum has renovated existing cultural heritage resources rather than constructing
new buildings. It has also been developing its collection through in-situ preserva-
tion efforts and retains objects in their original locations and contexts, i.e. in local
people’s lives. The DWAEM brands its own local ecomuseum discourse through
dynamic community preservation, interpretation, and management of heritage for
sustainable development.
Secondly, the museum’s branding is established through social engagement
with ‘corner houses’, which function as co-creators. The co-creation approach
enables corner house participants to change their identities within Daxi and their
role in the co-learning process and collaborative actions. The DWAEM brand
thus creates emotional ties, connecting local residents and corner house directors.
Meanwhile, the professional community-building personnel, official staff of the
DWAEM, and external experts play crucial roles in facilitating and accompanying
their growth within the social engagement process. The understanding and consen-
sus of what the DWAEM is starts with the corner houses. The corner house project
76 Joy Chih-Ning Hsin

Figure 6.6 Saintly Emperor Guan’s birthday celebration festival and pilgrimage on Lunar
24 June registered as an intangible asset. Photo courtesy: Taoyuan City Daxi
Wood Art Ecomuseum.

has continuously increased in number and expanded outside of the old street. It
will be more challenging when it reaches other districts in the city. The co-creation
approach is also undertaken by Shetou5 culture, which allows religious groups to
participate in the Saintly Emperor Guan’s Birthday Celebration and pilgrimage on
Lunar 24 June (see Figure 6.6). There are more than 30 local Shetous in Daxi, each
with unique rituals and complicated relationships, which make the museum brand-
ing project more challenging.
In the case of the DWAEM, the ongoing process of branding is not about the
perspective of the museum itself but instead focuses on the relationships between
the museum and local social networks; it furthermore depends on interconnec-
tion, interdependences, and interaction with residents and local communities. The
museum takes an innovative approach to branding and acts as a living organism
by growing with the local community, with the museum and the community en-
riching one another over time. The successful matrix of museum management in
a changing world, by definition, requires creativity, time, and more importantly
reinvention.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to express her sincere gratitude to Chu Kuan Hsu, the direc-
tor of the Taiwan Association of Urban and Rural Development (TAUD), for shar-
ing his insights in an interview conducted on 30 November 2018.
 Museum Branding by Social Engagement 77

Notes
1 The number of corner houses and co-learning partners is progressively increasing each
year. See the official website of Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum at https://wem.tycg.gov.tw/
home.jsp?id=7&parentpath=0,1.
2 An interview was conducted by the author on 30 November 2018.
3 A model was developed by ÉCONOMUSÉE®, a non-profit organisation founded in
1992 in Quebec, Canada to promote the preservation of traditional knowledge and local
entrepreneurship by utilising cultural tourism (Predyk and Vaugeois 2019).
4 Also see the website of the museum at https://wem.tycg.gov.tw/.
5 Shetou is a unique folk culture and has been composed of different local industries and
communities in Daxi for Saintly Emperor Guan’s birthday celebration festival and pil-
grimage on Lunar 24 June. In recent years, the museum works with different communities
of Shetou to investigate, preserve, and study the tangible and intangible cultural resources.

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ed., Museums and Public Value: Creating Sustainable Futures. London: Ashgate,
pp. 1–13.
Scott, C. A., 2015. New Trends: Social Change, Museum Brands and Public Value. In:
J. C. N. Hsin, ed., Museum Branding: Redefining Museums for the 21st Century, Selected
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pp. 34–43.
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through Facebook. 2011 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and
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Department of Cultural Affairs, Taoyuan City Government.
7 Mining Social Media for Museum
Quality Evaluation
Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo,
and Costis Dallas

Introduction
Service quality, perceived value, and visitor satisfaction have been steadily gain-
ing the attention of cultural institutions, including museums, since the last quarter
of the 20th century (Kavanagh 1994; Mclean 1994; Rentschler and Gilmore 2002;
cf. Weil 1999). In tandem, the recent explosion of digital communication in all
spheres of social and cultural life has afforded museums new possibilities to man-
age and share collections, to communicate with visitors (Drotner and Schrøder
2013; Díaz-Andreu 2017; Lewi et al. 2019) and, as we argue here, to gain insights
on community and visitor perspectives on museum value, using data analytics and
qualitative research. This chapter introduces a mixed-methods approach, based on
an analysis of visitor comments on social networking sites, to account for the per-
ceived quality of museum offerings and thus improve museum visitor experience
management. The proposed approach combines a software-supported topic model-
ling analysis of TripAdvisor comments with a qualitative data analysis of Facebook
comments. Unlike prior studies in the field of museum service quality assessment,
this approach does not require conducting a visitor study, requiring considerable
effort and prior expertise, but uses evidence which is publicly available on social
networking sites. The methods used for analysis do not require specialised com-
puter skills, and may be served by readily available software, and applied without
the need for advanced methodological expertise. This approach provides, we hope,
a useful tool for museum professionals to gain a sense of perceived service quality
in their institution, allowing for the comparison and sharing of good practices and
encouraging improvements in museum quality and value.

A Model for Evaluating Service Quality in Museums

Since the end of the 20th century, the service sector has demonstrated increased
interest in models of service quality assessment. The key idea behind service qual-
ity assessment is to evaluate the perceived quality of product’s services’, treating
perceived quality as a factor of customer satisfaction – and even of future customer
behaviour. In line with this idea, formal models were introduced to provide a sys-
tematic way to assess service quality in specific domains and service organisations

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-10
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
80 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

(Parasuraman et al. 1988; Rust and Oliver 1994). Of these, SERVQUAL, per-
haps the most influential generic service quality model, proposes measuring per-
ceived service quality on the basis of five dimensions: (a) tangibles, (b) reliability,
(c) responsiveness, (d) assurance and (e) empathy (Parasuraman et al. 1988). Ini-
tially designed for the service industry, SERVQUAL has been criticised, notably,
for the fact that its proposed dimensions are unsuitable for all application domains;
for the lack of clarity as to what actually is being assessed by each dimension and,
finally, for placing too little emphasis on the actual product or service offered at the
expense of functional aspects of service delivery (Carman 1990; Brady and Cronin
2001; Sánchez-Hernández et al. 2009).
An additional critique of SERVQUAL concerns the fact that it is a gap met-
ric, i.e., it compares customer quality assessment of some services with expected
quality for each assessment item to establish satisfaction. To counter this critique,
an additional dimension, i.e., delight, has been proposed in the context of service
quality assessment (Asif 2015). The relevance of surprise and delight in service
quality is also recognised by Kano’s attractiveness model of service excellence,
which recognises that to be excellent, a service needs not only to be functional but
also attractive (Kano 1984; Gouthier et al. 2012). This critique is equally relevant
in the context of museum quality evaluation, given that the assumption that visitors
come to museums with predefined expectations is not always warranted, and that
unexpected discovery, the element of surprise, resonance and wonder may be im-
portant contributing factors to the value of museum experience (see, for example,
Greenblatt 1991).
Despite its limitations, SERVQUAL was later adapted for use in specific do-
mains, starting from the original five dimensions and specific assessment items
but then inductively deriving additional ones applicable in the domain in question.
This was typically achieved through, a sophisticated statistical method such as fac-
tor analysis, following a procedure recommended by the authors of SERVQUAL
themselves (Parasuraman et al. 1988). Among those derivative models, particu-
larly relevant for our purpose are four models related to the domains of hospitality,
holiday-making and heritage tourism: LODGEQUAL (Getty and Thompson 1994),
HOTELQUAL (Falces Delgado et al. 1999), HOLSAT (Tribe and Snaith 1998) and
HISTOQUAL (Frochot and Hughes 2000). The first, aimed at the hospitality indus-
try, proposes assessing the perceived service quality of hotels on the basis of three
dimensions of assessment, derived from the original SERVQUAL dimensions:
(a) tangibility, (b) reliability and (c) contact (which combines items from SERV-
QUAL’s responsiveness, assurance, and empathy). The second, HOTELQUAL,
also aimed at the hospitality industry, goes beyond SERVQUAL to identify three
concrete areas of service quality evaluation: (a) evaluation of service personnel,
(b) evaluation of the facilities and (c) service organisation. The third, HOLSAT,
identifies six areas for the assessment of organised holiday experiences: (a) physi-
cal resort and facilities; (b) ambiance; (c) restaurants, bars, shops and nightlife; (d)
transfers; (e) heritage and culture and (f) accommodation. Finally, HISTOQUAL,
aimed at service quality assessment of heritage attractions such as historic houses,
differentiates between five dimensions, of which (a) responsiveness, (b) tangibles
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 81

and (c) empathy are equivalent to those used in SERVQUAL, while (d) communi-
cation was one of the early dimensions later dropped from the final SERVQUAL
model, and (e) consumables is a new dimension specific to HISTOQUAL.
Recent studies of service quality evaluation in the museums and heritage field
are written for the most part from the perspective of services marketing. They typi-
cally draw from one of the models presented above, rely on conducting question-
naire surveys, and involve sophisticated numerical analysis methods such as factor
analysis and structural equation modelling. They include, notably:

a a questionnaire survey analysis of visitors to the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, distin-

guishing between designer- (museum professional), researcher-, and customer-
based conceptualisations of museum service quality and, using an amended
version of HOLSAT (Cunnell and Prentice 2000),
b a repertory grid analysis of visitor questionnaires to assess service quality in
London museums (Caldwell 2002);
c a focus-group study of service convenience in American art museums (Geissler
et al. 2006);
d an analysis of visitor questionnaires distributed at a Malaysian museum, using
the SERVPERF model of service quality (Mey and Mohamed 2010);
e a structural equation modelling and factor analysis of SERVQUAL questionnaire sur-
vey responses on the quality of five South African museums (Radder and Han 2013);
f a questionnaire survey analysis of visitors’ expectations and perceptions at the
Krapina Neanderthal Museum, Croatia, using a modified version of HISTO-
QUAL (Markovic et al. 2013);
g a structural equation modelling analysis of the relationship between service
quality, visitor satisfaction and emotions on the behavioural intentions of visi-
tors to Macau museums, based on a questionnaire survey, and proposing a be-
spoke multidimensional, hierarchical model (Wu and Li 2015) and, finally,
h the elaboration of a quality seal for Spanish museums which, however, does
not align with any of the established service quality models (Norma UNE
302002:2018 Museos).

For the purposes of our study, we combined salient aspects of the HOTELQUAL
model with those of other models and our own insights from relevant studies, in
order to define a model that addresses dimensions of museum quality evaluation
that cannot be accounted for fully by any of the previously defined models when
applied separately. As we conceive museum quality from the point of view of mu-
seum provision and professionalism (Kavanagh 1994) rather than through the lens
of service marketing, we chose to construct our model using assessment dimen-
sions that are directly intelligible to the community of museum professionals and
researchers for whom our study is intended, and that could be identified in evi-
dence readily available online to museum professionals. Instead of the inductive
approach taken by earlier studies, in which dimensions of service quality are de-
rived by means of sophisticated statistical analysis of a single dataset, we followed
a retroductive process (Bhaskar 1979), re-expressing our initial observations as
82 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

theoretical dimensions compatible with prior conceptualisations of museum value

and service provision from the literature of museum studies. We adopted all three
dimensions of HOTELQUAL (assessment of personnel, facilities, and service or-
ganisation) since they represent straightforward factors contributing to customer
experience in the hospitality industry, which are also directly applicable to generic
aspects of museum service and professionalism. This aligns with earlier research
confirming that hospitality is an important dimension of heritage visitor experi-
ence (Periañez-Cristobal et al. 2019). We found it necessary, however, to expand
the model with two additional dimensions that were not present in earlier service
quality models we examined, in order to account for tangible and intangible as-
pects of the core museum visitor experience: exhibitions and programmes, which
are central to our understanding of the value offered by museums to their visitors.
We therefore ended up elaborating a museum quality assessment model consisting
of five dimensions: (a) display, (b) subject matter, (c) facilities, (d) services and
(e) staff (Table 7.1).
Unlike other service quality models, the MUSEQUAL model does not depend
on a predetermined list of items (attributes) related to each of the five quality
dimensions. As each museum and each museum visit is different, we expect that
quality assessment by visitors will yield a diverse range of statements. Using the
dimension definitions in our model, it is possible to classify all attributes repre-
sented by specific visitor statements into one of the five dimensions of Display,
Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff. As MUSEQUAL is defined on the
basis of a conceptual fit into these five dimensions, rather than inductively on
the basis of a dataset derived from a single museum, it may be applicable as it
stands to a broad range of museums without the need for constant modifications,
and can thus provide a stable instrument for quality evaluation across time in
a single museum, or for comparative assessment across institutions. Museum
professionals should be able to use the findings from visitor assessment along
each of these five dimensions to produce useful policy and practice interven-
tions in specific professional practice domains, listed in the intervention fields
part of the model.

Researching Assessment of Museum Quality

on Social Network Sites
Social network sites are virtual user communities on networked digital platforms (e.g.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TripAdvisor, etc.) which enable the creation of per-
sonal profiles and foster interpersonal communication and content sharing. The use
of social network sites as a digital tool for museum communication is a widely dis-
cussed subject. Studies focusing on community perspectives on social network sites
are split along two main lines: firstly, studies researching existing possibilities for user
engagement, and secondly, studies evaluating the effectiveness of a museum’s per-
formance on social media (Trolle Gronemann et al. 2015). While research on audi-
ence engagement seeks to explain the most common social network site strategies for
museum communication (MacArthur 2007; Russo et al. 2010; Pett 2012; Kelly 2013;
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 83

Table 7.1 M
 USEQUAL dimensions, dimension definitions, source and field of museum
management interventions

Dimension Dimension definition Source Intervention fields

Display Assessing tangible aspects of New Museography, physical

exhibitions (including exhibition design, digital
lighting and other physical exhibit design,
dimensions of exhibition programme materials,
galleries), as well as digital gallery accessibility
exhibits, educational design, user experience
programmes and materials design
produced by the museum
Subject Assessing intangible aspects of New Exhibition planning,
matter exhibitions and programmes, interpretation and
identified in the subject representation, curatorial
matter of exhibitions, research, programme
narratives, labels and panels, content
audiovisual content, guide
tour scripts and representing
museum messages,
storylines, meanings and
discourses
Facilities Assessing museum facilities HOTELQUAL Facilities provision and
outside the gallery space, management, plant
including visitor access management, security,
areas, elevators, stairs, foyer, accessibility in the
museum bookstore, shops, museum building
restaurants and cafes, visitor
seating areas, restrooms and
more generally the museum
building
Service Assessing the provision and HOTELQUAL, Visitor-side Museum
provision delivery of visitor services procedures, front desk
such as front desk operation, guides, visitor
information, exhibition information and
guiding and orientation, communication,
educational programme Customer Relationship
delivery and gallery Management (CRM)
photography
Staff Assessing the professionalism, HOTELQUAL Staff training and
friendliness, and ability of evaluation, Human
visitor-facing museum staff Resource Management
to provide useful and (HRM)
effective service responding
to visitor needs

Padilla-Meléndez and Águila-Obra 2013; Suzić et al. 2016) especially in light

of three fundamental functional communicative contexts identified as marketing,
inclusivity and collaborative frames (Kidd 2013), studies focusing on effective-
ness seek to evaluate the potential of social network sites in reaching audi-
ences and obtaining feedback from visitors in order to better manage museums’
84 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

relationships with them (Fletcher and Lee 2012; Chung et al. 2014; Spiliopoulou
et al. 2014; Lazzeretti et al. 2015).
Collectively, these studies provide a well-grounded, evidence-based overview of
how museums and users interact with each other on social network sites. However,
they do not fully take into account museum visitors’ perspectives on the overall
museum value, as perceived and expressed through social media in the form of
personal opinions or shared experiences. The creation of an ‘interconnected opinion
space’ (Charitonos et al. 2012, p.803), where online discourse can help us recover
important aspects of visitor experience contributing to the meaning-making process,
is associated with the use of social and mobile technologies in museum encounters,
and indicates the potential of technology-enhanced learning. The use of social net-
work sites enables museum visitors to re-curate museum exhibitions and to engage
with museums in meaningful ways (Weilenmann et al. 2013). However, the ways in
which museum visitors choose to communicate their experiences vary and depend
on the affordances and character of each platform, which play an important role in
extending the dialogue beyond the physical space of the museum. The main chal-
lenge for museums remains to be able to respond to emerging visitor behaviours
induced by digital technologies (Weilenmann et al. 2013).
Previous studies have turned to content analysis of websites and blogs to gauge
the value of visitor experiences such as travel to tourist destinations (Choi et al,
2007). Among social network sites, TripAdvisor has also become a common source
of evidence for analysing hospitality service quality (Flôres Limberger et al. 2014).
More recently, visitor comments on TripAdvisor have been used to analyse com-
plaints on museum service failure based on a model expanding SERVQUAL to
encompass as many as 12 dimensions: (a) convenience, (b) contemplation, (c) as-
surance, (d) responsiveness, (e) reliability, (f) tangibles, (g) empathy, (h) commu-
nication, (i) services cape, (j) consumables, (k) purposiveness and (l) first-hand
experience (Su and Teng 2018); moreover, and more closely aligned with our ap-
proach, it allows for the analysis of service quality in heritage hotels on the basis of
an adaptation of the HOTELQUAL model (Periañez-Cristobal et al. 2019).
Like these studies, our approach to museum quality assessment is based on state-
ments made spontaneously by visitors on social network sites, rather than on ques-
tionnaires or interviews designed specifically for service quality evaluation. While
our model is driven by considerations of relevance to museum value and experience
as illustrated in museological literature, comments freely submitted by actual visi-
tors as they communicate with peers provide, in our view, more reliable evidence
of how visitors truly perceive museum service quality. It does not restrict potential
responses to a pre-defined number of items associated with a standard model, and it
allows for the collection of much larger datasets for the purpose of confirming find-
ings and providing for fuller interpretation of results: in other words, satisfying what
is known in qualitative methodology as the principle of saturation.
Two of the most popular social network sites globally, Facebook and
TripAdvisor, were chosen in this study to evaluate museum quality on the ba-
sis of user reviews. Both platforms allow visitors to express their opinions and
to reflect on personal experiences by providing reviews and recommendations.
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 85

TripAdvisor, as an online community focused on travel, is explicitly dedicated

to sharing reviews and impressions of hotels, restaurants, and tourist destina-
tions, including cultural attractions. Facebook is a more versatile social network
platform fostering different kinds of interactions, but it also allows users to write
reviews, an important Facebook business page feature directly relevant to our
approach.

Quality Evaluation of Three European Museums

Three museums from three different European countries, Greece, Lithuania and
Spain, were chosen as subjects for this study. When selecting museums to evaluate,
the following criteria were considered: geographical coverage, the significance of
the museum in its respective country, thematic diversity of its collections, and the
number of reviews available for the museum on both TripAdvisor and Facebook.
The final selection included the Benaki Museum (gr. Μουσείο Μπενάκη),1 the
largest independent museum foundation in Greece, with a main Museum of Greek
Culture spanning Greek material culture and art from the Bronze Age to the 20th
century, and several satellite sites including a Museum of Islamic Art, the vibrant
Pireos 138 temporary exhibition and cultural events building, and the Ghika Gal-
lery housing the collection of a notable Greek 20th-century visual artist; the Mu-
seum of Occupation and Freedom Fights (lt. Okupacijų ir laisvės kovų muziejus,
henceforth Museum of Occupation, or MOFF),2 which, while formally professing a
wider scope, focuses for the most part on crimes during the Soviet occupation and
the history of anti-Soviet resistance in Lithuania and, the National Art Museum of
Catalonia (cat. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, henceforth the Art Museum of
Catalonia, or NAMC),3 one of the best-recognised and most-visited art museums
in Spain. These museums are different in scope, size of collections and purpose in
their respective national context. This diversity of selected museums contributes,
in our view, to a more inclusive framework of museum quality evaluation on social
network sites. We should note, however, that the comments we collected and ana-
lysed from these three museums’ TripAdvisor and Facebook pages date to 2018;
therefore, we did not witness, nor can we anticipate potential changes in the criteria
by which visitors assess these museums, nor any future evaluations or possible
patterns of visits that may be connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The three museums differed with respect to the number of reviews they receive
on TripAdvisor and Facebook (Figure 7.1). The biggest difference between plat-
forms was observed in the case of the Museum of Occupation, which garnered a
significantly higher number of reviews on TripAdvisor and a very low number on
Facebook (we do not, however, have access to information on whether any of the
three museums studied have been removing critical visitor comments from their
Facebook pages). The Benaki Museum shows a similar pattern, but the difference
between social media platforms is not as marked as it is in the case of the Museum
of Occupation. Finally, the Art Museum of Catalonia represents the most balanced
museum presence among the two social networking sites examined, in that the
number of reviews for the museum on TripAdvisor and Facebook are comparable.
86 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

Figure 7.1 Comparison between the number of reviews of three European museums on

TripAdvisor and Facebook (November 2018).

While all three museums varied in the number of reviews they received, overall
ratings attributed by users were very similar in all cases (Figure 7.2). All three mu-
seums had the same rating of 4.5 on TripAdvisor. Also, two museums (Museum of
Occupation and the Art Museum of Catalonia) had the same rating (4.6) on Face-
book as well, while the Benaki Museum had a slightly higher Facebook rating (4.8).

Figure 7.2 Comparison of ratings for three European museums on TripAdvisor and Face-
book (November 2018).
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 87

Topic Modelling of TripAdvisor User Reviews

A total of 1,837 comments in English and Spanish published on the TripAdvisor
pages of three selected museums were gathered for topic modelling, using special-
ised software. Topic modelling is a computational text-mining procedure allowing
the identification of substantively meaningful categories in a text corpus, called
topics, on the basis of the statistical distribution and co-presence of words within
the corpus, with very little need for researcher intervention (Mohr and Bogdanov
2013). To identify topics in the TripAdvisor corpus for the three museums included
in our analysis, we used a data extractor and codification software tool, SiSOB-
Hist, designed to identify categories related to heritage from a text corpus and pre-
viously used successfully to analyse Spanish heritage hotel reviews on TripAdvisor
(Periañez-Cristobal et al. 2019). This tool was fed with comments, and a resulting
list of keywords was organised under the five MUSEQUAL dimensions (Display,
Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff). The analysis included only those
comments in which a topic related to one of the MUSEQUAL dimensions could be
identified; remaining comments were omitted from the analysis.
An overview of the topics identified in the merged TripAdvisor corpus for
the three museums shows that art was the most frequently used keyword in
reviews, while soviet and picasso followed suit: clearly, these are notions spe-
cific to the different Subject matter of museums in our study. The analysis also
revealed frequent references to common keywords related to Facilities, such
as restaurant, terrace, escalator and staircase, as well as Services-related
keywords such as guide and tour, but also qualifiers such as comfortable and
efficient (Figure 7.3). Although the emphasis on facilities and on comfort

Figure 7.3 Word cloud of keywords in English analysed on TripAdvisor for three European
museums (November 2016–November 2018).
88 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

Figure 7.4 Total numbers of comments and count of comments related to MUSEQUAL

dimensions (Display, Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff) in three Eu-
ropean museums (November 2018).

might be obvious in the context of our understanding of museums as social places,

this result may surprise those who only consider the quality of exhibitions and pro-
grammes as the determining factors for perceived museum quality.
This general overview can be further analysed. The three museums
(Figure 7.4) showed very similar distributions of MUSEQUAL dimensions
mentioned in Trip­Advisor reviews in the English language, with Services as the
most frequently cited museum quality dimension, followed by Facilities. Dis-
play was in third place and Staff followed afterwards, while comments related
to Subject matter were the least frequent. From this it can be surmised that, on
TripAdvisor, museum quality is most often assessed on the basis of generic di-
mensions related to the museum as a site of hospitality, rather than on the basis
of dimensions related more specifically to the collection, or to the cultural and
educational mission of the museum. Looking at TripAdvisor reviews separately
for each of the three museums, Services remained the most frequent quality di-
mension for all three museums, followed by Facilities. However, the next most
frequent dimension differed for each of the three case studies. The next most
frequent dimension was Display for the Benaki Museum and the Art Museum
of Catalonia, while for the Museum of Occupation it was Staff. It was also note-
worthy that the Museum of Occupation exhibited a somewhat higher number of
comments related to Subject matter (through keywords such as soviet, ussr, war
and independence), followed by the Art Museum of Catalonia (with keywords
such as picasso, miró and dalí).
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 89

While these results seemed to imply that museum Subject matter, and even
Display, were relatively less important dimensions for museum quality assess-
ment by visitors in general, this conclusion may be misleading. TripAdvisor
is a platform focused on horizontal aspects of service across the hospitality
industry, given that it is used mostly for community-based reviews and rat-
ings of restaurants and hotels, and this may justify why users would privilege
Facilities, Services and Staff in their reviews of museums as well. In addition,
connectivity and datafication are important aspects of social media logic, and
social network sites’ conversations often function as echo chambers in which
users engage in group affirmation (Van Dijck and Poell 2013). Accordingly,
tourists – the primary user base of TripAdvisor – may therefore be more likely
to comment on an aspect of quality already mentioned in prior comments,
rather than introduce topics or viewpoints related to the subject matter of a
museum exhibition.
The ethnolinguistic background of commenters may also be a relevant factor
in the lack of prominent reviews related to museum Subject matter in the Eng-
lish language corpus we analysed; indeed, a large percentage of such comments
were from foreign tourists, whose criteria are naturally more focused on quality
dimensions related to hospitality, in comparison to local visitors who may be ex-
pected to share a higher degree of knowledge and engagement with the histori-
cal and cultural dimensions of a local museum collection. To further explore this
hypothesis, we conducted an additional, separate analysis of TripAdvisor reviews
of the Art Museum of Catalonia in the Spanish language (Figure 7.5). Notably,

Figure 7.5 Comparison of frequency of MUSEQUAL dimensions from comments and re-

lated keywords in Spanish on the Art Museum of Catalonia (November 2018).
90 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

the distribution of the Art Museum of Catalonia reviews in Spanish and related
keywords across MUSEQUAL dimensions changed significantly in comparison
to the reviews in English. The Subject matter of the museum emerged as the di-
mension most frequently mentioned in Spanish reviews, followed by Facilities,
Services, Display and Staff.
This method of analysis presented in this section additionally allows for the
examination of seasonal changes, since the composition of local visitors as com-
pared to tourists varies in different seasons; consequently, the relative importance
of specific dimensions of museum quality assessment may also change. However,
here we restricted ourselves to a general discussion of the results, both in order to
illustrate the method used and to establish a foundation from which it is possible to
delve into more specific details in further analyses, where necessary.

Museum Visitor Reviews on Facebook Pages

Reviews and recommendations (henceforth reviews) are Facebook features that
have been available since 2011. A few years ago, the earlier Facebook review sys-
tem, based on star ratings from 1 to 5, was replaced by a more sophisticated rec-
ommendations section, which sorts users’ positive and negative opinions based on
all users’ interactions on Facebook (Bojkov 2018). This overall page rating still
remains in place and takes into account both reviews and recommendations posted
by users. The decision to make recommendations more prominent on Facebook
was driven by users’ increasing needs to turn to other people’s opinions and sug-
gestions to find places of interest.
It has been calculated that one out of three Facebook users has used the platform
to find reviews and recommendations, thus making Facebook extremely important
for any organisation’s reputation (Bojkov 2018). We collected publicly available
users’ reviews on the Facebook pages of all three museums in our study and per-
formed qualitative data analysis in order to better understand how museums’ visi-
tors perceive an institution’s value and quality. The analysis included only those
reviews in which visitor opinions were presented through text, excluding those that
only provided a rating. In some cases, opinions were expressed in a short sentence,
a few words or even just a single word or an emoticon, while in other cases visitor
opinions consisted of several sentences unfolding into a fully-fledged argument.
The reviews were collected in English, as well as in Greek, Lithuanian, Spanish,
Italian, German and Russian. All reviews were translated into English by applying
automated Google translation, which was subsequently verified and corrected by
the authors of this chapter. The reviews were collected by simply copying them
from the Facebook page and pasting them into plain text to clear Facebook screen
formatting, before re-formatting them into rich text format (.rtf) documents for
qualitative data analysis.
Different timeframes were applied for collecting reviews, as the selected mu-
seums greatly varied in the frequency of reviews received over time. The Mu-
seum of Occupation yielded the lowest number of reviews, with a total of only
17 reviews in the period from 2014 to 2018, all of which were included in the
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 91

analysis. The Benaki Museum garnered up to 100 available reviews dating back
to 2011, from which we selected for analysis the most recent 35 reviews, dating
from 2017 and 2018. The Art Museum of Catalonia presented the highest number
of reviews over the previous decade, from which only the latest 77 reviews, dating
from 2018, were included in the analysis. Qualitative data analysis was performed
by using MaxQDA, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis system which al-
lowed for systematic coding and multiple modes of review analysis. We followed a
deductive-inductive research cycle by initially creating a provisional code system
based on the MUSEQUAL museum quality assessment dimensions of Display,
Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff, supplemented by more specific as-
pects of each dimension derived from the description of each of these dimensions
(see Table 7.1 above), and, subsequently, by expanding the code system during the
analysis stage. We also added additional subcodes drawn from Facebook reviews
in our corpus through open coding, to illustrate potentially interesting patterns.
In assigning codes to reviews, we noted that a significant portion of the reviews
yielded a combination of two or more codes, and multiple codes were assigned to
each review in these cases.
Our analysis showed that there is no shared pattern for all three museums with
regard to the relative frequency of reviews related to each of the five MUSE-
QUAL dimensions (Figure 7.6). Differences of scope and character between the

Figure 7.6 Comparison of frequency of Facebook reviews for three European museums

across MUSEQUAL dimensions (Display, Subject matter, Facilities, Services
and Staff).
92 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

selected museums seem to be reflected in the differentiation among quality assess-

ment dimensions present in the Facebook reviews revealed by our analysis.
While Display was the most important museum quality dimension for the
Benaki Museum audience, it was less important to visitors of the Art Museum of
Catalonia and the Museum of Occupation who contributed to Facebook reviews. In
many cases, Display was addressed broadly, with reviews mentioning exhibition,
collection, artefacts, etc. The qualities associated with Display were typically
expressed as adjectives describing visitors’ general impressions of the exhibition
as a whole. For example, reviews of the Benaki Museum presented a wide array of
positive adjectives, such as special, exquisite, wonderful, magnificent, excellent,
great, fabulous, impressive, surprising, inspiring and spectacular, but also large
and huge.

In rare cases, Facebook reviews also referred to more concrete qualities of

the Benaki Museum’s exhibition design as noted by this review (2018) “Su-
perbly mounted in simple wooden frames, the photos themselves are framed
by the wall behind - ochre or mustard - so they appear to float off the wall.
Not to be missed. Be prepared for a visceral reaction.”

Similarly, many reviews of the Art Museum of Catalonia regarding the dimen-
sion of Display describe visitors’ impressions of the exhibition as great, amazing,
very good, beautiful, excellent and wonderful. While the majority of the com-
ments were positive, a few critical reviews were identified, which might be useful
in identifying how particular aspects of the museum’s display could be improved.
For instance, the statement that ‘sometimes the art was in direct sequence and
sometimes it was very distant’ (Reviewer of the National Art Museum of Catalo-
nia 2018) may be interpreted as expressing a difficulty in grasping the conceptual
organisation of the gallery in question, or, as a merely descriptive comment on ex-
hibition flow and pacing. In other cases, critical reviews of the museum’s Display
were quite vague and may lack direct usefulness as to what may be improved to
ensure a better visitor experience.
Judging by the frequency of relevant Facebook reviews, Subject matter was
found to be particularly important to the visitors at the Museum of Occupation
and of medium importance to visitors at the Benaki Museum, while in the case
of the Art Museum of Catalonia it was the least-discussed dimension of museum
quality. This phenomenon may be linked to the very different missions and char-
acters of each of these museums. The Museum of Occupation is a historical mu-
seum, but also an official memorialisation site with a very strong and purposeful
exhibition storyline seeking to represent the repression and state crimes during
the period of Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940–1941 and 1944–1991). Es-
tablished in a former KGB building, it builds on an emotionally intense experi-
ence, allowing visitors to visualise the prison, execution chamber and offices of
former KGB officials within an affective ideology of suffering and redemption
(Klumbytė 2020); the fact that the Museum of Occupation is not just a curated
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 93

exhibition of selected objects, but is housed in the very site of acts of state
violence and is thus an authentic historic place in its own right, may be a factor
contributing to the predominance of reviews on its dark Subject matter, compared
to other dimensions of quality assessment in visitors’ Facebook reviews. Some
visitors related very strongly to this historic experience. For example, one of the
reviewers of the Museum of Occupation and Freedom Fights (2018) had a very
emotional response:

The nation’s anguish - my anguish <3 There was pain, humiliation, dehu-
manization, strangeness, distortion and lies that touched my mom, my dad
and me… It’s the Soviet-Bolshevik system – that’s all is needed to say…
Let’s not forget what happened to our nation and other nations until the world
is still so troublesome! Thanks to the museum’s staff for the warmth, sincer-
ity, and understanding within these walls full of torture!4

The majority of Museum of Occupation reviews reiterated the museum’s dis-

course on the period of Soviet occupation, reflecting on notions such as history,
occupation, freedom, independence, suffering and prisoners in the context of the
museum, but also on more specific historical references such as soviet union, kgb,
soviet-bolshevik and gestapo. This last notion, rather unexpectedly in a museum
of Soviet occupation, possibly relates to the prominence of a narrative framing the
crimes of Soviet totalitarianism as genocide and equates them morally with those
committed by Nazism (Snyder 2011; cf. Davoliūtė 2011; Katz 2016). In addition,
the experience of the museum exhibition was described as great, valuable, inter-
esting, impressive, emotional and true by other visitors.
But the Museum of Occupation’s strong national narrative additionally evoked
the occasional negative reaction related to its contested Subject matter, which as
expressed in this review (2018): ‘Enchanting Museum about a fantastic event. It
is thanks to the “Soviet occupation” that the Polish city of Vilnius became the
capital of Lithuania. If you condemn the occupation, return the benefits, or shut up
forever’.5
Reviews of Subject matter in the Benaki Museum, on the other hand, were
fewer in comparison to those on the museum’s Display, but still identified aspects
of Greek cultural history considered to be important by its visitors. Topics iden-
tified include smyrna 1920–1922, pointing to the relevance of an exhibition on
the forced migration of Asia Minor Greeks from Turkey after the Lausanne treaty,
prominent exhibited collections such as costume, jewelry and icons, exhibit prov-
enance indicators such as aegean and asia minor, and broader notions regarding the
museum’s subject matter, such as greek heritage, full of treasures and memories
and the ark of greek culture.
In the case of the Art Museum of Catalonia, prominent references to Subject
matter in visitor reviews included, predictably, the names of leading artists rep-
resented in the exhibition, such as picasso, miró and dalí, as well as names of
art styles and periods, such as romanesque. While (especially contemporary)
94 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

art museums do generally involve visitors with strong evaluative views on art-
works, artists, and artistic currents, Facebook comments from visitors to the Art
Museum of Catalonia did not evidence such rich levels of engaged critical evalu-
ation. This perhaps relates to the fact that the Museum typically hosts canonical
exhibits whose value is widely established.
Judging from the frequency of visitor comments, the focus of visitors’ atten-
tion in evaluating the Art Museum of Catalonia was conversely on the dimension
of Facilities, including the museum’s building and areas outside the exhibition
galleries (i.e., Facilities). The most mentioned topics, in this dimension, were the
terrace and the city view, which might also be associated with the aesthetic and
emotional rewards such features created for the museums’ visitors; they described
their experiences as outstanding, great, amazing, spectacular, excellent, superb,
gorgeous, etc. This, of course, is testimony to the value of a particularly beautiful
building and setting for the museum. In the case of the Benaki Museum, more at-
tention was also given to the museum’s restaurant-café and its incredible view,
which was frequently praised by visitors. Additional topics related to Facilities
mentioned in visitors’ reviews included building, shop, climate control, bath-
room, staircase and signposting.
Services was the least mentioned dimension of museum quality assessment in
reviews for the Benaki Museum, the second least for the Art Museum of Catalonia,
and was entirely absent in visitor reviews for the Museum of Occupation. The most
frequently mentioned museum services were the ones related to events organised
by the museums (lecture, performance, etc.), and the notion of entry ticket. Less
common were restaurant-related Services (e.g., sommelier, fine dishes), as well as
audio guide and webpage functionalities.
Reviews concerning museum Staff can be divided into positive and negative
comments. Positive reviews appeared for all three museums: for instance, Benaki
Museum staff was characterised repeatedly as excellent and courteous. The most
notable example of a negative review was identified for the Art Museum of Cata-
lonia, where there were more negative comments about the staff (7) rather than
positive (5). In this case, the main reason mentioned for visitor dissatisfaction was
the attitude towards breastfeeding inside the museum, which was viewed as inap-
propriate by the staff; visitors characterised staff’s attitude as embarrassing, unac-
ceptable, disrespectful and outrageous. Some reviews even generated a longer
thread of comments in which other users reinforced the reviewer’s opinion. While
the issue is indeed important for museums to consider, it is not clear whether the
popularity of these comments related to a widespread dissatisfaction with muse-
um’s policy towards breastfeeding or was it only one incident that triggered visi-
tors’ negative reaction and consequently caused its lower rating (one star). In other
cases, a lower rating usually indicates an issue that a visitor encountered regarding
some specific dimension of museum quality, such as Service, Facilities or Display.
For example, a comment with a four-star rating reported having troubles with the
audio guide, which was not synced with exhibited art objects.
Lower ratings related to a museum’s Subject matter usually reflected disagree-
ments with the museum’s interpretation of its collections and exhibitions. For
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 95

example, the Russian-speaking visitor who wrote the negative comment on the
Museum of Occupation discussed above also awarded a rating of just one star to
the museum. Conversely, a less-than-perfect rating may not indicate any specific
negative assessment of the museum. For instance, a comment with a four-star rat-
ing for the Benaki museum had no negative comments but did not provide any
further explanation on why the rating was not a five-star one. In many cases, com-
ments were quite generic and lacked deeper insight into what prompted visitors’
lower ratings.
In our analysis of visitor reviews of museum quality on Facebook, we noted that
museums do not always respond to visitor reviews. Of the three museums whose
Facebook pages we analysed, only the Benaki Museum replied to more than half of
the visitor reviews, typically with a short ‘thank you’ message for a positive review,
or with an acknowledgment of the issue raised by a critical one. However, to ignore
visitor reviews is, in our view, a missed opportunity for museums. Experience from
the hospitality industry demonstrates that offering a response to both praise and
criticism provides for a better institutional image and supports improved relation-
ship management and the fostering of deeper dialogue with visitors.

Discussion
Previous studies have underlined the challenges and opportunities to develop en-
hanced knowledge and more effective strategies for visitor relationship manage-
ment, first in hospitality services, and more recently in museums. Our analysis
of visitor reviews of three very different Europe-based museums on TripAdvisor
and Facebook show how two different methods, a software-driven quantitative
topic analysis and a researcher-driven qualitative data analysis, may produce
complementary insights on visitor assessment; this is achieved on the basis of
an evaluation model specific to museums, MUSEQUAL, which consists of five
dimensions of museum quality: Display, Subject matter, Facilities, Services and
Staff.
Our analysis of TripAdvisor reviews was conducted using a software application
requiring little researcher intervention, in an effort to retrieve information from a
high number of comments, while qualitative data analysis was applied manually to
the text of Facebook reviews. Each method has its own virtues, and they mutually
complement each other. For example, topic analysis of a large number of reviews
from TripAdvisor illustrates the common interests expressed by visitors on each of
the museum quality assessment dimensions, and particular patterns could be traced
across museums despite their particularities. In TripAdvisor reviews, we found that
Services was the most frequently discussed dimension, while Subject matter was
the least discussed. Facilities, Display and Staff were discussed more frequently
than Subject matter. A different picture emerged from the results of our analysis of
Facebook reviews, where each museum presented quite varying patterns. The most
frequent dimension of museum quality assessment to appear in reviews varied from
Facilities for the Art Museum of Catalonia to Display for the Benaki Museum and
Subject matter for the Museum of Occupation. While Display and Facilities were
96 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

frequently addressed in reviews of the Benaki Museum and of the Art Museum of
Catalonia, it is striking how little these dimensions of museum quality appeared
among reviews of the Museum of Occupation, where the predominant topics of
discussion related to its Subject matter. It is clear that the relative importance of
the five museum quality dimensions established by our MUSEQUAL model varies
between different museums, and that the mission, objectives, curatorial strategies,
character and audience of each particular museum played significant roles in deter-
mining which quality dimension is the most important to the commenting visitors.
Furthermore, differences between platforms remained highly relevant. The
prevalence of topics related to Services and Facilities in TripAdvisor comments is
to be expected, given the scope and character of this tourist community platform.
TripAdvisor is used by tourists to inform other tourists, while their personal back-
ground or ideas about history and culture seem to be left behind. Naturally, this
does not hold for Facebook, which provides for a much broader range of interac-
tions and functions for its users, even if Facebook reviews call users to comment
on the value of services or products provided by organisations. For this reason, we
argue for a multi-platform strategy for assessing museum quality, going beyond
reviews on TripAdvisor. Qualitative data analysis of Facebook reviews provides a
useful complementary view, as the platform encompasses the private sphere and
interpersonal communication. On Facebook, one’s ‘friends’ and ‘acquaintances’
are among the first to see comments, even when users provide public opinions.
TripAdvisor and Facebook offer distinct affordances, and the relative advantages
of automated topic modelling for managing extensive data versus qualitative data
analysis for gaining deeper insights into personal viewpoints create a synergy,
making these platforms and methods complementary for evaluating museum qual-
ity on social network platforms.
Our study is not without methodological limitations. While the process of
analysis is relatively straightforward, the selection of reviews, and therefore
the constitution of the corpus used for analysis, presents challenges. The reli-
ability of findings based on quantitative assessment, e.g., on the relative fre-
quency of specific dimensions of museum quality evaluation, depends on how
representative the sample of reviews analysed is, and smaller number of re-
views may yield results with large margins of error. Additionally, in the case
study presented in this chapter, we did not differentiate between reviews sub-
mitted by tourists and those from local residents, something that we might be
able to surmise indirectly from the review language, or by the season and time
of day a review was submitted; additional analysis in this direction might yield
useful results. We also chose not to conduct statistical testing for significance,
strength of association, or margin of error, as we prioritised outlining an ap-
proach easily accessible to researchers and museum professionals without spe-
cialised training in statistics. Instead, we limited ourselves to discussing strong
patterns in our data that are clearly visible to the naked eye, rather than to
reporting on exact numbers or percentages that could well vary if our reviews
sample were different. Finally, we chose not to report finer distinctions that
might arise from statistical errors.
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 97

An additional challenge we faced, and that others wishing to adopt our approach
will likely face as well, is the rapidly changing technical environment and func-
tionalities of social network sites. Constant updates and new service platforms in-
troduced from time to time can be seen as opening new possibilities, but platforms
also introduce limitations that may impede future research. An additional challenge
is related to rising concerns about user privacy issues, which might significantly
affect museum audience research on social media in the future. Conversely, rapidly
emerging advances in computational classification and qualitative content analysis
based on large language models (Liu et al. 2023; Xiao et al. 2023; Ziems et al.
2023) may soon offer researchers expanded opportunities to employ easy-to-use,
digitally assisted conversational generative AI methods to document and analyse
museum visitor social media interactions in terms of the MUSEQUAL quality as-
sessment dimensions.
In this study, we drew from prior quality research models used in the service
industry, such as SERVQUAL, HOLSAT and HOTELQUAL, but chose to base our
analysis on a model attuned specifically to the assessment of quality in museums.
Rather than carrying out inductive analysis of a single dataset based on a question-
naire survey, we chose to construct our model retroductively, drawing from earlier
research and our own insights. The proposed model, MUSEQUAL, consists of five
dimensions, two of which, Display and Subject matter, are specific to museums
and heritage sites, while the remaining three, Facilities, Services, and Staff, cor-
respond to generic quality dimensions as established for the hospitality industry
by the HOTELQUAL model. Unlike other, more elaborate models, MUSEQUAL
does not propose a predefined set of items (attributes, questions) for each dimen-
sion. Rather, we suggest that each study should identify elements that are relevant
to the situation and public offering of the museum under study, and that additional
elements should be added inductively during the actual analysis stage through open
coding. In the definition of dimensions, we supplemented the HISTOQUAL model
with elements from the SERVQUAL model. While we recognise the relevance of
considering factors such as empathy and responsiveness, we believe that a model
differentiating clearly distinct dimensions of what is being assessed is, pragmati-
cally speaking, more useful as a tool for museum quality assessment. Since we
primarily envisage our approach as a practical way for museum professionals to
tap into the insights provided by readily available visitor reviews on social network
sites, in order to identify problems and introduce improvements, we consider the
dimensions of Display, Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff to form a more
appropriate framework for museum praxis.
We envisage that findings from a museum quality evaluation study using
MUSEQUAL, in tandem with a mixed-methods analysis of user reviews from
complementary social network sites, will be useful in identifying issues and im-
plementing remedies to improve museum service quality. Visitor concerns related
to Display will invite interventions regarding issues such as a museum’s museo-
graphic approach, physical exhibition design, digital exhibit design, programme
materials, gallery accessibility design, and user experience design. Concerns re-
lated to Subject matter will feed into interventions regarding collection policies,
98 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

exhibition meanings and discourses, exhibition planning, scenarios and storylines,

interpretation and representation, curatorial research, information expressed in ex-
hibition panels and captions, online exhibit content and narratives, and the content
of educational programmes. Concerns related to Facilities will inform decisions on
facilities provision and management, plant management, security and accessibility
within the museum site. Concerns related to Services will be addressed through
interventions related to visitor-side museum procedures, front-desk operations, do-
cents and guides, visitor information and communication and customer relation-
ship management procedures. Finally, concerns related to Staff will be addressed
through staff development, training and evaluation, hiring policies and human re-
source management procedures.

Conclusion
In one of his latest public interventions, Kenneth Hudson argued that the only
museums that will survive in the future are ‘museums with charm, and museums
with chairs’ (Hudson 1999, p. 4). In making this provocative statement, Hudson
issued a strong corrective to the idea that museums exist solely for the benefit of
their collections, or as vehicles to produce exhibitions and programmes. As we
progress towards the second quarter of the 21st century, the question of the social
relevance and value of museums becomes, of course, even more central, particu-
larly in light of the rising challenges of environmental sustainability (Davis 2020)
and growing demands that museums address problems of social and historical
justice. (Carter 2019). In our study, we sought to establish an approach to museum
quality evaluation that encompasses not only the strictly museological aspects
of a museum’s subject matter and message but also dimensions of attractiveness
and quality of display, human comfort and services provided, that resonate with
Hudson’s intuition:

What you can not get without actually going to a museum is the magic of
objects and the opportunity to discuss with other people what is there and to
ask questions about those things. And in order to be able to do that properly
you need to be able to sit down. It is not easy or comfortable to discuss stand-
ing up all the time.
(Hudson 1999, p. 4)

In this study, we present a methodology towards museum quality evaluation

based on an analysis of easily accessible visitor reviews on social network sites.
We introduce a new model of perceived quality evaluation, MUSEQUAL, which is
specifically designed to allow for the assessment of museum quality on the basis of
easily understandable dimensions related to museographic approaches and media,
subject matter and communication around exhibitions and programs, but also to
facilities outside exhibition spaces and services offered by museums and museum
staff. Each of these dimensions of quality assessment is relevant to different aspects
of museums’ professional practice, allowing the targeted identification of issues
 Mining Social Media for Museum Quality Evaluation 99

and the adoption of measures for improvements to the museum offering. For the
analysis of social network site comments, we propose a mixed-methods approach,
combining automated topic modelling using software with qualitative data analy-
sis. The analysis does not require sophisticated equipment and it could be easily
applied in any museum that is keen to understand the perceptions of its visitors.
We suggest that corpora of visitor comments be compiled from different platforms,
as in this case Facebook and TripAdvisor, to achieve a holistic view of existing
audiences which accounts for the differences in how, and for what purposes, users
communicate on different social media platforms.
We would like to conclude this chapter with a final warning, which is the limita-
tions of our methodology and the nature of evidence used in this study, for con-
structing useful knowledge. The analysis of visitor reviews on TripAdvisor and
Facebook reveals how visitors active on social media perceive different dimensions
of museum quality; it is not an objective, nor by definition an authoritative, yard-
stick for what museums should strive to achieve. Of course, museums should heed
the feedback of their visitors on their exhibition and digital communication ap-
proaches, subject matters and exhibition content, facilities and buildings, services
provided to visitors and staff performance. But they should also seek to bridge the
gap between quality as perceived by visitors and the museum’s own value-driven
objectives and criteria. While it is possible to identify the relative centrality of
specific dimensions of museum quality in the reviews of visitors on social network
sites, as advocated in our study, the actual identification and categorisation of top-
ics raised by visitors, and most importantly, their assessments and the potential
remedies they advance are not value-neutral; these instead depend greatly on the
priorities and values of the museum and researchers conducting the study. We hope
that the approach proposed in this chapter will be used in ways that prioritise the
educational, cultural and social value of the museum within a framework of ethics
of care: one that views museums as transformative, positive forces in contempo-
rary society.

Notes
1 Benaki Museum [TripAdvisor page]. Available from: https://www.tripadvisor.fr/
ShowUserReviews-g189400-d198714-r505146804-Benaki_Museum-Athens_Attica.
html [Accessed 9 November 2018]. The Benaki Museum [Facebook page]. Available
from: https://www.facebook.com/TheBenakiMuseum/ [Accessed 9 November 2018].
2 KGB Museum (Genocido Auku Muziejus) [TripAdvisor page]. Available from:
tripadvisor.fr/Attraction_Review-g274951-d284404-Reviews-or10-KGB_Museum_
Genocido_Auku_Muziejus-Vilnius_Vilnius_County.html [Accessed 9 November
2018]. Okupacijų ir laisvės kovų muziejus [Facebook page]. Available from: face-
book.com/Okupacijų-ir-laisvės-kovų-muziejus-243230317476/ [Accessed 9 November
2018].
3 Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya [TripAdvisor page]. Available from: https://www.
tripadvisor.com.ph/Attraction_Review-g187497-d257527-Reviews-Museu_Nacional_d_
Art_de_Catalunya_MNAC-Barcelona_Catalonia.html [Accessed 9 November 2018].
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya [Facebook page]. Available from: https://www.
facebook.com/MuseuNacionalArtCatalunya/ [Accessed 9 November 2018].
100 Ingrida Kelpšienė, Pedro Luengo, and Costis Dallas

4 Original review in Lithuanian: ‘Tautos kancia - mano kancia <3 Ir tai tas skausmas,
pažeminimas, nužmoginimas, svetimumas, iškraipymai, melagystes, kurie paliete
mano mamyte, teti ir mane ... Sovietine-bolševikine sistema - tuo viskas pasakyta ...
Neužmirškime, kas nutiko musu ir kitoms tautoms, kol pasaulis vis dar toks neramus!
Aciu muziejaus darbuotojams už šiluma, nuoširduma, supratima šiuose kankinimu prit-
vinkusiuose muruose!’
5 Original review in Russian: ‘Феерический музей про фантастическое событие.
Именно благодаря «советской оккупации» польский город Вильно и стал
столицей Литвы. Если осуждаешь оккупацию, верни приобретённое, либо
замолчи навсегда’.

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8 Digital Outreach in Museum
Development Strategies
Jean-Michel Tobelem and Marie Ballarini

Introduction
For decades, American, Canadian and British museums have been developing
ambitious policies for raising funds from private donors, foundations and corpo-
rations, and at the same time creating membership programmes allowing many
people to support museum activities through financial contributions of varying
amounts, depending on their level of interest and financial means. Now museums
in many countries are trying to mobilise private donations to complement their
two traditional sources of funding: public subsidies and earned revenues gener-
ated by various sources (ticket sales, shops, restaurants, space rentals, etc.). These
two types of funding models (those influenced by the North American and British
museum traditions and others) now have something in common: the emergence
of digital technology in all museum activities, from mediation to administration,
communication and, of course, fundraising. But how does that translate into a mu-
seum’s ability to raise funds? And what type of organisation can facilitate fundrais-
ing policies?

The Rise in Digital Communication

Methods for reaching potential donors have multiplied in recent decades with the
rise of the Internet, social media and digital communication. But the old tools (post,
telephone and e-mail) are still in use. New media exist alongside old media. In
other words, each medium meets a specific need or specific mode of consumption.
But the creation of new media offers new opportunities and increases the possibili-
ties for delivering messages, collecting information and reaching out to potential
donors.
This may complicate strategy development for fundraising managers, but it also
makes it possible to adapt to donor characteristics based on three main criteria:
their age, ability to contribute, and use of social media. It goes without saying that
major donors should continue to be approached individually by their peers, while a
text or Facebook message is more appropriate for reaching large numbers of donors
for smaller donations (Kotler et al. 2008). The challenge is determining the opti-
mal combination of communication channels depending on the type of donor and

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-11
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Digital Outreach in Museum Development Strategies 105

donation involved. To do so, several factors must be taken into account: the donor’s
socio-demographic profile, their interests, their active presence on one or more
social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.),
and above all, their past relationship with the museum and any previous financial
contributions. For example, a volunteer, member or ‘friend’ of the museum may be
more willing to financially invest in the museum’s activities.
Universcience (an institution combining the Palais de la Découverte and the Cité
des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, France) conducts an annual fundraising cam-
paign by post. Universcience allows donors to donate online, but many of its donors
(mainly late-career or retired science enthusiasts) still choose to send a donation
by cheque. In an effort to reach out to younger donors and communicate with a
new audience specifically interested in new technologies, Universcience launched
a crowdfunding campaign in 2017. Using these two tools, with two different target
audiences, does not lead to a ‘cannibalism’ of donations, with one type replacing
another. Instead, the annual campaign helps fund the museum’s operations and
goals by targeting those who have been fans of the museum for years, while the
online campaign is a one-time effort that reaches a new audience, facilitates com-
munication with the media, and focuses on a specific project.
Development staff must adapt the content of their solicitation messages to the
characteristics of the social media platform they are using so that the fundraising
message blends in with the thread of communication between the museum and its
audience. Thinking that the immediate contact with the public made possible by
social media can replace traditional fundraising techniques would be a mistake. It
is still essential to spark potential donors’ interest in the institution, to tell them how
their donation will allow the museum to develop important and exciting activities
and to create a lasting relationship before and after a donation is made.

Adapting the Message to the Medium

Regardless of the medium (newsletter, blog, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter/X) it
is important to highlight the quality of the museum’s programmes and its ability
to offer new ones based on the funds it collects. Of course, as with any fundraising
policy, two phenomena come into play: a large number of small and medium dona-
tions, which will make up in most cases a significant part of the fundraising objec-
tive, and a smaller number of large donations, which also make up a substantial
part. One cannot exist without the other. Small and medium donations reflect the
community’s attachment to the museum, while large donations reflect its ability to
mobilise major philanthropists and large foundations. These sources of larger dona-
tions are also solicited by various local institutions, such as universities, hospitals,
other cultural institutions (libraries, orchestras, operas, theatres, etc.), humanitarian
organisations, and sports clubs (depending on national laws on donations).
Therefore, with the help of social media, it remains essential to show the muse-
um’s singular value to the community as a whole and to each potential donor in par-
ticular. What contribution will the museum’s new wing make to education? How
will the new museum layout make the city more attractive to tourists? How will
106 Jean-Michel Tobelem and Marie Ballarini

programmes outside the museum attract new visitors, etc.? The aim is to use a va-
riety of fundraising channels while ensuring the museum is in control of them all.
In that regard, the larger and more professional the museum’s fundraising team, the
wider the variety of fundraising options it can offer.

The Benefits of Social media

The benefits of social media compared to traditional fundraising tools are threefold:

• Responsiveness and the ability for instant communication, which makes it pos-
sible to quickly provide any information that may interest the audience follow-
ing the museum’s news;
• Interactivity, which makes it possible to receive comments from message recipi-
ents, who are themselves invited to forward the message by sharing it with their
contacts, taking advantage of the viral nature of this kind of communication and
• Customisation, which facilitates the effective communication of targeted mes-
sages corresponding to the interests and concerns of the museum’s contacts.

Finally, it is important to remember to collect information on users’ wishes,

needs, suggestions and interests. Statistical data provide valuable information for
understanding a message’s impact.
The thoughtful use of social media requires several steps:

1 Select a limited number of social media platforms the museum would like to
use regularly, in proportion to its human resources. If the number is too large,
many of its accounts will remain inactive, giving the museum a lasting negative
image.
2 Design attractive content to be published on the social media platforms that the
museum chooses to invest in first, depending on their format (text, image, video,
etc.). Each platform has its unique characteristics, and ideally, content should
not just be posted identically on every platform. Facebook is widely considered
as useful. Twitter/X allows users to respond easily and participate in events
like #museumweek; Instagram reaches a younger audience, etc. These tools are
platforms through which Internet users can interact with the museum, so it is
important to respond whenever possible and create personal connections, which
play a decisive role in a fundraising campaign.
3 Identify individuals who will receive fundraising solicitations.
4 Send targeted messages to individuals who have agreed to receive such mes-
sages from the museum. In this regard, the museum staff must ensure compli-
ance with national regulations on Internet users’ rights, correcting information,
deleting accounts and cancelling newsletter subscriptions.
5 Develop a policy to maintain the loyalty of new donors, with the aim of keeping
them as contributors in the future and encouraging them to gradually increase
the amount of their donation over the years. Someone who donates 20 EUR
the first year, for example, may subsequently donate 50 EUR, then 100, and
 Digital Outreach in Museum Development Strategies 107

then perhaps even 250. In this regard, benefits play a significant role, because
if donors appreciate the benefits they receive for a 50 EUR donation, they will
likely be willing to donate a little more the next time in order to receive even
bigger benefits and an even closer relationship with the museum. This approach,
however, works best mainly with relatively small donations. For bigger donors,
attractive benefits (which are effectively negligible compared to the amount of
the donation) will have less of an impact. Their motivation lies more in their
personal relationship with the development department, curators or the muse-
um’s leadership.

What Benefits Should Be Offered to Donors?

As with any loyalty programme, maintaining a donor’s attachment requires of-
fering them benefits commensurate to the amount of their donation. Depending
on their interests, these could include exclusive access, privileges or other special
benefits. This confirms the need to get to know the donor, understand their needs
and try to accommodate their wishes, in order to offer tailored, non-standardised
benefits. Wrongly assuming donors’ motivations would lead to a loss of resources
for the museum and disappointment on the part of the donor, who may feel that
their unique characteristics were not taken into account.
Online fundraising is growing rapidly, even though it represents a minority of
the total amount collected from private donors (individuals, foundations and com-
panies) (Ballarini 2019). Online donation amounts increased significantly during
the pandemic. But in any case, it is important to remember that large donations are
made by one person to another person, making the interpersonal aspect essential.
And even if online donations may lead one to hope that it would be possible to skip
the important work of ‘cultivating’ donors, convincing them of the cause, regularly
informing them of the museum’s projects and soliciting their feedback, this is not
the case in practice (Ballarini 2020). While it is possible to collect many small and
medium donations online, relationships with major donors continue to be based
on personal trust. Depending on the size of the museum, donors could be provided
with the option of donating by text message, on the museum’s website, through a
donation platform, or through a specific mobile application.
Each medium has its specific costs (such as subscriptions, commissions or fees)
that must be measured and considered when choosing which donation tool to use.
They can also be combined, on a one-time or sustaining basis. A museum can also
use the same tool differently depending on what it wants to publicise. The Musée
du Louvre, for example, uses its online donation site four months out of the year
for its Tous Mécènes campaign, during which donors can donate only to that year’s
specific project. The rest of the year, website visitors can use the online donation
system to give to the cause that speaks to them most, such as maintaining the Jardin
des Tuileries, restoring artworks, developing educational projects, etc., depending
on their interests.
With online donations, a museum must have an online collection system that is
effective, easy to use, secure and, if possible, connected to Customer Relationship
108 Jean-Michel Tobelem and Marie Ballarini

Management (CRM) software. But once again, beware of the illusion of the ease
of technology. Using software that meets the museum’s needs takes time for the
various departments involved to understand, learn and collaborate on, requiring an
organisation that is as ‘horizontal’ as possible, as opposed to an organisation where
everyone works in isolation. There is therefore a significant cost to installing a
CRM tool that goes beyond the simple acquisition of the technological solution.
There are also costs for training, update and maintenance, and especially for mobi-
lising internal human resources, which include many more people than those in the
IT or Development departments.

Digital Fundraising Methods

The simplest online fundraising method consists of allowing Internet users to give
directly on the museum’s website, using a specially designed button. Such ease of
use is advantageous, but the role of the development and communication depart-
ments is to encourage website visitors to use the feature, because fundraising will
not happen on its own. A logical approach should be followed consisting of identi-
fying segments of potential donors to target first, developing an attractive, convinc-
ing message, offering a range of attractive, proportional benefits, and ensuring the
user-friendliness of the website to facilitate donations.
Another online fundraising method consists of leveraging the viral nature of
digital communication, particularly through social media. In this case, the museum
should develop a powerful message, using a video, for example, ideally delivered
by someone famous or influential. The message must be easy to share and clearly
encourage the recipient to make a donation to the museum, for example, for a new
acquisition. This means the message should spark an emotion in the person who
sees or hears it, because that is more important than its informational content alone.
This strategy is also easier to use if the museum already has many friends or follow-
ers on platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram or Twitter/X.
Similarly, soliciting donations by text message requires both a powerful message
and ease for users to make a payment via their mobile phone. The principle remains
the same: convincing a multitude of donors to give to the cause of their choice.
Of course, the existence of online fundraising campaigns facilitates giving, be-
cause it means donations can be made with a single click. But in reality, faced with
competition from thousands of other, equally attractive campaigns, most donors
will probably come from a combination of circles of people who are already some-
what close to the museum: its friends, followers, members or volunteers, people
who receive its newsletter and messages, and people in its contacts database. Only
very prestigious and well-known institutions can convince distant donors with no
existing relationship to the museum – even a tenuous one – to make a donation.
The museum must also accept the idea that even if conducting an online campaign
is not very costly; it still has costs: expenses related to the salaries of museum staff
working on the campaign (preparatory work, internal meetings, meetings with ser-
vice providers, benefits management, etc.), expenses related to the communication
tools that will be used to launch the campaign and follow up with potential donors,
 Digital Outreach in Museum Development Strategies 109

and expenses related to outsourcing for crowdfunding platforms, PR, event plan-
ning, media relations, etc.

Unique Characteristics of Crowdfunding

Beyond the financial objective and the desire to enlarge its donor base, a crowd-
funding campaign can allow a museum to project a modern image of itself, and
even more so if it gives rise to a publicity campaign. But there is a limitation to
this funding technique. It is best suited to one-time solicitations – such as for the
restoration or acquisition of a work of art, for example – but is not appropriate for
covering a museum’s day-to-day operational costs and therefore cannot replace
other fundraising tools. Incidentally, European museums tend to use this technique
more than museums in North America, for example, as they already have a number
of other regular channels for reaching out to their audience (members, volunteers,
donors, etc.). In addition, these campaigns are difficult to reproduce regularly, at
the risk of exhausting contributors. While the Louvre may be able to conduct its
Tous Mécènes campaign every year, thanks to its size, image and reputation, it is
much harder for a smaller museum to justify appealing to the public’s generosity
for multiple large projects.
Donors generally come from three circles: the circle close to the institution, the
more distant circle on social media, and the viral circle that did not previously know
about the museum but develops an interest in it thanks to an effective campaign.
To reach one circle, the museum must reach out to the previous circle and then
gradually expand. In other words, a crowdfunding campaign is unlikely to succeed
only thanks to people who are not close to the museum in one way or another. But
if a core group of donors is seriously mobilised, it will be possible by extension to
reach additional individuals, who are caught up in the momentum of the campaign.
For most projects, a museum can reach a circle of people who are close to the
cause being funded. In order to fund the urgent restoration of historical models of
medical devices, for example, the Bar-le-Duc Museum in eastern France appealed
to medical doctors’ associations, who were sensitive to that specific cause even
without having any previous attachment to the museum. While geographic prox-
imity between the museum and its potential donors is an important element in a
campaign’s success, the communication strategy, the museum’s image and media
actions can greatly facilitate the development department’s efforts to reach people
who are geographically further away.

The Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny, France, conducted a campaign

to raise funds from all over France, on and offline, to acquire a painting by
Caillebotte. While the museum is relatively new and has no real collection to
speak of, it benefitted from the image of the village of Giverny (associated
with the memory of painter Claude Monet) and the general public’s interest in
Impressionist works, but it also took advantage of effective media publicity.
110 Jean-Michel Tobelem and Marie Ballarini

How to Communicate Effectively?

No campaign can be launched successfully without a real effort to communicate,
including on social media, using tools offered by different platforms (news, com-
ments), and even offline (flyers). There is a positive correlation between the num-
ber of a museum’s friends or followers on social media and a campaign’s chances
of success. The communication strategy (content to share, media plan, etc.)
should therefore be developed before the campaign, which often takes longer than
planned. Determining the right fundraising goal is crucial to a project’s success.
For one, most crowdfunding platforms operate on an ‘all-or-nothing’ principle,
which means that an overly ambitious goal will cause the campaign to fail. What’s
more, it has been shown that the higher the goal, the lower the chances of success.
When determining the amount, the museum would like to raise, it is therefore nec-
essary to establish the minimum amount needed to achieve the project (rather than
the ideal amount), even if that means setting additional goals during the course of
the fundraising campaign once the initial goal is met. All of these tasks can be car-
ried out internally, by one or more staff members. Preparing and managing even a
small campaign can take a full-time staff member two to three months to complete,
especially if it is their first campaign. The task can also be outsourced to a commu-
nications firm, as the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France, did for its Painter’s Studio
campaign; however, this type of service must be included in the total campaign
budget (in addition to the platform commission).
What steps must be taken to launch a crowdfunding campaign?
The main steps in launching a crowdfunding campaign can be summarised by
the following questions:

1 What is the museum’s goal? To reach new donors and/or fund a project (and for
what amount)? The strategy the museum should use will depend on the balance
between these two priorities.
2 What is the project? The project should symbolise the museum and be easy to
promote to the public.
3 For what amount? The average crowdfunding donation in France is around 50
EUR (Baromètre du crowdfunding en France 2018), so to meet a 5,000 EUR
goal, the museum would have to convince at least 100 people. It is better to set
a modest goal initially and add additional goals later.
4 For how long? Contrary to what one might think, the longer a campaign runs,
the less likely it is to succeed, because there needs to be a sense of urgency to
keep donors from procrastinating. Taking into account the content that must be
put online to bring the campaign to life, it is generally recommended that a cam-
paign with a reasonable fundraising goal last no longer than eight weeks (Etter
et al. 2013; Mollick 2014).
5 What benefits? While ensuring compliance with national laws (in France, for
example, benefits are limited to 25 per cent of the value of the donation, up to a
limit of 69 EUR), benefits may be symbolic (such as a name on a wall of donors)
or material (such as a catalogue). Benefits often include inviting the donor to the
 Digital Outreach in Museum Development Strategies 111

opening of the project, a private visit or even a lunch with the curator; all, obvi-
ously, in proportion to the amount of the donation.
6 How to turn one-time contributors into regular donors? It is important to main-
tain a connection with these contributors, because they can become recurring
donors if kept regularly up to date on the project’s progress, invited to events or
encouraged to promote it as a project ambassador. For example, contributors to
the restoration of Courbet’s The Painter’s Studio at the Musée d’Orsay received
regular updates on the project and its progress. Three years after the campaign
ended, they are still receiving information about the painting. Contributors can
also be invited to join the Friends of the Museum association, if one exists, to
become members of a donor’s circle, or even be the first contributors in the next
campaign.

Some principles to follow in order to conduct a successful fundraising campaign

using digital tools include: setting a realistic fundraising goal, choosing the right
time for a campaign, planning and coordinating the efforts of the different depart-
ments involved in the campaign, calling on volunteers, using digital technology –
especially for potential donors who would wish to use it – explaining the purpose
of the campaign and how donations will be used, setting a time limit (even creating
a feeling of urgency), communicating about the project before the fundraising cam-
paign, and, finally, thanking all of the donors.

Data Collection
The museum must first and foremost maintain the public’s trust by collecting in-
formation freely and voluntarily, or its image and reputation could be damaged.
With that principle in mind, different methods can be used to collect such infor-
mation in a non-intrusive way, e.g., by mining past contacts with visitors (ticket
sales, donations, store transactions, etc.), any stated interests or preferences, so-
cio-demographic data, etc. Other types of data can be collected through surveys
conducted regularly or on a one-time basis by the museum, internally or by an
outside service provider. Collecting such data requires collaboration among the
museum’s different sections or departments, which is essential to ensuring the suc-
cess of the process. Advanced statistical analyses can reveal specific profiles of
members who share certain characteristics and whose characteristics differ from
other profiles identified through research. Identifying different families of potential
donors makes it possible to develop tailored arguments and effective forms of com-
munication. Message recipients will then be more interested in their content, more
likely to open, read and respond to them, and even share them with their contacts.
Database segmentation is typically done by marketing departments, which usually
only exist in museums of a certain size.
However, it is possible, even in smaller institutions, to use CRM tools, which
help automatically manage members, followers and donors. Different software
programmes offer services for customising a museum’s relationship with its audi-
ence, such as online registration and ticket sales, online donation forms, automatic
112 Jean-Michel Tobelem and Marie Ballarini

letter or email mailings, publications on social media, etc. For example, by enter-
ing their membership number, a person can automatically receive discounts in the
museum store. Automating certain routine procedures allows a museum to dedicate
more time and resources to more complex efforts. Another crucial requirement is
maintaining up-to-date information, without which a database will quickly lose its
relevance and effectiveness.
With accurate, up-to-date information, a museum can test the effectiveness of
planned project campaigns among a sample of respondents in order to choose the
most effective project. Using statistics on email opening rates, the number of clicks
on links in the message, unsubscribe requests and conversion rates, it can vary the
form of a message, its content, its frequency, or even the type of customisation used
in order to learn relevant lessons about the fundraising strategy. One of the most
advanced museums in terms of using these tools is the Whitney Museum in New
York. During construction of its new building, the museum specifically recruited
a large digital team with statistical expertise. Smaller museums can still use these
types of analyses by taking advantage of the tools mentioned above or by training
employees to conduct them.

What Type of Organisation Should Be Used?

Depending on the size of the museum, development can be managed by a spe-
cific department focused exclusively on fundraising or by the marketing and com-
munication departments, or even by the museum’s leadership. In countries where
sponsorship is not a major source of funding, there is rarely a team dedicated ex-
clusively to raising private sector funds, and only large museums can create such
a specialised department, made up of experienced professionals who work with
volunteers and liaise with the board of directors. Conversely, museums in other
parts of the world always have a development department, or at least one person
responsible for fundraising operations.
It is still useful, however, to involve a variety of people from different back-
grounds, because fundraising efforts must target different audiences, such as com-
panies, foundations and individuals, and have different goals: funding ongoing
needs, funding a one-time project, raising money for a particular fund, funding
an investment (renovations or construction of a new wing, for example), raising
contributions to endowment funds, etc. Finally, it is also useful to consult bequest
specialists when planning fundraising campaigns, as discussions with potential do-
nors can often include technical, legal and tax-related aspects.
The development team may be placed under the authority of the museum direc-
tor in order to facilitate contacts between major donors and museum leadership,
as is the case at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France, or the Musée du Quai
Branly in Paris, France, or it may be placed within the communications department,
like at MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) in New York. What is most important
is collaboration among departments with the aim of reaching the museum’s fund-
raising objectives. General management and the museum’s sponsorship, marketing
and communications managers should agree on objectives, share information and
 Digital Outreach in Museum Development Strategies 113

regularly report on the results of their efforts. The participation of the curatorial and
public outreach departments is also essential. Their knowledge and expertise are
critical in developing content to send to donors, and their participation in organis-
ing private visits, for example, can transform a donor’s experience. That is how
the entire organisation can be as effective as possible in conducting fundraising
campaigns, whether digital or not (Tobelem 2023).

Conclusion
The role of digital technology is set to increase in every sector, including in museum
fundraising. In the near future, the portion of online donations (particularly from
mobile phones) should rise from approximately 10 per cent of the total amount of
donations to between 20 percent and 30 per cent. One can also reasonably expect
that social media will continue to play a greater role in fundraising. Museums must
therefore actively prepare for this change while strategically reflecting on their
fundraising goals and ways to meet them. While the development of information
and communication technologies has made it easy and inexpensive to launch a
fundraising campaign, and while it is now possible to make a donation simply by
using secure payment solutions on a mobile phone, the increase in potential donor
solicitations, and the growing difficulty of capturing their attention, will require
adopting a highly professional, strategic approach.

References
Ballarini, M., 2019. Le mécénat participatif dans les secteurs du patrimoine muséal et mon-
umental. Doctoral thesis, l’Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle.
Ballarini, M., 2020. Musées et financements participatifs. Réseaux, 219 (1), pp. 203–240.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.3917/res.219.0203 (Accessed 03 March 2024)
Etter, V., Grossglauser, M., and Thiran, P., 2013. Launch hard or go home! Predicting the
success of Kickstarter campaigns. In Proceedings of the first ACM conference on On-
line social networks (pp. 177–182). Available from: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/
2512938.2512957 (Accessed 03 March 2024)
Kotler, N. G., Kotler, P., and Kotler, W. I., 2008. Museum marketing and strategy: design-
ing missions, building audiences, generating revenue and resources. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons.
Mollick, E., 2014. The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study. Journal of busi-
ness venturing, 29(1), pp. 1–16.
Tobelem, J. M., 2023. Politique et gestion de la culture. Publics, financement, territoire,
stratégie. Paris: Armand Colin.
9 Audience Engagement
Experiences from the European
Audience Development Project
SmARTplaces

Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

The digital revolution has transformed society on a global level like no other revo-
lution before in terms of speed as well as reach (Matzler et al. 2016, p. 13) and is
therefore similar to the process of literacy, in which society as a whole learned a
new cultural technique and was thus able to ‘develop new courses of action and
new forms of perception as well as new structures of thoughts’ (Philocast 2019,
min. 1:06).
The pace of development has reached a state where it permeates all areas of life
accompanied by an intense feeling of uncertainty (Couldry 2012, p. 9).
Digitality as a transformative force1 is directed both inwardly with regard to
personnel, professionalism, processes and production logics and ‘outwardly’ to an
urban society and the political sphere. Digitality is thus a design component that
affects and changes all of these dimensions and relationships (Krusch and Vogel
2021).
These changes are forcing cultural institutions around the world to take on new,
more complex and flexible roles. Amid this upheaval, it becomes clear how impor-
tant it is to establish new methods of innovation-oriented culture and competence
management. However, this requires changes in work and organisational culture
as well as in how programmes are developed (Vogel 2021, p. 209). Nevertheless,
cultural institutions in general, and museums in particular, are slow in adapting to
transformation processes. The recurring call for museums to change highlights the
discrepancy between theoretical requirements and their practical implementation
(Vogel and Neugebauer 2018, p. 68). There is, on a practical level, a strong need for
a safe environment to experiment with and in which to learn from new forms of ar-
tistic and cultural production. In addition, (digital) transformation does not happen
in isolation and requires a holistic approach where people (employees, audiences)
are at the heart of the process (Lerch and Vogel 2015, p. 8). For these processes to
be supported by the entire institution and its environment, it is necessary to under-
stand how each institution’s own specific mechanisms function and how – taking
into account the respective ‘intrinsic logic’2 of each institution – the process can
be made transparent. A multi-perspective and ‘tailored’ approach is, therefore, the
method of choice (Löw 2011, p. 29).
How can the shift from an object-centred approach to an audience/
user-centred approach be successfully designed? What are the consequences of

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-12
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Audience Engagement 115

digitisation for cultural institutions on a practical level in terms of programmes,

communication, audience and behaviour, as well as in regard to establishing a
more flexible, future-orientated process and workflow both within the organisa-
tion and when collaborating with external partners? Since all museums struggle
with limiting factors such as budgets, capacities and human resources, how can
museums find their own ways to deal with the digital disruption and close the
gap between their digitally enabled audiences and institutions’ own ability to
keep up?

Project Approach and Core Concept Variables

The questions above framed the basis for the smARTplaces project. All participat-
ing institutions realised that they had to face these challenges and initiate a (digital)
transformation process in order to establish digital tools to enhance their audience
development practices. They agreed that the transformative nature of the project re-
quired a holistic approach that allows equally for fostering internal capacity build-
ing measures, knowledge exchange and the redesign of internal work processes
(Lerch and Vogel 2015, p. 3). Unlike other projects that facilitate enhanced internal
and audience development digital approaches via a top-down process, this project
was initiated by middle management in the marketing department, thus engaging
the entire institution and creating a sense of ownership among participating staff.
Bearing in mind experiences with past digital projects, the smARTplaces project
was drafted in 2014 to be a digitally enabled rather than digital-first project. All
project members agreed that the technology itself would not be regarded as the
leader of digital change, but rather as an enabling factor that would be able to en-
rich visitor experiences in multiple ways. Therefore, the smARTplaces project was
conceived as an experimental project, providing a ‘safe’ environment to develop,
test and assess the effectiveness and acceptance of different forms of digital tech-
nology in regards to practising new audience engagement strategies.
It was clear that the use of digital means could only be successfully established
through good local practice, experiences and activities. There was no ‘one-size-
fits-all’ solution that could be standardised and replicated across different insti-
tutions. For that reason activities were designed and tailored to local conditions
to address diverse segments among existing and prospective audiences of each
institution, including under-represented groups (Lerch and Vogel 2015, p. 8). Since
every institution in the smARTplaces network had limited resources, most joint
activities were adapted from existing local formats to enable the sharing of good
practices, technical and human resources across the network.

Project Structure and Stages of Implementation

The smARTplaces project was designed as a four-year cooperative project co-
funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union addressing the
Culture Sub-programme’s objectives: Audience Development, Capacity Building
in Digitisation and Training and Education.
116 Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

Under the lead of the Dortmunder U – Center for Arts and Creativity (Ger-
many), the project partners included the following institutions:

• Musée de Picardie, Amiens (France)

• ETOPIA – Centre for Art and Technology, Zaragoza (Spain)
• Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (Netherlands)
• ZKM I Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (Germany)
• Azkuna Zentroa – Contemporary Cultural and Social Centre, Bilbao (Spain)
• WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels (Belgium)
• Associated partner: Liechtenstein National Museum, Vaduz (Liechtenstein)

Research and evaluation were conducted throughout the project life cycle by
two academic partners, the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research,
Birmingham City University (UK) as well as the Oulu University of Applied Sci-
ences, Oulu (Finland), with the latter leading the technological innovation pro-
cesses and development of digitally enabled products from the work programme
that augmented experiences.
The project’s structure was designed to resemble a ‘hub and spoke’ model,
which allowed for a central vision and the coordination of deliverables from dif-
ferent work groups steered by a central project management team; this allowed
for an agile and flexible leadership structure as well as supporting all partners in
building ‘a comprehensive digital literacy’ (Price and James 2018, p. 7) within their
institutions. This two-person project management team located at Dortmunder U
was responsible for coordinating the overall project, its work packages, milestones
and outcomes, as well as communicating with stakeholders throughout project im-
plementation. This team amalgamated the project of the decentralised work groups
of varying size and composition, each responsible for the delivery of milestones
from one of six work packages and activities: Project Management, Change Man-
agement, Technology, Communication, Operational Activity Management and Re-
search and Evaluation. Each was led by one or two partners, depending on their
expertise and institutional mission.
On the local level, a project manager for each institution, supported by local
staff, oversaw the development and implementation of local formats, as well as the
evaluation and documentation processes. This structure helped all partners to adapt
the planned activities and experiments to local needs and pace while at the same
time establishing a sense of ownership of the sub-projects.
To ensure a steady workflow among the different work groups, twice-yearly
steering group meetings as well as monthly virtual meetings ensured that all con-
sortium members were well informed about the status of various sub-projects and
upcoming milestones. Physical meetings were attended by the steering group mem-
bers and – depending on the core topics – additional members of local teams from
administration, communication, education or technical departments. These meet-
ing formats allowed for discussion of project developments, current challenges and
deliverables needed from the other project partners, as well as augmenting local
initiatives with new digital tools, conceptual approaches and mediation formats.
 Audience Engagement 117

Examples from the Work Programme

As explained above, smARTplaces focused on audience engagement and capacity
building. The programme included 57 activities (17 joint and 40 local) that were
divided into the following categories:

• Capacity building activities and change management

• Networking and experience exchange
• Educational and cultural activities
• Development and testing of digital tools

Capacity Building and Change Management, Networking

and Experience Exchanges

People were at the heart of the smARTplaces project process; therefore, the
majority of time was spent identifying and building capacities among staff
members via educational formats such as hands-on training and seminars on
audience segmentation, strategic process management, technology, content
development and management, as well as e-Learning opportunities. Staff
members from different departments experimented with more agile workflow
management tools, such as project management software like Smartsheet, gain-
ing insights from different digital projects throughout the consortium and iden-
tifying training needs.
Establishing a more audience-centred communication and storytelling ap-
proach by offering new narrative experiences was one of the project’s central
objectives. Consequently, it emphasised conducting long-term experiments
on digital identity building, capacity building around digital storytelling,3 and
change management around existing formats; this occurred over an 18-month
period with the support of external experts. The project structure included a
central content manager who not only oversaw management of all virtual com-
munication channels (e.g., the project website www.smartplaces.eu) and the
creation of the project website and social media content but also acted as an
advisor to each institution, helping partners to establish systematic content man-
agement and editorial workflows, as well as improve their narrative skills to
broaden audience engagement approaches. Furthermore, participating in expe-
rience exchanges was a valuable step in the process. Members of the consor-
tium frequently shared their experiences on new methods in cultural education,
digitally enhanced visitor experiences and the development of new digital prod-
ucts. Three conferences took place at ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany (2018), Etopia,
Zaragoza, Spain (2019) and Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany (2020). The
conferences were planned to showcase the primary themes of the project: audi-
ence development, digital culture and new forms of mediation – and offered a
platform for a conversation about digital activities in the cultural sector through
real experiences for more than 300 participants, thousands of live stream attend-
ees and 90 speakers.
118 Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

Mediation and Cultural Activities

In order to help all partners to become more audience-centred and to manage the in-
ner transformation process together with their audiences, a wide range of participa-
tory experiences that engaged diverse audiences was a key element of smARTplaces.
Through the implementation of digital technology and digital storytelling strategies,
our goal was to support a more accessible and inclusive culture. Therefore, much
emphasis was placed on experimenting with new transnational collaborations, new
forms of participation, co-creation, art education and mediation through 57 local
and joint formats. What follows are four examples that illustrate our approach:

Innovative Citizen – Co-Creation, Participation and Maker Culture

from Germany to Spain

‘Innovative Citizen – festival for a more democratic technology’ is a festival of

workshops and participatory activities that celebrate maker culture, DIY prac-
tices and sustainability; that has been held annually since 2014 at Dortmunder U.
smARTplaces-partner Etopia Center for Art and Technology in Zaragoza, Spain
(Nordstadtblogger-Redaktion, 2017) introduced their own version of this festi-
val, an example of knowledge transfer across institutions where we take a well-­
established format (prior to smARTplaces) and adapt it to a different local context.

Small Cabinets of Curiosity – Mediation Tools from France to Liechtenstein

Created by our partner Musée de Picardie, France and in collaboration with Landes-
museum Liechtenstein, the ‘small cabinets of curiosity’ are devices designed to
host collections in places that usually can’t display artefacts from museums. They
stress exchanges between publics, institutions and countries and target young peo-
ple as a priority. Each institution curates a cabinet for another, enlisting visitors in
the process.
These small cabinets of curiosity are designed to tour across the network. The
goal is to reach out to communities that are not yet engaged with the museum and
to install exhibitions in geographically and culturally remote locations, offering
visitors the opportunity to discover another European country and culture through
the exchange of symbolic objects from their collections. (Maguet 2019). This in-
cludes groups who may be curious about a partner offering but are unable to visit
for a variety of reasons. The cabinets also present an opportunity to make a radical
departure from current models of public engagement by posing questions to cura-
tors: What happens when we don’t set the rules of engagement? Does this break
down barriers? Does it encourage curiosity or even a sense of playfulness?

Media Facade Academy – Digital Art Trainings

The Media Facade Academy at the Etopia Center for Art and Technology in
Zaragoza, Spain, is an intensive training programme designed for artists, profes-
sionals and students from Spain interested in the skills, abilities and framework
 Audience Engagement 119

needed to operate Etopia’s Media Facade, as well as in creating and developing

unpublished works visible in that impressive artistic media display.
As part of smARTplaces, the project cooperates with Azkuna Zentroa and Dort-
munder U on an annual edition. Each institution explores the possibilities of the ur-
ban screens used as a media art broadcasting platform through different activities,
giving participating artists the opportunity to experiment with the media façade; it
also affords them opportunities to receive training and mentorship to develop their
personal projects, with the possibility of being broadcast on different media walls
and facades (Zarranz 2018).

The Art of Skate

Skateboarders often use public spaces around cultural institutions like Dort-
munder U and Azkuna Zentroa to skate. But how do they redefine urbanity for
their purposes, and how do they perceive the city? While it is widely accepted
for artists to rethink urban environments, a redefinition offered by other groups
such as skateboarders is not seen as a creative or artistic process. Accordingly,
how can cultural institutions collaborate with specific communities by redefin-
ing the outside and inside of spaces to tell a new story about both? These were
the initial questions the Dortmunder U and Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao asked their
local skateboarding communities as a starting point and as part of their mutual
collaboration (Kötting 2018).
This collaboration represents a step towards learning the rules of engagement
in terms of giving way to different cultural concepts, and resulted in cross-cultural
exchange visits and a co-curated exhibition in which opened in May 2019. This
included digitally enabled showcases such as a 360-degree skateboarding tour
through the city for non-skateboarders, allowing audiences to explore the formers’
perception of the urban spaces that surround them. This case study can provide an
example of how cultural institutions can practise a change of perspectives in order
to initiate a long-term relationship with this specific community, which has poten-
tially positive outcomes.

Developing a Digitally Enabled Toolkit That Augments Experiences

Expanding cultural experiences beyond physical visits through the use of digi-
tal infrastructure, tools, services and products was one of the central aims of the
smARTplaces project. Different sub-projects explored the possibilities of expand-
ing the user experience into the digital world and allowed different audiences to
consume services, explore stories and perceive museum collections and cultural
formats from different perspectives and narratives.
Several digital tools, as well as social media platforms and content strategies,
were tested for use in cultural institutions in regards to effectiveness, acceptance
and feasibility of operation. These strategies included digitally enhanced local ac-
tivities like live streaming, content production ranging from different video formats
120 Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

to podcasting, offering free visitor Wi-Fi, interactive maps, virtual art experiences,
transmedia storytelling, chatbot systems, augmented reality and gamified elements.
Below we describe a few of these initiatives more specifically.

#TheWorkofArt Live Dialogue Series

From February 2018 to May 2020, all smARTplaces partners host – on a triannual
basis – one of eight live dialogue sessions, consisting of a Q&A simulcast on Face-
book Live, where the public is able to virtually attend and participate, discovering
different perspectives on art, and glimpsing what happens behind the scenes in
museums and cultural institutions.
This project was conceived to experiment with how digital tools can be used for
transnational storytelling across different countries and around selected themes. In
this instance, we interpreted storytelling as a sharing of processes by people and
teams who are normally not visible to members of the public – including curators,
artists, editors and technical teams. We have observed that although live streaming
is a very useful format to engage audiences that are not able to participate physi-
cally, it requires the same logistical effort to provide high quality content as any
other offline format to enable active audience participation during live dialogues.

Mobile Apps

Two mobile apps were developed and released between 2017 and 2019 that fulfil
different information and entertainment purposes for the general public. The ‘expe-
rience_zkm’ app provides information to expand and enhance the onsite exhibition
experience. This includes audio guides and augmented reality experiences (ZKM
Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe 2017). The smARTplaces app (released in
spring 2019 for iOS and Android) is an iteration from the experience_zkm app and
includes an augmented reality compass, augmented reality indoor tours, and an
augmented reality art hunt through different cities that lets users discover artworks
that are virtually placed throughout them, as well as an innovative story world in
which users can playfully discover non-linear stories from participating cultural in-
stitutions across Europe. The app follows a tripartite approach that enables partners
to not only present their institution internationally (level 1) but also to include in-
dividualised virtual contents, augmented reality tours and unique user experiences
that target local interests and specific use cases prior to (level 2) and during a physi-
cal visit (level 3). Moving away from the initial, more static ‘one-scope-fits-all’ ap-
proach, it was instead decided to offer a highly scalable and customisable modular
app solution, which allows for future additions that will be able to accommodate
rapidly changing technical developments, as well as to the limited (financial) re-
sources available to cultural institutions. By the end of 2019, further feature addi-
tions included virtual museum tours, automatic image recognition, location-based
services, indoor positioning and multi-language options.
Furthermore, mobile app concepts and prototypes were developed locally and
tested as mediation and educational tools to reach certain audience segments,
 Audience Engagement 121

such as school-aged children. The Liechtenstein National Museum notably ex-

perimented with a ‘Digital museum treasure hunt’ for children, a contemporary
cultural education offer that invites the youngest visitors to (discover?) the per-
manent exhibition in a child-friendly and playful way. With this personalised
museum tour, children will get to know some of the most interesting and repre-
sentative objects in the museum. By combining chosen objects from the exhibi-
tion with questions and observations from the children during their tour through
the museum, the digital treasure hunt offers children an age-appropriate form of
access to either their cultural heritage, or to some unique objects strongly con-
nected to Liechtenstein.
At the Van Abbemuseum, the Kijkwijzer app was implemented in 2016 for ed-
ucational purposes. Through this mobile phone application, young visitors, often
through school visits, can explore the museum independently. Through interactive
software, their visit becomes very active. Instead of listening to a tour guide, they
are forced to think for themselves. Typically, for the Van Abbemuseum, the tool
is not designed to solicit right or wrong answers but instead leads the students
to relate their own lives and experiences to the artworks they see at the museum
(Erica 2019).

Outcomes and Findings, or, the Project Itself Is Always

Smarter Than You Are
While smARTplaces was initially conceived as an audience development project –
with the aim of reaching new target groups and improving interaction with existing
ones – it became clear over the course of the project that the establishment of inno-
vation-promoting structures within institutions and their transformation into learn-
ing organisations represented the real challenges. When the first activities were
delivered, it soon became clear that the participating cultural organisations had
great difficulty in positioning themselves within a culture of digitality rather than
having already embedded it across the organisation (Price and James 2018, p. 45).
During the first phase of the project, we learned more about the nature of cul-
tural collaboration between institutions across the EU in terms of organisational
and operational challenges. These are inflected by local conditions and expecta-
tions (funding frameworks, for instance) as well as by diverse audience segmenta-
tion models and orientations towards engagement and development. As we have
discovered, again, local factors within institutions and their contexts can run coun-
ter to the swift and responsive nature of digital opportunities (Lerch and Long
2019, p. 11).
There were five key findings in our learning experiences we would like to share:

• There is a need to learn the rules of engagement and practise a change of

perspective/mindset;
• Technology should be an enabler tied to local practice;
• The human factor is the biggest challenge and there is a need for new models of
leadership to enable organisational development;
122 Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

• There is an urgent need for more complex audience data and evaluation efforts/
comparability of results and
• The project needs to be explained and communicated properly to all relevant
stakeholders.

Rules of Engagement and Change of Perspective

During the first year, it became evident that partners had to find a common un-
derstanding of Audience Development and to focus on participation and engage-
ment in order to have an impact. Buying a ticket to an exhibition or participating
in a workshop and having a meaningful encounter thus represents only the first
step (Simon 2010, p. ii). It is not only about attracting increasing numbers of
diverse audiences to a social object or programme; it is even more so about learn-
ing the rules of engagement and a practised change of perspective. This implies
partners giving up power to their audiences and local communities (sovereignty
over interpretations, agenda-setting, controlling aesthetics, etc.) (Sternfeld 2012,
p. 120). Through various experiments, as the qualitative analysis by our research
partner verifies, all partners were able to understand their role in the city – both
the physical space and as part of the cultural fabric – as well as to acknowledge
good practice and the strengths of their institutions in encouraging a more reflec-
tive way of working.

Technology Should Be an Enabler Tied to Local Practice

One central hypothesis that could be further verified as a key finding has been
movement from a form of technological utopianism or determinism – in which
cultural organisations expect the digital to provide direct solutions to problems or
support in realising objectives by design – to the understanding of technology as
tied to local expertise rather than representing an ‘off-the peg’ solution. All partners
realised that they need to assert their expertise and input with regards to technologi-
cal design issues, particularly to address the conflict between the delivery of high-
quality, creative content while recognising and drawing on the digital literacy of
creative workers, intermediaries and audiences. In the creative processes of dealing
with digital, the production of a ‘proof of concept’ for project initiatives can be
used to develop and test ideas on a small scale in order to demonstrate to and in-
spire colleagues and institutions. As a ‘light touch’ mode of development, this also
allows for cheaper ‘failure’, mitigating risk and enabling creativity and experimen-
tation (Lerch and Long 2019).
Therefore, as a learning and concrete outcome, the Dortmunder U developed
a six-month project called DigiTrans. Digi-Trans aimed to explore the theoretical
and practical aspects of developing an agile mindset for the cultural sector. The
programme focused on four themes: Rethinking Leadership, Rethinking Teams,
Rethinking Success and Rethinking Collaboration. The activities included curricu-
lum development, prototyping and public engagement workshops to share good
practice with the region and beyond.
 Audience Engagement 123

Contrary to the norm of ‘move fast and break things’, we followed a reflective
approach. This involved taking small steps to understand how the agile mindset
can be incorporated by the GLAM community, which is at a unique point: embrac-
ing digitalisation while actively seeking to redefine its purpose in this age of rapid
societal change.
The project was supported by a cross-departmental group at the Dortmunder U.
We also invited multidisciplinary experts in the fields of digitalisation, cultural en-
gagement, curatorial management and accessibility to contribute to the programme
(Adhikari 2019).

The Human Factor: Cultivating New Models of Leadership

and Organisational Development

During the project, it became evident that the human factor is the biggest challenge
for successful digital transformation processes. Most people in cultural institutions
feel as though they are lost in, and late to, digitalisation. They need an anchor that
gives them control over these resulting changes. Since the project was initiated in
and coordinated by the marketing department, internal communication and imple-
mentation turned out to be more challenging than expected. To increase acceptance
and understanding of the process, certain experiments helped to foster interaction
with representatives from other departments, enabling project team members to
understand the opportunities and barriers partners face when running activities,
building trust and bringing clarity to the process.
Against this background, it became clear that a contemporary cultural institu-
tion needs an innovative and institution-specific leadership approach and, above
all, a management team with a wide range of competencies to be able to cope with
this complexity. It is important to find the right balance between administrative,
marketing and artistic perspectives as well as overall development. There is an
urgent need for an agile organisational structure, which provides new spaces for
content development together with all relevant stakeholders, and takes into account
the different needs of all staff members around leadership and hierarchy awareness.

Urgent Need for Audience Data and Evaluation Efforts/

Comparability of Results

Even though some institutions, such as the Van Abbemuseum and the ZKM, work
with different forms of visitor surveys and evaluation methods, there was no base-
line for comparing results. In order to measure the success of each institutional
transformation process towards an engaged audience and relevant institution, there
is an urgent need for (a) more complex audience data as well as a greater effort to
raise this data, (b) systematic investment in establishing and expanding the neces-
sary personnel resources to accomplish these goals and (c) new forms of contextu-
alisation and categorisation. There is also a need to move from quantifiable values
such as visitor numbers, ticket sales and social media reach to qualitative methods
that measure the impact and performance of the institution in different dimensions
124 Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

(Jacobsen 2016, p. 2). We have to ask ourselves the following: What do we need to
know about our visitors and at what point will we become ‘data leeches’? At what
point do we have to fulfil our role of reflecting society/social realities?

Communicating Project Guidelines with Relevant Stakeholders

Apart from the struggle of leading a digital transformation process within the insti-
tution, communicating with different stakeholders of each partnering institution,
as well as with funders, had been a challenge. Since digital transformation pro-
cesses focus on sustainable and qualitative effects such as social impact, capacity
building and change of mindset, conflict is inevitable when the definition of suc-
cess of cultural projects is still widely associated with and communicated through
traditional key statistics such as visitor numbers or generated revenue. Addition-
ally, the temporary nature and standardised and extensive reporting requirements
of co-funded projects collide with the ability to measure long-term qualitative ef-
fects that might not become apparent until after the project has concluded. Conse-
quently, the shift from selling something to our audiences to listening and learning
about audience interests, building relationships and seeking to understand what
we can do together in order to benefit local communities is one that must be com-
municated to politicians, media, sponsors, funders and other stakeholders. It is a
new way of thinking and acting, and therefore, all stakeholders have to be carefully
included in the process.

Conclusion
After leading such a complex project as smARTplaces, we can assert that it suc-
cessfully provided a ‘safe’ test environment for all partners to practise audience
engagement via digital means, and to learn how to better collaborate with their
local communities as well as within an international network of partners. Capacity-­
building measures and the ongoing exchange of experiences can be regarded as
useful measures to further design the transformation process from an object-­centred
to an audience-centred approach within institutions. The experiments have helped
to create an environment for all staff members to practise process-oriented thinking
and acting and the courage to step out of their comfort zones and experiment with
possibilities of failure and learning. Although each institution had to find its own
‘tailored’ approach and pace within the project, these collaborative activities fos-
tered the establishment of a more flexible future-orientated process and workflow
organisation.
Still, a project like smARTplaces can only function as an impetus and starting
point. We can conclude that the actual digital maturity level of all institutions
has increased; however, it is still lower than what we envisaged at the beginning
of the project. The project has thereby raised awareness around the gap between
our initial digital vision and its practical implementation. Without further in-
vestment in capacity building and experimental projects, medium-sized cultural
institutions must be vigilant about the risks of falling further behind in terms of
 Audience Engagement 125

digitisation and digital literacy. All participating institutions will have to reflect
on new models of leadership, as well as how they might continue to shape and lead
ongoing digital transformation within their respective institutions. SmARTplaces
ended in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and the crisis has highlighted
even more strongly the museum sector’s ongoing struggle to evolve in the face of
social, political and technological upheaval. During periods of lockdown, the pos-
sibilities of accessing digital tools have increased the existing differences between
medium and small-sized institutions in contrast to big players; at the same time, it
revealed transformation and structural deficits within the entire museum sector.
Against this background, transforming into a learning organisation, in particular,
is key to necessary (digital)transformation processes in the cultural sector. Since it
is often not possible to build up additional personnel capacities, existing resources
must be exploited in a meaningful way. Therefore, implementing innovation as a
meta-competence is essential for the (digital) reorganisation of our cultural infra-
structure. At the organisational level, this implies the integration of continuous
competence management that takes into account the individual learning needs of
all employees in a wide range of functions. In the long term, different learning op-
portunities and formats (e.g., leadership development, mentoring, knowledge shar-
ing, self-directed learning, peer-to-peer, digital learning/capacity building, design
thinking, etc.) must be expanded to create a holistic learning landscape, includ-
ing collaborative work processes. In the future, permanent innovation-promoting
structures are required within all organisations. This means both a strategic and
structural reorientation and the cultivation of a constant willingness and capacity
for change within institutions.
Simultaneously, we are seeing an urgent need for grassroots innovation to en-
gage communities with issues of democracy, global warming and racism. Acting
confidently in the digital space is, therefore, a prerequisite for the ethical and demo-
cratic use of digital technologies, as well as for addressing changes within this area.
In summary, this means that the opportunities presented by digital transformation
for cultural institutions lie above all in recognising and working out how institu-
tions can help society to integrate the emerging potential of digital development
meaningfully, socially and ethically into societal processes and discussions. In the
end, this involves new methods of democratic exchange and togetherness (Vogel
and Neugebauer 2021, pp. 93-95).
To be clear, this does not mean indulging in superlatives such as ‘disruption’ or
‘reinventing the wheel’. Neither should we adopt jingoistic terms such as ‘digital-
first’ and ‘agile’. We can draw on a multitude of examples from cultural institu-
tions across Europe that offer strategic and operational solutions. We need to parse
through these and append the resulting insights with cross-sector knowledge on
three fronts: new business models, organisational design and better digital pro-
cesses. In concrete terms, we have to ask ourselves how (digital) transformation
processes affect the system – in our case, the ‘culture’ – and how our structures
have to change as a result.
Projects such as smARTplaces, therefore, show, on the one hand, how important
it is to bundle competencies across departments and disciplines and to work on
126 Jasmin Vogel and Britta Lerch

common challenges collaborative and across a network. On the other hand, these
projects reveal the need for other funding frameworks that focus on infrastructures
and processes, and which are designed for institutional change (Vogel 2022, p. 250).

Notes
1 According to the culture and media scientist Felix Stalder, digital technologies were not
the starting point of the current social transformation processes. They were furthermore
the driver of already ongoing change processes. Mainly, they could only be developed
after an idea of their possibilities had already been formulated (Stalder 2017, p. 21).
Therefore, the authors refer to transformation processes in general.
2 The term intrinsic logic (Eigenlogik) comes from the fields of Urban Affairs and Spatial
Development and assumes that each city as well as public institutions develop spe-
cific and distinguishable constellations, coherent knowledge and expressions that shape
people and their practices in different ways. Each location is assigned to its own logic
and suggests specific actions. Cities primarily perceive this approach as a ‘context of
meaning and space’ that cannot be summarised in ‘administrative boundaries’ (Terizakis
2011, p. 14). The concept of self-logic inevitably goes hand-in-hand with the approach
of developing a tailor-made solution for every city (Terizakis 2011, p. 14) The concept
of intrinsic logic is a substitute term since it does not mean the ‘hidden ratio of a city’,
but rather the ‘stubbornness’ of a city. This something is ‘own (singular) and still has a
logic’ (Gehring 2008, p. 156).
3 In the project, digital storytelling is understood as the strategic application of storytell-
ing techniques to create new/different engaging narratives around existing formats, e.g.,
an exhibition, in the form of non-physical media, tailored for digital communication
channels such as social media.

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Part III

Accessibility and Community

Engagement
10 Museum Accessibility in Italy
Past, Present, Future

Annamaria Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi

In recent years, the concept of accessibility has evolved naturally, moving from
an almost exclusive focus on people with physical disabilities (motor, vision and
hearing) to a broader understanding of the range of physical, social, cognitive and
relational conditions. Helen Chatterjee states: ‘Gone are the days when museums
were viewed as static and inert. […] from a more contemporary perspective they
offer an interactive environment that can contribute positively to present day
well-being’ (Chatterjee and Noble 2013 p. x). The project carried out by ICOM
Italy on this topic has brought many concrete results: ones that better define the
concept of accessibility, inclusion, usability and, recently, audience emancipation
and equity. ICOM Italy was the only ICOM National Committee to have created
the Thematic Commission on Museum Accessibility in 2007, led by Dario Scar-
pati, and today chaired by Lucilla Boschi, Curator of Museo Tolomeo at Istituto
dei Ciechi (the Institute of the Blind People) and Francesco Cavazza in Bologna.
Today the leading organisational figure of ICOM Italy’s projects is Anna Maria
Ravagnan, who was appointed to the Probiviri Committee in 2016. The Italian
word probiviri denotes individuals who, enjoying particular esteem and prestige
for their skills and proven honesty, are called upon to be part of collegiate bodies,
public bodies, associations or parties, with the task of giving opinions, judging the
progress of an institution and verifying the respect of internal rules and the ethical
behaviour of members.
The Commission, which deals with accessibility, inclusion and museum usabil-
ity in all its facets, currently consists of more than 50 active members in Italy.
During its more than ten years of existence, the Commission has developed sys-
tems for understanding the relationship between facilities and people with physi-
cal, sensory and cognitive disabilities and has studied the exhibition facilities and
services offered to the public. The Commission has promoted a cognitive survey of
Italian museums in order to open a dialogue between the museum and society, us-
ing the interview method and through the administration of a questionnaire to pro-
fessional figures such as directors and curators. Following an experimental phase
during which the museums of Bari, Mantua, Milan and Rome were interviewed,
the project was extended to the whole country. Thanks to data obtained from the
interviews, the creation of a glossary of terms related to the theme of museum ac-
cessibility has been initiated and will soon be submitted to ICOM Italy members

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-14
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
132 Annamaria Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi

for validation and subsequent publication in Italian and English. The Commission
has also worked on the elaboration of guidelines that should serve as a stimulus for
museums and museum workers.
One of the Commission’s objectives is the recognition of museum personnel
and the different functions they perform, both to include these new professions
both in ICOM Italy’s museum experts document and to present these new profes-
sions to MiBACT (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism). Another important
objective in recent years has been not only the definition of quality standards to be
adopted in the museum field but also the definition of simple practical guidelines in
response to the FAQ, with the aim of making the museum accessible. The Commis-
sion has been highlighting best practices on its website with the aim of disseminat-
ing interesting projects and linking project managers to each other.
Both international and Italian regulations on museum accessibility have been
published on the Commission’s website and continuously updated, alongside a
reference bibliography. In addition, in recent years, the Commission has pro-
moted and supported numerous museum accessibility and inclusion projects for
people with motor or cognitive disabilities, migrants, homeless people, prison-
ers, etc. A Glossary is also being developed since building a common language
is key. For instance, a psychologist will use the terms of his discipline in a much
more precise way than a museum professional, and vice-versa. But if they have
to come together to describe an ‘accessible’ museum, they must utilise the same
language.

Recent Italian Projects Promoting Museum Accessibility

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the theme of museum accessi-
bility in Italy. The following is a non-exhaustive list of projects worthy of mention.

1 Born with Culture

This Italian project provides parents with newborn babies a pass allowing the
child and its family free entry to the museums of their city of residence or those
located in the nearest city.
2 Museo Teatrale alla Scala
For groups of people affected by intellectual disabilities, visiting the Museo
Teatrale alla Scala and attending workshops during regular opening hours for
disabilities is a real challenge. A detailed description of this experience is pro-
vided in this article as a practical example of how to implement this philosophy
to avoid ghettoisation.
3 Museum for people experiencing homelessness
The Museo dei Cappuccini in Milan has adopted the slogan ‘Art Nourishes
the Spirit and the Body’ and invites people experiencing homelessness to visit
the museum. Individuals who come to the Opera San Francesco per i Poveri for
lunch, or to use the shower facilities, are invited to visit the nearby museum,
accompanied by staff from the education department. Visiting the museum can
help to restore dignity.
 Museum Accessibility in Italy 133

4 Montecassino Abbey Museum

This is an inclusive experience project developed by Ivana Bruno and Luca
Bianchi in Montecassino Abbey museum, whereby a hearing-impaired art his-
torian and an expert in museum accessibility who is visually impaired use Ital-
ian Sign Language (LIS) and tactile exploration to guide visitors through the
museum, showing how all the senses are important and superfluous at the same
time.

Following several years of working in the Italian territory, the Commission

gradually assumed importance as a point of reference for many Italian institutions;
in 2014, Commission members therefore began discussing the possibility of cre-
ating an International Accessibility Committee. The first proposal was presented
during the 2016 ICOM International Conference in Milan, but this process was
not followed up even though more than 60 museums supported the creation of the
International Committee.
In agreement with Dario Scarpati, founder and first supervisor of the Commis-
sion, we have always believed in the importance of creating an International Com-
mittee for Accessibility, Inclusion and Usability. Therefore, we tried to address this
issue by organising a meeting during the ICOM General Conference in Kyoto on 4
September 2018, where many interventions stated the utility of creating an Interna-
tional Committee for Accessibility, Inclusion and Usability.
Participation in cultural life and delight in the arts are fundamental human rights
enshrined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which speci-
fies that:

1 Everyone has the right to freely to participate in the cultural life of the
community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its
benefits.
2 Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests re-
sulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the au-
thor (United Nations 1948).

The role of museums in enhancing wellbeing and improving health through

social interventions is one of the foremost topics of importance in the museum
sector today. With an aging population and emerging policies on the social
responsibilities of museums, the sector is facing an unprecedented challenge
around how to develop services that will meet the needs of its communities in
more holistic and inclusive ways. In Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice
in Object Handling, Helen Chatterjee sets the scene for the future of museums:
one in which the health and wellbeing of communities is at the top of the agenda
(Chatterjee 2008). The authors gather existing research and best practices in
the area of museum interventions in health and social care and offer a detailed
overview of the potential outcomes of such interactions, including benefits and
challenges. This timely book is essential reading for museum professionals,
particularly those involved in access and education, students of museums and
134 Annamaria Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi

heritage studies, as well as practitioners of arts in health, art therapists, care and
community workers.

A New Perspective on the Museum’s Mission

Museum functions have increased with the passage of time, and it is not out of
place to define a museum today as a place to meet and create relationships, as well
as a place that is capable (in many cases) of mitigating social tensions. It is in this
context that the concept of museum accessibility must be interpreted. The impor-
tance of effective communication to improve accessibility has been underlined by
the Italian government. special attention to establishing guidelines for captions,
signage installation, and subtitles, in addition to labels and object descriptions Fur-
thermore, the government defined specific guidelines for accessibility plans within
museums.
A strong priority for the future success of ICOM is to establish the theme of ac-
cessibility as a multidimensional and transversal one, expanding from overcoming
architectural barriers to other museum functions like communication, education,
environmental psychology and new technologies. The themes of accessibility and
inclusion need to be expanded from people with motor and sensory disabilities to
people with cognitive disabilities, not forgetting all those at risk of social fragili-
ties, such as prisoners, deprived, people experiencing homelessness, migrants and
hospitalised patients.
The future of psychological and social wellbeing also depends on museum
participation and engagement, as demonstrated by a case study in Milan. A mul-
tidisciplinary working group designed a project to assess this issue with a cross-
sectional study based on a sample of 1,000 citizens of Milan. Our objective was
to assess how cultural participation affects mental health relative to subjective
wellbeing (measured on the Psychological General Wellbeing scale) and social
wellbeing (measured on the Social Index scale), which combines community
development and the intensity of social volunteering activities. The survey was
carried out with the assistance of Doxa, an Italian pollster company, through
telephone interviews, and used a large database of contacts and the master data
of 20,000 families in Milan. The households interviewed were randomly selected
electronically, removing any possibility of choice and thereby avoiding distor-
tions in the sample. Gender, age, education level and employment status were
taken into consideration for stratification purposes. The average social index and
subjective wellbeing index of the study sample were 18.79 and 80.70, respec-
tively. The social index and subjective wellbeing index of 327 people who had
not visited a museum in the previous year were 13.91 and 77.95, respectively,
while the 102 people attending museums at least ten times a year had an average
social index and subjective wellbeing index of 32.65 and 84.65, respectively,
with a highly statistical significant difference (p < 0.001). No other cultural activ-
ity produced better results. The results suggest an important link between cultural
capital, social capital and subjective wellbeing that deserves special attention for
future studies.
 Museum Accessibility in Italy 135

Outcome Research: From a Problem to an Opportunity

In recent years, we have learned that cultural engagement through museums can
be associated with important health outcomes. The British Longitudinal Study of
Ageing (Fancourt et al. 2020) shows that for adults aged 50 and older, visiting
museums every few months or more often was associated with a lower incidence
rate of dementia over a 10-year follow-up period compared with those who visited
less frequently. This association was independent of demographics, socioeconomic
status, health-related variables including sensory impairment, depression, vascular
conditions, and other forms of community engagement. Visiting museums may be
a promising psychosocial activity to support the prevention of dementia (Fancourt
et al. 2020), but how can we measure short-term outcomes immediately following
a museum visit, and in particular for people with intellectual disabilities?
In recent years, many museums have developed specific projects for people with
mental health problems. Although the word ‘wellbeing’ seems to be omnipresent,
there are very few indications of the methodology to be adopted to detect any
beneficial effects in the daily context, and this constitutes the main difficulty in
measuring the impact of these initiatives. In other words, when talking about well-
being, it is obviously fundamental to have at one’s disposal appropriate measure-
ment tools. Only in the last 20 years have scholars begun to systematically address
the study of psychological wellbeing with appropriate measurement tools under the
impetus of the birth and development of positive psychology. Most of the avail-
able tool’s focus, however, on the evaluation of a ‘state’ condition that reflects the
individual perception of wellbeing relative to a previous period (generally the last
four weeks). Very few efforts have been made to develop tools capable of measur-
ing momentary psychological states.

Aesthetic Experiences at the Museo Teatrale alla Scala

Significant efforts have been carried out in Italy in recent years to develop instru-
ments that are able to capture the outcomes of accessibility projects. The follow-
ing section describes the feasibility of an aesthetic experience in Museo Teatrale
alla Scala in 17 adolescent and adult subjects suffering from different forms of
neuro-psychiatric diseases, and guests of the Villa Santa Maria Institute, an Italian
Rehabilitation Center. Generally speaking, the tools currently in use for measuring
momentary psychological states have been oriented to the study of negative sensa-
tions such as pain, depression, nausea, etc. However, there is nothing preventing
the use of the same instruments for the quantification of positive sensations, such
as, for example, those associated with viewing artistic objects or listening to musi-
cal works.
As part of our case study’s methodology, we refer to simple descriptive
scales, which use adjectives (for example, little – enough – very much) to grade
positive sensations or to numeric or graphic scales. One of these graphic scales,
the so-called Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), appears to be the most reliable, sen-
sitive and accurate method, thanks to the enormous experimental work carried
136 Annamaria Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi

out in the field of pain (Joyce et al. 1975; Scott and Huskisson 1976). The classic
VAS is made up of a segment of a predetermined length (usually 100 mm) with
two well highlighted extremes corresponding to a minimum theoretical value
(0 mm) and a maximum theoretical value (100 mm) of the subjective state. The
subject is asked to position himself at a level corresponding to his momentary
state by using a pencil to draw a bar perpendicular to the segment itself. The
distance in millimetres between the zero end and the crossing of the bar traced
on the segment represents the entity of the sensation felt at that moment by
the subject. Unfortunately, the use of the classic 100 mm VAS poses certain
problems, especially in subjects with physical and/or intellectual disabilities for
whom the understanding of the operation of the scale can be difficult. In addi-
tion, bias connected to a possible poor understanding of VAS by certain subjects
generates difficulties in statistical analysis (Maxwell 1978; Stubbs 1979). The
need to perform the evaluation of the sensation in two successive phases (mark-
ing of the subject on the 100 mm segment and subsequent measurement of the
length of the segment by the operator) and the alteration of the length of the seg-
ment, which may occur if the data collection forms are photocopied rather than
printed, represent additional sources of potential error that limit the usefulness
of the VAS.
To improve the VAS, in 1983, Grossi developed a special version called the An-
alogue Chromatic Continuous Scale (ACCS) (Grossi et al. 1983, 1984). The ACCS
consists of a coloured strip measuring 100 mm in length and 25 mm wide, in which
the colour fades with an increasing intensity: from zero, at which point the colour
is almost absent, to 100, at which point the colour intensity is at its maximum. In
the ACCS original version, used for pain measurement, the stripe colour was red.
For the study described in this article, we decided to re-adapt the ACCS to measure
momentary wellbeing among subjects.
In the new version of ACCS used for wellbeing measurement, the colour of the
stripe is blue and the two labels placed as anchor points at both ends are: ‘absence
of wellbeing’ and ‘maximum possible wellbeing’. These terms are inscribed on
a white background. The colour passes from a very pale blue, corresponding to
absence of wellbeing, to a dark blue, corresponding to maximum possible wellbe-
ing. The coloured stripe is located on one side of a double-sided ruler (Figure 10.1)
with a transparent slider containing a thin black line perpendicular to the coloured
strip and a stopper inside the slider itself, which ensures its stability when it is po-
sitioned at the chosen level. On the back of the coloured strip is a 100-mm gradu-
ated segment that is not shown to the subject. A second black line, corresponding
to the one on the coloured face, allows the operator to directly measure the length
of the segment subtended by the cursor (length corresponding to the choice made
by the subject) simply by turning the ruler and reading the value in millimetres.
The value is immediately recorded in a specific database for subsequent statistical
processing. From previous scientific works, it is known that the ACCS is equiva-
lent to the visual analogue scale of 100 mm (VAS) but more sensitive and easier
to understand and use (Grossi et al. 1983, 1984). The above has led us to use the
ACCS scale in the evaluation of the subjective state of wellbeing of subjects with
 Museum Accessibility in Italy 137

Figure 10.1 Continuous Analog Chromatic Scale, Italian Wellbeing ACCS scale, front and
rear face.

cognitive disabilities before and following a visit to the Museo Teatrale alla Scala:
one that was enriched by a musical and theatrical performance.
The two anchor point labels in English are ‘absence of wellbeing’ and ‘maxi-
mum possible wellbeing’.
Three groups of people with intellectual disabilities of various etiologies and
residing at the Villa Santa Maria Institute were involved in the study: six ado-
lescents with autism (aged 10-17); five adolescents with psychopathologies (aged
12-17); and adults with various types of intellectual disabilities (31-62 years old)
(See Table 10.1). Wellbeing measurements were carried out for five consecutive
days before participants visited the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, asking subjects to
use the ruler to determine their temporary psychological wellbeing levels at given
times of day, usually between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. This measurement is taken in
the days prior to the museum visit aimed to establish a basic level of reference

Table 10.1 Characteristics of the subjects involved in this experiment

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

N=6 N=5 N=6

Diagnosis Autism Psychiatric diseases Intellectual disability
Gender (M/F) 6m 5m 5m1f
Age (range) 10 to 17 12 to 18 36 to 62
Mild ID 1 5 1
Moderate ID 5 0 3
Severe ID 0 0 2
138 Annamaria Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi

for wellbeing. On the day dedicated to the theatre experience, the same type of
evaluation was carried out at 11 a.m., immediately prior to the experience; at 12.30
p.m., immediately following the experience, and at 2:30 p.m., on the participants’
return to the Institute. The experience consisted of a visit to the museum, with an
explanation and description of the setting, carried out by a cultural mediator with
experience in the field of inclusion for people with cognitive disabilities, who had
previously defined the method of the visit in coordination with the head of the Edu-
cational Service and Specialized Education of the Istituto Villa Santa Maria. At the
end of the visit and immediately following it, overlooking the Teatro alla Scala hall
from a theatre dais which was suitably secured with a transparent screen, guests
were asked to sit in the Exedra hall, where the famous Steinway piano belonging to
Franz Liszt is located. There, Maestro Fabio Sartorelli, Professor of Music History
at the Conservatory Giuseppe Verdi in Como, presented alongside his collaborators
a special adaptation of Singspiel The Magic Flute by Mozart. They illustrated the
opera’s history and individual characters using drawings and objects such as the
music box, and accompanied by the singing of famous arias performed both on
the piano and flute and with stage movements and dances. The performance lasted
about half an hour.
The impact of the artistic experience on the mood of the subjects was evident
both to the staff of the Institute Villa Santa Maria and to the collaborators present.
All the subjects showed smiling expressions and participated in the representation
applauding happily. The basic level of wellbeing of the previous days was rather
stable over time, with an average value of 66 mm (14.5 SD) in the group of subjects
with autism, 58 mm (13.6 SD) in the group of subjects with psychopathology and
60 mm (12.5 SD) in the group of adult subjects. The measurement of perceived
wellbeing immediately after the experience showed a strong emotional impact,
with a statistically significant increase in momentary psychological wellbeing,
which was 37 per cent in the autistic group, 64 per cent in the psychopathology
group and 50 per cent in the adult group.
Comparing the average VAS value of the previous days with the actual VAS
value immediately after the musical and theatrical performance, a significant in-
crease in VAS value after the experience was registered in all three groups with
a p-value <0.001 (Figure 10.2). The results obtained seem to indicate that this
approach is valid and robust even in the presence of intellectual disabilities for
two fundamental reasons: firstly, the trend observed completely overlaps across
three groups of subjects despite very different neuropsychiatric problems, different
levels of cognitive abilities and a wide age range from adolescence to adulthood.
Secondly, the measurements carried out in the days prior to the experience give
rise to rather stable values in each subject and are neither fluctuating nor random.
This fact encourages and pushes us to continue the experiment across groups of
extended subjects, hopefully allowing us to confirm what has been obtained.
Apart from these methodological aspects, the results obtained also suggest
the effectiveness of using museum visits and musical and theatrical perfor-
mances as a tool to promote quality of life in subjects with neuropsychiatric
disorders. This is important since high levels of accessibility for people with
 Museum Accessibility in Italy 139

Figure 10.2 Subjective wellbeing before and after the experience at the Museo Teatrale alla
Scala. Histograms show mean values and whiskers standard deviations.

cognitive disabilities have not yet been achieved in museums. This pilot study
suggests that a visit to a museum can stimulate parts of the brain that remain in-
tact even after the onset of neuro-psychiatric diseases and that the measurement
of temporary wellbeing is feasible even in the presence of cognitive deficits.
The measurement of wellbeing both in the days immediately before and after
the museum experience suggests a strong emotional impact, with a statistically
significant increase in momentary psychological wellbeing on the order of 30 to
40 per cent. In conclusion, we believe that this study is an important element of
reflection for all those involved in museum accessibility for people with cogni-
tive disabilities.

Final Considerations
ICOM Italy’s 2019 proposal for ICOM’s new Museum Definition contained the
concepts of inclusion and accessibility:

The museum is a permanent, non-profit institution at the service of so-

ciety and its development, open to the public, accessible and inclusive,
which carries out research on the material and immaterial testimonies of
man and his environment, acquires, preserves, and communicates them
and specifically exposes them for the purposes of study, education, enjoy-
ment and participation, through forms of shared planning of activities and
overcome those barriers that still obstruct the full participation of citizens
in culture.
140 Annamaria Ravagnan and Enzo Grossi

After a lengthy debate, a new definition was approved at ICOM’s Extraordinary

General Assembly in Prague on 24 August 2022, which mentions that a museum
must be ‘open to the public, accessible and inclusive’ (ICOM 2022).
We believe that the future focus must be not only on inclusion and accessibil-
ity for people with motor disabilities or physical disabilities but also for people
experiencing homelessness, prisoners, detained people, migrants, newborns and
infants, people with low incomes, and people affected by cognitive disabilities,
among other marginalised and vulnerable groups. For example, it is not possible
to visit museums with a pet, with the exception of visitors who have support
animals such as seeing-eye dogs. In this regard we should consider the fact that
a number of people living alone refrain from attending the museum without their
preferred pet, especially dogs. A recent museum philosophy for wide inclusion
aims to create pet-friendly museums. In Italy, several institutions, including the
Museo Lapidario Tergestino in Trieste now allow dogs to accompany visitors.
However, ghettoisation, marginalisation, and the creation of closed enclaves for
frail and marginalised people should be avoided. One unique and diverse public for
museums. Let us not forget that the museum experience is also one to be shared.
In this respect we should be aware of the important role played by mirror neurons.
Since the discovery of mirror neurons, we have seen a tremendous increase in
scientific publications revolving around the question of the neural computations
and networks that enable us to share the feelings of others. Mirror neurons are
those neurons in the brain’s frontal cortex that when activated, result in imitation
or mimicry: ones that many scientists now believe are the foundation of empathy.
Therefore, perceiving joy, happiness and wellbeing from other people attending a
museum can positively influence our mood, predisposing us to the same feelings.
This emotional amplification can be the secret for the success of a particular mu-
seum that is able to foster interaction and empathy between visitors.
New terms have become part of the museum vocabulary: accessibility, inclu-
sion, usability, equity and user’s emancipation. Recent studies (Camic and Chatter-
jee 2013; Jackson 2019) have shown the importance of the social role of museums
in the wellbeing of all citizens. However, unlike accessibility for people with motor
disabilities, good levels of accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities have
not yet been achieved. We reiterate our previous reflection that the museum experi-
ence is about sharing! We need to build a common language, spread the best prac-
tices models and share methodologies to assess the results obtained.
We are sure that the theme of accessibility is common to all ICOM Committees; it
is for this reason that we believe it is important to set up a specific International Com-
mittee: this will allow us to address this complex issue in a shared and participatory
manner, to share best practices and common guidelines, in addition to coordinating
shared actions and composing glossaries and bibliographies. The themes of accessi-
bility and inclusion in cultural institutions increasingly involve not only people with
motor, sensory and cognitive disabilities but also all people at risk of social fragility.
It is in this context that the concept of museum accessibility must be interpreted.
Perhaps the most important result achieved is the focus on cognitive and social
accessibility. It has been a slow and difficult but constant step.
 Museum Accessibility in Italy 141

Conclusion
The themes of accessibility and inclusion in museums increasingly involve people
with different forms of medical disabilities and social disadvantages. Many gov-
ernments are now, finally, concentrated on this theme, including Italy, which has
recently created within the MIBACT (Department of Cultural Heritage) a specific
working group for public museums. Taking additional inspiration from the latest
data on the strong impact of culture on health and its social role, ICOM Italia has
included accessibility, sustainable development and wellbeing in its proposal for a
new definition of museum.

References
Camic, P. M. and Chatterjee, H. J., 2013. Museums and art galleries as partners for public health
interventions. Perspect Public Health 133(1), pp. 66–71. doi: 10.1177/1757913912468523.
PMID: 23308010.
Chatterjee, H., ed., 2008. Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling.
Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Chatterjee, H. and Guy Noble, G., 2013. Museums, Health and Wellbeing. London and New
York: Routledge.
Fancourt, D., Steptoe, A. and Cadar, D., 2020. Community engagement and dementia risk:
time-to-event analyses from a national cohort study. Journal of Epidemiology and Com-
munity Health 74(1), pp. 71–77. doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-213029
Grossi, E., Borghi C., Cerchiari, E. L., Della Puppa, T. and Francucci, B., 1983. Analogue
Chromatic Continuous Scale (ACCS): A new method for pain assessment. Clinical and
Experimental Rheumatology 1(4), pp. 337–340. PubMed PMID: 6681150.
Grossi, E., Borghi, C. and Montanari, M., 1984. The measurement of pain: Comparison
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ings of the Fourth World Congress on Pain, Seattle. Advances in Pain Research and
Therapy 9.
ICOM, 2022. Museum Definition [online]. Available from: https://icom.museum/en/
resources/standards-guidelines/museum-definition/
Jackson, R, 2019. Museums as facilitators of health and wellbeing in communities [online].
The Knowledge Exchange Blog. Available from: https://theknowledgeexchangeblog.
com/2019/04/29/museums-as-facilitators-of-health-and-wellbeing-in-communities [Ac-
cessed 14 August 2023].
Joyce, C. R. B., Zutsh, D. W., Hrubes, V. and Mason, R. M., 1975. Comparison of fixed
interval and visual analogue scales for rating chronic pain. European Journal of Clinical
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Doc A/810 at 71.
11 The Pachacamac Site Museum
A Tool for Territorial Management

Denise Pozzi-Escot and Carmen Rosa Uceda

The Pachacamac archaeological site is located south of Lima, on the central coast
of Peru. Its 460 hectares house around 50 adobe and stone buildings, in addition to
several cemeteries from various eras (200-1533 A.D). The centralisation and ex-
pansion of the city of Lima, stimulated by migration and urban growth, pose a ma-
jor challenge for the Pachacamac archaeological sanctuary team. The Pachacamac
site museum must adapt to this urban expansion, but the challenge lies in ensuring
that the history and heritage of the local area are respected, and the integration of
local communities achieved.
The Pachacamac archaeological sanctuary was one of the most important sanc-
tuaries and places of pilgrimage of the pre-Hispanic Andean world. Even today,
it remains an important ceremonial centre. It was visited during the Inca period
(1470-1533 AD) by pilgrims from diverse places who arrived at the site via the
great Inca Trail or Qhapaq Nan, to worship the mighty god Pachacamac, a Quechua
name meaning ‘creator of the world’, consecrated in an oracle, the centre of the
entire coastal region.
The Pachacamac Site Museum was created thanks to the Qhapaq Ñan Project
by the Ministry of Culture of Peru, with the aim to offer the public a space that
meets appropriate conditions of conservation, preservation and dissemination of
the cultural wealth that it encloses. The museum is accessible to people with lim-
ited mobility and has guides printed in Braille so visitors with visual impairments
can access the information on the exhibit panels. It also has explanatory videos for
children that can also serve people with cognitive disabilities. The aim is to make
the museum accessible to all.
The museum was designed to maintain architectural balance with the existing
environment. The design – by local architects Llosa and Cortegana – includes a
series of ramps with a moderate slope that allows problem-free passage. The exhi-
bition presents the universal values of the site through photographs, panels, videos
and 277 artefacts recovered mainly from inside the sanctuary.
The Management Plan for the site (Equipo del Plan de Manejo 2012) summa-
rises the general guidelines for the management of the sanctuary. It proposes the
active inclusion of the population located in the immediate vicinity for the benefit
of the archaeological complex and its conservation. This prompts the question:
who makes up the local community? The community bordering the sanctuary is

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-15
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 The Pachacamac Site Museum 143

heterogenous and relatively recent, made up of migrants from other regions of Peru
with practically no links to the remote pre-Hispanic past. It is, therefore, essential
to establish this link with the remote past, which must be considered our common
heritage; it is the Pachacamac site’s mission to disseminate this heritage now, in
the 21st century.
The Pachacamac Museum has been working to raise awareness and participa-
tion of the community, in the protection and conservation of the site, to enhance
its educational and historical value and to promote participation of current popula-
tions. Always bearing in mind the need to be accessible to different audiences, texts
are quite short, precise and simple. Panels contain detailed information in bilingual
texts (Spanish and English) on some of the most important pieces.
As part of the educational and community relations programmes, a plan of ac-
tivities has been designed in and with the schools and with the populations sur-
rounding the archaeological site (Pozzi-Escot and Uceda 2019a; Pozzi-Escot and
Uceda 2019b). This programme, aimed at students and the community at large,
consists of dynamic workshops on heritage education and conservation of the ar-
chaeological site, and of programmes to provide young people in nearby communi-
ties with the opportunity to extend their training, such as photography workshops.
These projects are part of the policies and guiding principles of the Management
Plan of the sanctuary of Pachacamac, specifically when it refers to developing pro-
grammes and projects to which the population and interest groups commit them-
selves for the conservation of the site and its values (Equipo del Plan de Manejo
2012). In some cases, these projects will facilitate a direct improvement in the
participants’ quality of life, generating economic revenue for people in the local
community who are part of these projects, as is the case with the women of the
Association of Artisans.

SISAN: Asociación de artesanas del Museo Pachacamac

With support from the Sustainable Preservation Initiative (SPI) and the Kani
Association, the participatory project, Community Development of Pachaca-
mac,  brought together a group of women with scarce financial resources, who were
trained to improve their techniques and refine their knowledge to create artisanal
products to sell and earn an income. The training taught them about the history of
the archaeological site, and gave them information about running an enterprise,
about tourism and business opportunities.
After over than four years, SISAN became a formal organisation thanks to the
accompaniment of the Education and Community Work team from the Pachaca-
mac Museum. In this new stage, it forms part of the ‘Second Flight’ project in
which the discontinued uniforms of the airline LATAM are reused by the artisans
to create different products, which are sold in the museum shop and even in a few
flights of the airline.
Our educational and community projects are collaborative as we invite
the community to act as active partners in the creation of institutional pro-
jects driven and managed by the museum (Simon 2010). The Pachacamac Site
144 Denise Pozzi-Escot and Carmen Rosa Uceda

Museum’s relationship with this group of women led us to search for different
funding sources in order to generate sustainable conditions and extend our man-
agement vision for the site and the museum so the community can benefit from
its conservation.
Moreover, educational programmes are run in coordination with schools near
the archaeological site. One of the programs, ran by the museum curator Angelica
Isa, and the museum’s education department, with the sponsorship of National Ge-
ographic, simulates an excavation or conservation of objects and the students can
participate in the preparation of an exhibition; we evaluate the lessons learned after
four sessions at the museum.
The most common activities carried out by the teachers and students are guided
tours of the museum, with observation sheets and colouring sheets (for the smaller
children) on exhibition topics. One of the assumptions of the Management Plan is
thinking about education not only as a service provided by the sanctuary for the
community but also as an action that integrates communities from the surrounding
areas, which can be expanded to areas further afield (Equipo del Plan de Manejo
2012, p. 17). Community participation in our different activities seeks to generate a
sense of ownership of the heritage among local populations. In other words, raising
awareness of the importance of their heritage among the community will ultimately
lead to their involvement in its conservation.

BiciTour
A new initiative called BiciTour aims to link archaeological heritage and youth of
the neighbouring areas by offering them new social and cultural value and economic
development, with support from National Geographic and SPI. We proposed
approaching a subset of the population who, after completing their schooling, were
considered vulnerable: young people who faced a lack of employment opportuni-
ties. Because of their economic deprivation, they can develop antisocial behaviour,
creating problems in their community and surroundings. The museum focuses on
these young people, offering them opportunities to identify with the sanctuary of
Pachacamac that surrounds them and encouraging their engagement with the pres-
ervation and protection of its heritage.
These young people accompany visitors on a cycling tour of the archaeological
circuit; they are not guides. Their mission is to ensure the safety of the cyclists, to
avoid any damage to the sanctuary and to ensure that the cyclists respect the es-
tablished route. At the end of the tour, they receive donations from the visitors. We
have seen an improvement in the interpersonal relations of these young people as
they share experiences with foreign and national visitors. Also, despite the training
for bicycle maintenance and repair being very basic, some of these young people
have launched businesses in their neighbourhoods and offer bicycle repair services.
This drives positive behaviour and personal development while, at the same time,
promoting the heritage of the archaeological sanctuary.
The Management Plan indicates that the sanctuary aims to become an inte-
gral and inclusive site for the socio-economic development of the area. In this
 The Pachacamac Site Museum 145

regard, it was considered important to establish connections between the mu-

seum and the governing boards of organisations in the surrounding communities
who were found to be willing, though hampered at times, by frequent change
of management personnel, leaving results pending. Even so, the Site Museum
is perceived by surrounding organisations as a valuable asset for their projects,
especially for developing tourism in the area. The participation of representa-
tives of community groups in the meetings held to create the Management Plan
demonstrated their interest during the diagnostic, organisation and analysis of
the information.

Play Area
The Pachacamac Site Museum created recreational-cultural spaces as a tool to in-
crease integration of the local community in the sanctuary. Local community visi-
tors, and visitors in general, are mainly pre-school-age children, who are frequent
visitors to the museum for pedagogical reasons, guided by teachers and parents.
With the support of the University of Girona, Spain, this space was developed
for pre-schoolers. It offers qualitatively distinct play activities while at the same
time helping to create a change in mentality and opinion and provide free time
activities for the pre-school population of the archaeological sanctuary area.
The purpose of the play area is to provide children with materials related to the
values of the heritage of Pachacamac in a quiet space, favouring communication
and improving their relationships with adults.

Inter-Institutional Cooperation
The process of integrating local populations is long and complex, but we have had
a good turnout due to management involving different actors, which has enabled us
to achieve results, gain credibility and establish alliances with various institutions.
In this regard, partnerships have been extended to various actors that have con-
tributed significantly to the improvement of services offered by the museum and
sanctuary to the community, thereby strengthening the methodology of the conser-
vation of property, spreading the new knowledge that archaeological research has
developed in the sanctuary, among others.
In a significant show of private sector collaboration with archaeological herit-
age, the Pachacamac Museum has joined efforts with the University of the Pacific
in California to develop the landscape recovery project of the Urpiwachaq lagoon,
one of the natural spaces linked to Pachacamac. This recovery will allow us to offer
an alternative circuit and ecological visit (Pozzi-Escot and Oshiro 2015).
Similarly, the museum signed a three-year agreement with the Antonio Ruiz
de Montoya University (UARM) for the benefit of students in the Technique of
Analysis and Management of Tourist Information in the Sustainable Tourism pro-
gramme. Students developed proposals to improve information and services in the
archaeological circuit, which were duly implemented by the museum. Likewise,
evaluations were carried out to manage tourist information at the Pachacamac site,
146 Denise Pozzi-Escot and Carmen Rosa Uceda

asking museum visitors to fill in questionnaires in order to learn their perceptions

of the service offered to visitors.
In addition, the UARM, through its Institute of Social Projection, created ‘Vol-
unteering Pachacamac’, a programme whereby students of Journalism, Political
Science and Sustainable Tourism studied the population of the museum’s surround-
ings from various perspectives. The aim was to study how to best implement exist-
ing services for the satisfaction of visitors from the surrounding areas. Information
was collected on domestic-local tourism and a joint project was carried out in the
workshops the museum has run with neighbouring populations.
The museum won the support of the Global Heritage Fund, which over four
years contributed to the development of Archaeological Conservation Workshops
under the direction of conservation expert John Hurd. Professionals from archaeo-
logical sites in Peru were convened to participate in these training sessions, the
goal of which is to offer archaeology professionals a space for research and ar-
chaeological conservation, as was proposed in the Sanctuary Management Plan.

Conclusion
The Pachacamac Site Museum is dependent on the Ministry of Culture of Peru,
its centralised management affects the performance and effectiveness of the Site.
However, the museum is given the flexibility to manage its international resources
and we have entered into a number of international cooperation competitions,
which has enabled us to carry out different activities to attract new audiences and
also to obtain necessary, new generation equipment for conservation and research.
An example is the pre-Hispanic Chakra project, which provides a space in the
sanctuary for cultivating plants from pre-Hispanic Peru that are still consumed to-
day; it is financed by the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. Funding to provide
equipment for conservation, research and education in the sanctuary is provided
by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
In accordance with the provisions of the Management Plan, 20 publications have
been completed in 10 years in order to disseminate the archaeological research carried
out, the findings and archaeological conservation activities. We also created publica-
tions for teachers, schools and children and printed catalogues of museum artefacts. In
sum, the Management Plan for the archaeological sanctuary of Pachacamac analyses
the causes of urban and other pressures and offers proposals for treatment or solutions.
As such, it is an important management tool designed to ensure the preservation of
the Sanctuary’s values by promoting collaboration in management tasks. The results
achieved so far on this path encourage us to continue our efforts.

References
Equipo del Plan de Manejo. (2012). Plan de Manejo del Santuario de Pachacamac 2012:
Resumen Ejecutivo. Lima: Representación de UNESCO en Perú, Ministerio de Comercio
Exterior y Turismo del Perú, Plan COPESCO Nacional del Perú, Ministerio de Cultura
del Perú.
 The Pachacamac Site Museum 147

Pozzi-Escot, D. and Oshiro, J., compil. (2015). Urpiwachaq: gestión y puesta en valor de la
laguna. Lima: Universidad del Pacifico – Ministerio de Cultura del Perú.
Pozzi-Escot, D. and Uceda, C. R., eds. (2019a). Pachacamac: una historia milenaria. Lima:
Ministerio de Cultura del Perú y Universitat de Girona.
Pozzi-Escot, D. and Uceda C. R. (2019b). El museo Pachacamac en el siglo XXI. In: Chun-
gara Revista de Antropología Chilena 51(2), pp. 253–269.
Simon, N. (2010). The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, CA: Museum 2.0.
12 Reimagining Museums in Belize
Houses of Culture as Catalysts for
Community Engagement

Sherilyne Jones

Houses of Culture (HOC) in Belize are cultural establishments, often housed in his-
torical physical infrastructures, which serve as platforms for local communities and
interest groups to facilitate the implementation of cultural initiatives and projects.
They bridge the gap between the Museum of Belize (MOB) (under the National
Institute of Culture and History n.) and diverse communities around the country,
forging connections, introducing fresh perspectives for the preservation, transmis-
sion and promotion of the cultural and artistic heritage. In some cases, they can be
considered community museums and play multifaceted roles extending beyond the
provision of artistic instruction and the facilitation of cultural expressions.
HOC indirectly cultivate environments conducive of fostering civic engagement
and solidarity, contributing to the transformation of urban ‘cultural’ landscapes and
the preservation of collective memory of the community where they are located.
They act as an intermediary for the MOB but essentially rooted in the community.
Due to the grassroots nature of engagement, HOC become catalysts for empower-
ment, decolonisation, promoting collective voices on relevant issues in the commu-
nity and creating unique experiences for those who visit. Teresa Morales asserts that
spaces such as HOC or community museums provide opportunities for ‘community
members to develop initiatives regarding their own identity, through which they may
resist the coloniality of being’ (Morales-Lersch and Camarena Ocampo 2023, p. 26).
Belize’s version of HOC (administered by the MOB) was created based on the
Cuban model of ‘Casas de Cultura’, managed by the National Institute of Culture
and History (NICH), under the Ministry of Culture. The NICH is an organisation
with corresponding legislation created by the Government of Belize in 2003 to
bring together diverse government departments that had historically worked to pre-
serve and promote Belizean culture under one entity. This legislation was enacted
in 1999 but did not go into effect until 2003, effectively creating four institutions
which actively worked in tandem to promote, manage, safeguard national heritage,
creative industries, and shared national identity. This included the Institute of Ar-
chaeology, Institute of Creative Arts, Institute for Social and Cultural Research and
the MOB & HOC. Referencing the legislation, the NICH Act provided that ‘There
shall be established in each district of Belize, as a division of the Museum, a House
of Culture for the promotion of Belizean Culture’ (Section 30:2 of NICH CAP 331,
p.20,). With the Belize government’s efforts to instil pride and understanding of its

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 Reimagining Museums in Belize 149

cultural heritage and national identity, the development of HOC began, establish-
ing the first HOC, Benque House of Culture, on 6 September 2001. This HOC was
in the small western town of Benque Viejo del Carmen, located approximately
one mile from the Guatemalan border town of Melchor de Mencos. The success
of this HOC was driven by an active group of artists, cultural stakeholders and the
community.
The settlement of Benque Viejo del Carmen, along the Mopan River in west-
ern Belize, relied on the extraction of logwood and later mahogany for economic
growth. The Mopan River offered the British (who occupied then British Hon-
duras) the tributary to float logs downstream to Belize City, where they were ex-
ported to the United Kingdom. With the decline of logwood and mahogany, sap
of the chico zapote tree began to be exploited commercially, giving rise to the
chicle boom. Chicle harvesting quickly became the principal driver of the town’s
economy as an important industry in the manufacturing of chewing gum (Grant
1974). In 1904, Benque Viejo was officially recognised as a town by the Colonial
Government. With decades of growth, Benque Viejo del Carmen has seen the ar-
rival of migrants from Central America and with a fusion of their cultures and his-
tory, many historical traditions can be attributed to new citizens, particularly from
Guatemala, with which it shares a border. Throughout its development, the town
remained culturally steeped in religious practices, Catholicism and many tradi-
tions have been passed down from the Jesuits who established early convents and
schools in the municipality.
In this case study, the establishment of the Benque HOC was not only to raise
awareness of the Maya/Mestizo culture and history but also to be an epicentre for
culture, art and historical development in that municipality. The community had
always been active participants in promoting and preserving the arts as early as
the 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Benque Viejo saw the rise of notable trail-
blazers and artists who advocated for the development of visual arts programmes
within their community. The Cultural and Historical Association of Benque Viejo
(CHAB) was one such driving force and was established in 1992 and worked with
the Belize Arts Council to provide outlets for drama, music and art in schools and
the wider community. This group was led by brothers David and Luis Ruiz who,
along with other town residents, spearheaded the initiative for the establishment of
the HOC. The development of a House of Culture in Benque was instrumental in the
advancement of the initiatives for the creation of the MOB (2002) and the creation
of the National Institute of Culture and History (2003). Luiz Alberto Ruiz then suc-
cessfully developed Poustinia Land Art, a hundred-acre sculpture garden developed
on a former cattle ranch. According to its website, Poustinia is an ‘outdoor gallery for
both ephemeral and permanent art; a place where the beauty of human inspiration can
be contemplated within the beauty of nature’ (Poustinia Land Art Facebook page).
In 2001, David Ruiz, in his opening address for the Benque House of Culture,
stated that ‘the site would be a staging ground for exhibitions, cultural events and a
place where the culture of the people and educational activities designed for young
people could merge’ (Holmes 2010, p. 164). He went on to say that ‘When a group
of us first meddled in the magical realm of art and culture back in 1990, little did
150 Sherilyne Jones

we know that we were breaking ground for the House of Culture in this community.
We consider that our endeavours have fared well’ (Channel 5 Belize 2011, n page).
CHAB would later reorganise and transition into the Community of Artists for
Cultural & Historical Endeavours (CACHE) after the establishment of the Benque
House of Culture, relinquishing control to the MOB, which then became respon-
sible for its financial sustainability. The early manifestation of the Benque HOC
embodied the principles of the new museology and re-oriented the relationship that
the State agency, in this case, MOB/NICH, had with the local community. This
shift ensured that the community would have access to resources it needed for the
preservation and promotion of Mestizo culture and would be involved in decision-
making processes, thus allowing for inclusion and engagement on the development
of this cultural space.
When the MOB was established in 2002, the galleries were filled with arte-
facts from the vast National Collection, the majority of which was from the an-
cient Maya. The building was constructed in 1855 with bricks, known as ‘London
stocks’, brought from England and used as ballast on ships. This building was used
as Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) up until 1998 when renovations began to convert
to the National Museum. The early displays and dioramas of the MOB facilitated
a brief overview of the Mayas’ majestic civilisations and presented an understand-
ing of Maya life but very little on the history of Belize’s other ethnicities. While
the Museum, located in the old capital of Belize City, provided an educational
outlet for students on school visits, much of the general public did not know that
the museum existed or did not see its relevance to their lives. Many people, espe-
cially in the district towns and villages, never visited, given the distance from their
communities.
The establishment of HOC was intimately linked to the government’s imperative
to decentralise cultural accessibility and artistic initiatives, moving them beyond
Belize City to reach the towns within the districts. The challenges and, ultimately,
the success of each of these HOCs are a direct result of the level of autonomy they
experience, the bonds they share and the financial support they garner for their
activities and programmes from their local community. Based on the success of the
Benque House of Culture, the National Institute of Culture and History, through
the MOB, developed six additional HOC throughout the districts in the country,
with each representing specific geographic and cultural locations. The success of
this type of museum thus infers that in Belize, museums that consider individual
characteristics are more successful than mainstream Western models of museums.
While each HOC is unique in its conceptual development, physical location, and
varying ethnicities of communities, they remain close to the ecomuseum concept
developed by Hugues de Varine in the 1960s (De Varine 2005).
HOCs have successfully empowered community leaders to be more active in
the dissemination of cultural traditions to younger generations. Theodore Low
suggests that ‘museums must be willing to alter and to modify their internal
structures and their ideas to fit a changing world and the advances of social
thought’ (Low and Anderson 2004, p. 36). I would argue this is successfully
done by the HOCs in Belize as they are considered dynamic, creative community
 Reimagining Museums in Belize 151

centres, and are seen by the public as more accessible than the National Mu-
seum of Belize. The Benque model of community engagement demonstrates
that community members are actively involved in safeguarding their intangible
and tangible heritage in alignment with the nation’s cultural policy, developed
in 2016, which states that the government shall ‘provide information and fa-
cilitate the access by the national and community organisations, custodians and
practitioners of intangible cultural heritage … and assistance towards effective
safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage’ (National Institute of Culture
and History n. d, p. 7).
An excellent example of community engagement in Benque Viejo and the Benque
HOC is the case of the marimba. Marimba, meaning the goddess in Guatemalan
mythology, is a ‘long (2.16m) wooden keyboard instrument with large resonators
played by three musicians (treble/melody, centre/harmony and bass/rhythm) who
perform in most musical occasions, secular and religious’ (Pellicer 1999, p.10). As
part of its collection, the Benque HOC was in possession of two antique marimbas.
One was kept in storage due to its fragility and age, but the other was displayed in
the lobby where the artistic designs and intricacies of this musical instrument could
be admired, and its melodic sounds, which resonated at every public function or
activity in the community, could be heard. While music was an integral aspect of
Benque Viejo’s town history and daily life, the intangible skillset needed to play
this delicate instrument was held only by a few elders in the community. The art of
playing this instrument was on the verge of being lost and through a small grant,
the Benque House of Culture embarked on an ambitious project in 2015 to teach
youth how to play the marimba.
With master instructors from the community, fourteen marimba students – aged
9 to 15 – signed up to learn how to play the marimba and it was encouraging to see
that there was interest in learning how to play. By the end of the summer, ten stu-
dents completed the introductory course on the basics of marimba. The museum,
through the auspices of the Benque HOC, effectively identified an important aspect
of the community’s culture that was in danger of being lost and provided regenera-
tion and renewal initiatives that instilled a sense of pride in a cultural tradition that
was unique to Benquenos (inhabitants of Benque Viejo del Carmen). As the catalyst
for regeneration initiatives, the management of the HOC facilitated open dialogues
with community members harnessing their enthusiasm and commitment to a shared
redevelopment process while providing the necessary tools to successfully assist in de-
veloping the capacity of local communities to address their own needs (Sandell 2007).
The Benque HOC created a welcoming environment for the community and
while the marimba programme was conceived as a one-time programme, it blos-
somed and developed into a community empowerment initiative for youths as
well as elders. By providing an enabling, creative, perhaps less intimidating forum
through which community members could gain the skills and confidence required
to actively participate, achieve agency, and safeguard a cultural tradition of impor-
tance to them and interest in the marimba project grew. At the end of the summer,
the community, but more interestingly, youths approached the HOC management
to ask whether the programme could continue throughout the year.
152 Sherilyne Jones

They were inspired to learn more, to understand how and why the marimba
became important to their culture and they understood the vital importance of
safeguarding this intangible aspect of their cultural heritage, as it represented who
they were in Belize’s multicultural society. Today, the marimba students are now
divided into senior and junior groups of students whose dedication to learning the
craft is unwavering.
For the first time, the HOC, by relinquishing control of how the marimba classes
would be administered, granted community leaders decision-making opportunities
previously controlled by those in authority. By the following summer, the small
group of 10 students had blossomed into a strong group of 20 youths. The lessons
continue to this day and the House of Culture provides a base for all marimba-
based activities and lessons. The original group members have since formed the
Benque Marimba Academy, aptly named Los Hijos del West, and are dedicated to
inspiring as well as teaching. They have not only learnt and are mastering playing
classical and traditional marimba but also how to care for and tune the instrument.
Another issue is that the cost of the instrument itself is very high. The HOC
initially only had one marimba available for use and made significant efforts to
procure additional marimbas. Efforts included approaching various levels of gov-
ernment and local officials to source the necessary funding for the purchase of new
marimbas for the HOC. The House of Culture became the collaborator rather than
the agency of authority and guided the community’s initiatives on the procurement
of additional marimbas. The Marimba project demonstrated how a community can
come together to safeguard a dying cultural tradition.
Benque House of Culture now has three marimbas and twenty-three full-time
members who can play it (with an additional fourteen seasonal memebers according
to school schedule). All members must ensure that they are able to maintain sufficient
grades in school. The marimbas are not only for practice but also to entertain the pub-
lic at official functions within the community. Los Hijos Del West has gained new
members and national prominence and has travelled, regionally and internationally,
performing at musical festivals, official ceremonies, and national events. The simple
act of teaching marimba classes became a source of community pride and honour. The
involvement of the community ensured the sustainability and guaranteed that the music
played by the elders will be appreciated across the country for generations to come. The
community saw the interest in this cultural revival initiative and actively worked to
safeguard their culture and support the House of Culture and youths of the community.
Similarly, the development of the Corozal House of Culture in the north of the
country was analogous to that of Benque. The drive to establish the Corozal HOC
was done by a small but very active group of community members engaged in arts
and the preservation of their town’s historical records. The Corozal HOC, like the
Benque HOC, is housed in a historical structure that was repurposed. The build-
ing was originally a public market and was built in 1885 with a prefabricated cast
iron frame from England that was assembled once it reached Belize. The market,
located near the public pier, was inaugurated in 1886 and used for over 100 years
until space limitations forced its closure in 1986. The building remained in a state
of disrepair for several years but received some funding and was refurbished in
 Reimagining Museums in Belize 153

1995, it was utilised by numerous organisations up until 2000, when it was once
again abandoned. It remained vacant until 2011 after another series of restora-
tions took place and the Corozal House of Culture was officially opened. This
highlights the value of community participation to achieve their goals with little
or no governmental support. Morales discussed and supported this type of en-
gagement suggesting that ‘the community representatives had begun a process of
negotiating directly with their neighbours without intervention from the govern-
ment’ to develop community museums (Morales-Lersch and Camarena Ocampo
2023, p.31).
With the establishment of the Corozal HOC, the community was able to come
together and identify important aspects of their culture that were in need of pres-
ervation. Drawing on their own unique culture and identity, they symbolised the
importance of collaboration, communal practices, and customs and their signifi-
cance to their culture. One such tradition that had become overshadowed by the
prevailing narrative of the dominant culture was the celebration of Hanal Pixán
(food for the soul in Maya). The tradition of Hanal Pixán is similar to the Dia de los
Muertos celebration in Yucatán Mexico. In Belize, it is celebrated in the northern
and western districts, where the demographic is predominantly Yucatec Maya and
Mestizos. The revival of this celebration was spearheaded by community members
and Maya activists with limited support from the House of Culture. The enact-
ments in the villages, particularly Xaibe, instil values that foster hope, teach about
death, and respect for the dead. Individuals who provide offerings believe that their
own survivors will take care of them in a similar manner when they die. This as-
sures their immortality and because this practice is multigenerational, it ensures
the safeguarding of the tradition and becomes a critical role in the reproduction of
national identity/heritage. This is expanded by Morales and Ocampo who assert
that once the collective process of re-examination of the community’s own history
takes place, opportunities arise for members to have ‘the opportunity to make evi-
dent internal contradictions within their attitudes and beliefs’ (Morales-Lersch and
Camarena Ocampo 2023, p. 33). The community’s feeling of self-worth as well as
their connection to their communal identity are strengthened by the experience of
learning about their heritage and traditions and by appreciating the significance of
their communal activities. The Corozal HOC persisted in fostering and establish-
ing an environment that is conducive to the growth, preservation, promotion, and
expression of cultural heritage with the support of the MOB.
This intangible culture is showcased through events, outreach programmes, ac-
tivities or museum displays in which the materiality of the objects is downplayed,
and their meaning, value, or use is given precedence (Varutti 2013, p. 71). This is
reflected in Belize’s HOC, where the main aim is cultural preservation by practis-
ing heritage, the displays in all the HOC countrywide are focused on the stimula-
tion of locally based cultural and creative initiatives that benefit the community,
empower participants, encourage curiosity, openness and tolerance toward differ-
ent cultures and traditions. Community engagement then bridges the gap between
the government and the constituents they serve by allowing a more participatory
approach to programmes and activities.
154 Sherilyne Jones

This example and others from various HOCs illustrate the type of civic engage-
ment that makes the HOC successful and true to the Cuban model: that the people
and community, rather than the state should determine the direction of cultural
development. By decentralising access to cultural activities through the HOCs, the
MOB removed direct government control and established an innovative view
ensuring that management, resided with the people, giving them agency in deter-
mining what was most valuable and needed safeguarding.

References
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Channel 5 Belize. 2011. ‘House of Culture Opened in Benque Viejo’. [online]. https://
archive.channel5belize.com/archives/18532 [Accessed 29 May 2019].
De Varine, H., 2005. ‘The Origins of the New Museology Concept and of the Ecomuseum
Word and Concept in the 1960s and the 1970s’, Communication and Exploration. Gui-
yang-China, 2005, edited by P. Davis, H. De Varine, M. Maggi, D. Su and J. Zhang,
pp. 51–55. Trento: Provincia Autonoma di Trento.
Grant, C., 1974. The Making of Modern Belize: Politics, Society and British Colonialism in
Central America. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, T. 2010 Tourism and the Making of Ethnic Citizenship in Belize, In: Tourism, Power,
and Culture: Anthropological Perspectives. Donald MacLeod and James G. Carrier (eds).
Clevedon UK: Channel View Publications.
Low, T. and Anderson, G., 2004. ‘What Is a Museum? (1942)’, Reinventing the Museums:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift, edited by G. Anderson,
pp. 30–43. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Morales-Lersch, T. and Camarena Ocampo, C., 2023. ‘Community Museums and Decoloni-
sation. Reflections from the Network of Community Museums of America’, Communities
and Museums in the 21st Century, edited by A. Cummings and K. Brown, pp. 23–36.
London: Routledge.
National Institute of Culture and History Act n. d. [CAP 331], The Substantive Laws Of Belize.
Pellicer, S. N., 1999. The Meanings of Marimba Music in Rural Guatemala. PhD thesis, Uni-
versity College London. Available from: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10103690/1/
The_meanings_of_marimba_music_.pdf / (Accessed 29 May 2019).
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29 May 2019).
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from: DOI:10.4324/9780203020036 (Accessed 29 May 2019).
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Collections and Collaboration. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
13 Managing for Accessibility and
Inclusion
The Uses and Abuses of Community
Engagement

Helen White

Community engagement in museums can mean many different things. Aside from
the cabinets of curiosity created by one person alone for their personal delectation
and meditation, museums have from their inception been in some sense concerned
with a community, however small – for what would be the point of them otherwise?
This is particularly the case for publicly-funded institutions: as Peter Latchford
(2018) asserts in relation to civic museums, ‘the collection may give the museum
its authenticity and legitimacy, but the community gives it its purpose’ (p.17). The
definition of that community, and the control and access factors that determine who
forms part of that community, or communities, are critical factors in the way that
a museum conceives of itself and is perceived by others. Moreover, the roles that
different communities perform in relation to the policy, content and activity of a
museum are intrinsic to its character and values.
Museum leaders naturally have different levels of genuine interest in managing
for inclusivity. Many have been led into museums through love of a particular art
form, historical period or area of scientific study. They probably would not have
achieved a management role without an enthusiasm for communicating their sub-
ject to the public. But community engagement goes far beyond this and is fraught
with questions of authority and authenticity.
The history of community engagement in museums in the UK is a compara-
tively long one, which has been characterised by anxiety and complacency in al-
most equal measure, at least at governmental level. It is on the UK that this chapter
primarily focuses and from which evidence and examples will be drawn. The con-
text in which a museum operates is (or should be) crucial to the meanings it is able
to create in the process of bringing together people and collections in a particular
place. Museums in nations and regions worldwide will, of course, be operating
with different circumstances, opportunities and constraints, but the UK experience
may be useful in informing the broader global discussion on the uses of museums.
The civic museums established in the UK in the late 19th and early 20th cen-
turies had clear educational, moral and social purposes. As well as promoting lo-
cal pride and prestige, they were places where ‘the working man’ and his family
could come to learn about the wider world, both spatial and temporal, by looking
at art, archaeology and natural history material laid out according to predetermined

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-17
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
156 Helen White

systems of chronology or classification. They were places that aimed to familiarise

working people with middle-class notions of cultural value, fostering fuller partici-
pation in, and loyalty to, a cohesive and smoothly functioning society (see Bennett
1995 for an elegant exposition of this theme). The words of Councillor Thomas
Smith, presiding at the opening of Gateshead’s Saltwell Park Museum in 1933 dur-
ing a period of industrial depression, were reported in the Newcastle Courant under
the headline ‘Spreading the Light of Knowledge’, and reflected a mixture of civic
pride and the desire to educate local people:

The wonderful history of our town will duly be recorded here. The children
will have access, and lectures on botany, bird life and natural history, and in-
dustrial progress are being arranged for them. I’ve been inundated with offers
of exhibits by firms and private individuals who are interested in Gateshead.
There has been talk recently about the borough being overlooked, but we are
going to see that doesn’t happen again, and that our people are provided with
all the amenities and facilities that the times can afford.
(Anon 1933)

This drive for cultural improvement was embedded in the brave new world of
post-1945 Britain, when the first majority Labour government came to power with
a clear commitment to providing access to good standards of health, education and
culture for the whole nation. In 1948, The Times quoted the Labour Party Minis-
ter for Education, George Tomlinson (who himself had started work as a cotton
weaver at the age of 12), bemoaning the prevalence of non-improving, escapist
leisure pursuits: ‘In place of real interests and worthwhile amusements, people
drugged themselves with constant visits to the cinema, football pools, fun fairs and
all the rest of the meaningless paraphernalia of commercial entertainment’ (Anon
1948). Despite post-war austerity, there was state investment in the creation of the
Arts and Design Councils, the development of the Reithian BBC (with its remit to
‘inform, educate and entertain’) and the staging of the Festival of Britain in 1951.
The post-war consensus meant that, even after Labour lost power, the importance
of approved forms of culture in national consciousness continued to be promoted
and celebrated.
Arts centres were established in the regions, and arts institutions benefited from
direct central government funding through the new Arts Council, established in
1946. With the emphasis on ‘living art’, municipal museums, funded by local au-
thorities, tended to be left behind in this shiny new world, but they continued to
operate in their local context, more or less engaged with local people depending
on the interests of their staff and the extent to which local politicians saw them
as useful to their communities. The national museums continued to value con-
noisseurship and academic reputation above all else, although some of the South
Kensington museums took steps to enhance their effectiveness in public education
(most notably the Science Museum with its press-button interactives, often derided
as simply entertainment, and its much-loved immersive recreation of a coal mine,
opened in 1951).
 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion 157

The 1990s saw the histories of ‘ordinary’ people (i.e. those not part of the cul-
tural elite), given an increased value and prominence in museums. Social history
had been growing as a museum discipline in the 1980s, with the transformation in
1982 of the Group for Regional Studies in Museums (GRSM), whose members had
been concerned mainly with the ethnographic study of folklore and ‘bygones’ col-
lections, into the Social History Curators Group (SHCG). The SHCG championed
issues-based urban and working-class history in a period of de-industrialisation and
the dismantling of a class system based largely on heavy industry. This necessarily
involved a broader range of people in donating both artefacts and memories to cre-
ate content in museums. Whether this change in content and engagement amounted
to the democratisation of museums that it was sometimes claimed to be is ques-
tionable, but there was undoubtedly a strong movement towards giving the people
whose communities were portrayed in museum displays a role in presenting their
own histories. Many amongst the new generation of social history curators had
themselves come from working-class backgrounds, which meant that they were close
to the subjects they were interpreting, rather than viewing them from a patronis-
ing or analytical distance. There was little evidence in UK social history museum
practice of an academic ethnography approach, nor of a national focus, such as the
one exemplified by the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris.
Towards the end of the 20th century, a role for museums in combatting the
scourge of what came to be framed as social exclusion (some would say a new
name for poverty) and in promoting its opposite, social inclusion, came to the fore
in the UK. The urban riots of 1991 amongst what were considered to be traditional
white working-class communities, whose young men clearly no longer felt any
loyalty towards the institutions of state as represented in those communities (post
offices were burnt down, for example) had surprised and disturbed the political
establishment, and not solely the Thatcherite government that was then in power.
In 1993, following riots in the West End of Newcastle in 1991 and ongoing regu-
lar fire-setting in the area, the nearby Science & Engineering Museum reinvented
itself as Newcastle Discovery, with a remit to cover the social as well as the indus-
trial history of Tyneside. Supported by government City Challenge funding, Tyne
& Wear Museums appointed its first Outreach Officer, whose brief was to work
with community groups from the West End to create exhibitions in the newly es-
tablished ‘People’s Gallery’, a sizeable exhibition space with a photographic dark-
room and workshop within the main museum building.
The Social Exclusion Unit set up by the Labour government that came to power
in 1997 defined social exclusion as ‘what can happen when people or areas suffer
from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low
incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health, poverty and family
breakdown’ (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2004). A clear statement that
social exclusion was one of the British government’s highest priorities prefaced
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) policy guidance on social
inclusion for DCMS-funded and local authority museums, galleries and archives
in England, issued in May 2000 (Department for Culture, Media and Sport 2000).
Museums were acknowledged to be ‘agents of social change in the community,
158 Helen White

improving the quality of people’s lives through their outreach activities’ whilst
the caveat remained that ‘action to tackle social exclusion will have to be bal-
anced against their other important responsibilities, such as the acquisition of new
material, the conservation and interpretation of their collections, scholarship and
education’(Ibid.). There was a suspicion that excellence, as defined by an arts audi-
ence, would always trump social inclusion initiatives, but the period of the Labour
government from 1997 to 2010 did see a significant shift in emphasis towards the
conceptualisation of museums as agents for social change. Moreover, at least until
the world economic crisis of 2008, an increase in funding was targeted towards
this end.
Some of the projects created to mark the turn of the millennium in 2000 provide
insight into the thinking of museums at that time. Tyne & Wear Museums (TWM)
implemented two linked initiatives: Objects of Desire, in which local people were
invited to create exhibitions from items in TWM’s collections, and Making His-
tory, in which a representative cross-section of more than 200 people from Tyne
& Wear, selected so far as possible to reflect the region’s profile in terms of socio-
economic, ethnic and disability characteristics, created a new special collection
of 1,000 objects that were personally meaningful to them, each individual being
invited to donate or nominate up to five objects. The objects, documents, poems,
drawings, music and intangible items (for example, the memory of a landscape)
collected by the Making History project were accompanied by a commentary from
the donor explaining their choice and the significance of the object in their lives
(Tyne & Wear Museums 2001). The choices made were authentically those of the
participants, whose contributions were supported rather than ‘curated’. The items
collected were intensely personal and did not make for a cohesive exhibition, but
the assemblage (including the accompanying recordings and documentation) re-
mains as a historical artefact in its own right, reflecting how a region’s people
looked back over their lives from a particular point in time.
At the same time a similar, but more tightly structured, project was being
delivered by the Museum of London. The collecting 2000 project collected one
object from each of 200 groups across London, who were asked to select and
donate one object, image or recording ‘that for you summarises who you are at
the start of the 21st century’ and to provide a 50-word statement to accompany
their donation. The museum was confident that there was an even spread in
terms of geography and special interests but did not claim socio-economic or
ethnic representivity (although several groups affiliated with minority ethnici-
ties took part). It was focused as much on the audience who would consume
the exhibition and its related publication as on the participants themselves: ‘We
wanted to reveal to the Museum’s audiences the impact that these voluntary
organisations have on all our lives’ (Museum of London 2000, pp.11–12). The
museum was concerned with how to make sense of the collection and superim-
posed a structure of seven themes (belonging, campaigning, faith, friendship,
helping, learning and playing) into which it organised the groups, based on what
it understood to be the members’ main reasons for joining the group. The collec-
tion is a less personal and individual one than that formed in Tyne & Wear, and
 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion 159

the accompanying book is concerned as much with the museum’s own process
as with the outcomes for participants and current audiences: ‘This book aims in
part to provide as much information as possible about our motives for collecting
this material as it does about the objects and groups themselves’ (Ibid.).
These experimental collaborative ventures only extended as far as ‘allowing’
people access to resources that had previously been closed to them, but they were
early forerunners of later ‘co-curation’ initiatives which claimed to be predicated
on a more equitable power relationship between institution and participant. The
Museum of London clearly felt a need to justify such a radical approach to curato-
rial practice, and to express this self-reflexivity in the publication associated with
collecting 2000. Tyne & Wear Museums were confident that this was a valid ap-
proach: the participants were centre-stage and the donated items, which in some
cases came with extensive accompanying information, would remain for posterity
as a valid part of the collection, even though such an open-ended proposition made
it difficult to weld these items into a satisfying narrative for contemporary audi-
ences who may or may not feel an immediate connection to them.
The use of culture as a driver for social inclusion was in some ways a reference
back to the 19th-century paternalism that saw culture as a force for moral and social
improvement: one that could foster a healthy, well ordered society in which citi-
zens perceived themselves to have a recognised place within the political, educa-
tional and social hierarchies of the status quo. The richer national museums based
in London continued, for the most part, to serve cultural consumer audiences on an
increasingly international scale, as London’s status as a global focus for tourism
and investment took off. And there was a backlash in cultural circles: both Marxist
and Right-wing commentators complained about an instrumentalism that was dis-
torting the true purposes of museums and galleries in favour of social engineering.
For Richard Dorment, writing in 1993 about the new Art on Tyneside gallery at
the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, in the Daily Telegraph (a right-wing broadsheet
national newspaper) the issue was an alleged ‘dumbing down’ of content to appeal
to lowest common denominator tastes and attention levels:

If some visitors are so unimaginative that they need half-baked gimmicks to

make history come alive, then by all means let them have them.

But not in an art museum.

(Dorment 1993, cited in Whitehead 2008, p.42)

For the anti-statist thinktank known as the Institute of Ideas and the allied inter-
net magazine Spiked Online, with their roots in the Revolutionary Communist Party
and Living Marxism magazine, the use of museums for social ends was part of the
Blairite project (reflecting the New Labour values of Tony Blair’s government) to
pull the teeth of any genuinely radical influence that the arts and culture might have
the potential to enact: ‘“Socially included” individuals effectively become New
Labour stooges… museums geared towards social inclusion are actively bringing
their visitors into a more intimate relationship with the state’ (Appleton 2001).
160 Helen White

So how has the nature of community engagement in museums progressed in the

succeeding two decades? The late 1990s and 2000s saw a growing feeling that na-
tional and even local democratic institutions and processes were not functioning in
a way that was perceived to reflect the needs and desires of many communities, and
this thinking influenced public institutions in the UK, museums included. ‘Demo-
cratic deficit’ was a term first used as early as 1977 to describe the remoteness of
the workings of the European Community from the needs of many of its citizens,
and the consequent rise of campaigning pressure groups and citizens’ action:

there is throughout our continent a malaise, a sense of alienation and a lack

of confidence in the ability of the economic and political system to solve our
problems. …to take into account people’s needs…

There needs to be a fundamental shift of power down to the lower levels,

closer to the people and to the problems. There needs to be an introduction
of democracy at the place of work in order to transform the labour/capital
conflict, and in the local community’.
(Corbett 1977)

Tony Blair’s New Labour government recognised the democratic deficit as a

real danger that was alienating large sections of the population who were voting
in significantly decreased numbers: the 2001 UK general election saw an 18% de-
crease in the percentage of the eligible population voting compared with the previ-
ous election in 1992 (Statistica 2023). Urban regeneration programmes attempted
to elicit community engagement, and in 2007 the Department for Communities
and Local Government published An Action Plan for Community Empowerment,
which aimed ‘to give citizens the means of participating in decision-making at
every level’ with an outcome of ‘Greater participation, collective action and en-
gagement in democracy’ (Department for Communities and Local Government
2007, p.5). In 2009, the Arts programme of the London-based Paul Hamlyn Foun-
dation (PHF) commissioned an investigation into engagement in UK museums and
art galleries. The resulting report, entitled Whose cake is it anyway?, found that the
well-intentioned rhetoric still current in museum policy documents ‘displays an al-
most nineteenth-century view of a passive subject, outside the institution, awaiting
improvement’ (Lynch 2011, p.16). The museum ‘reveals a centre/periphery view
of its communities, in which the organisation is firmly placed in the centre. Despite
its undoubted wish to be of service, [it] too often places the subject (community
member) in the role of “supplicant” or “beneficiary” and the museum and its staff
in the role of “carer”’(Ibid.). The report praised organisations that had, by contrast,
shifted the role of their community partners to that of active agents and partners
(Ibid., p.20).
The PHF went on to fund a three-year ‘Our Museum’ programme in which
nine of the 12 museums and museum services that had participated in the origi-
nal study were encouraged to make the fundamental organisational and systems
changes that would transform their community relationships into more equal
 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion 161

partnerships, involving meaningful participation and devolving ‘agency’ to

community members. The nine institutions (of varying sizes and with contrast-
ing organisational and funding structures) experimented with different models
of community engagement, including facilitated forums bringing together mu-
seum staff and community members, volunteer development programmes, the
creation of conversation spaces and the establishment of structured channels of
communication, whether through advisory boards or an ‘alternative manage-
ment team’.
Two years after the programme had ended, the PHF revisited the seven institu-
tions that were still participating in the initiative to capture further learning and
to review how far it had been possible to embed significant changes in culture
and working practices. Of the four programme outcomes (‘Rooted in local needs’,
‘Community agency’, ‘Capability building’ and ‘Reflection’), the one for which
the least progress had been made was that of community agency. For the PHF, com-
munity agency meant that ‘communities are sustainably at the core of all values,
strategies, structures and work of museums and galleries: actively and regularly
participating and collaborating in dialogue and decision-making about the work of
the museum/gallery’ (Paul Hamlyn Foundation, n.d.). None of the seven museum
organisations had succeeded in involving communities effectively in ‘decision-
making around long-term strategy and policy’ (Bienowski 2018, p.15).
The paths taken by some of the museum organisations that took part in the
Our Museum programme serve to illustrate different nuances of approach to com-
munity engagement. In August 2015 the National Museum of Wales produced a
comprehensive Community Engagement Strategy, 2015–2020. This declared that
community agency would be ‘placed at the heart of our decision-making processes
with regular participation and collaboration embedded as a way of working’ (Na-
tional Museum of Wales 2015, p.4). The programme for Our Museum had been
based at St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, and focused on ‘broaden-
ing the volunteer base and embedding opportunities for volunteers in all aspects
of the Museum’s work’: this continued to represent a major activity stream. More
radically, during its capital redevelopment programme the museum worked with
nine participatory forums representing ‘a range of organisations from the public
and third sector and the diversity of communities in Wales, to guide the redevelop-
ment and inform activity programmes and gallery content’, and this approach was
carried through into the concept development stage of redisplay of the natural sci-
ence collections (National Museum of Wales 2015, p.11).
Glasgow Museums is part of a wider organisation, Glasgow Life, which in-
cludes community development and youth services as well as sport, libraries, arts
and music amongst its service areas. As part of its Our Museum programme, Glas-
gow Museums developed a new mechanism for widening participation in deci-
sion-making, ‘Creative Café’, directly linked to its planning cycles. Museum staff
described the Café in the following way: ‘a regular discussion forum hosted several
times a year by Glasgow Museums … an opportunity to bring people together
from across Glasgow Life and external partners across the city, to share ideas
about Glasgow Museums’ work, collections and forward plans’ (Paul Hamlyn
162 Helen White

Foundation 2015, p.6). These Creative Café forums were stimulating and enjoy-
able, and increased the likelihood of more effective partnership working across the
city; but their effectiveness in promoting community agency remained to be seen:

We have continued to be challenged by the question of what scope of influ-

ence community partners can have within a local authority-funded organisa-
tion such as ours. While the Creative Café is proving to be a more effective
mechanism to involve community partners at a generative point in our work-
ing processes … we are still discovering how, by inserting greater agency at
the outset of initiatives, this in turn may lead to greater agency in later parts
of our planning cycle.
(Ibid.)

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) – the county archives became part
of the museums service (formerly Tyne & Wear Museums) in 2009 – experimented
with an alternative management team during the course of the Our Museum pro-
gramme, but in general did not find the setting up of advisory groups to be a use-
ful way of achieving tangible outcomes. Its Outreach Team structured long-term
partnership working across four strands of activity: the Wellbeing Programme, sup-
porting people with mental health issues; the Recovery Programme, supporting
people in recovery from addiction or who were involved in the criminal justice
system; the Platinum Programme, aiming to improve the health and well-being of
people aged over 55 by focusing on the Five Ways to Wellbeing (Keep Learning,
Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Give); and the Network Programme, working
with groups of people from across Tyne & Wear to build new and develop existing
community heritage and archive collections, exhibitions and events. The museum
service worked closely with health and social care providers and agencies to de-
liver benefits defined by workers, professionals and end-users in those fields, and
was responsive to ideas and initiatives from outside the organisation. By emphasis-
ing benefits for defined groups of people rather than broad community empower-
ment, TWAM’s approach ran the risk of ghettoising such work to the Outreach
Team rather than embedding it across the organisation as a whole. It also tended
to locate the decision-making process within the domain of professional workers,
albeit from a wide range of community-based occupations. It followed what Mark
O’Neill (2011) termed the ‘welfare model’ of community engagement. It did, how-
ever, enable the museum service to feel confident that it was engaged in work that
is of value to workers and their clients in the social care and health sectors, a view
backed up by a growing body of academic research, for example, in the fields of
dementia, stroke survivors and mental health (Chatterjee and Noble 2013; Not So
Grim Up North Research Team, 2018).
Another initiative orientated towards a welfare benefit rather than an agency
model is that of the ‘Happy Museum’, led by Tony Butler, first at the Museum of
East Anglian Life and then at Derby Museums. The initiative subsequently em-
braced projects that were commissioned across a network of 22 English and Welsh
museums. The Happy Museum linked wellbeing with the theme of environmental
 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion 163

sustainability, and initiatives included the ‘Re:Make’ project at Derby’s Silk Mill
Museum, during which more than 200 local people were involved as ‘co-producers
and makers’ in designing and making furniture, object displays and fittings for the
ground floor space, which had previously been mothballed. The project provided
experience of co-production that has been carried forward into other initiatives as a
regular way of working, but one of the key outcomes was said to be a health benefit
for participants. For example, as the project literature notes: ‘Through a partnership
with the University of Derby, the physiological impact of the activity of making
was measured – revealing a small but significant drop in the level of stress hor-
mone cortisol in those taking part in making activities’ (The Happy Museum 2016,
pp.4–5). The ‘happiness turn’ in museums has been critiqued by Bernadette Lynch,
thought-leader of the Our Museum initiative, who believes that museums must re-
linquish some of the power they hold rather than simply providing experiences that
make individuals feel better about themselves: ‘some forms of unhappiness – such
as a sense of injustice or anger – need hearing, not treating’ (Lynch 2017, p.19).
Lynch argues that museums, rather than providing a soothing distraction activity,
should enable dissenting voices to be heard, maintaining that ‘a focus on happi-
ness diverts away from this ability to disagree, to act, to self-determine and make
change happen’ (Ibid.).
The ‘social justice’ model presented by Mark O’Neill, then Director of Policy,
Research and Development at Glasgow Life, as an alternative to the welfare model
entailed ‘Reaching out into the least well off and most excluded in society, and rep-
resenting their experience in the museum, even in the most prestigious sites of civic
and national pride’ (O’Neill 2011, p.83). The museum should provide ‘civic leader-
ship by introducing new and difficult subjects and challenging prejudice and nega-
tive heritage’ (Ibid.). The term ‘social justice’ gained currency amongst museum
professionals and was defined a year later as ‘the ways in which museums, galleries
and heritage organisations might acknowledge and act upon inequalities within and
outside of the cultural domain’ (Sandell and Nightingale 2012, p.3). The model was
an ambitious one: by shaping as well as reflecting social and political relationships
and having a positive impact on the lived experiences of people who experience
discrimination of various kinds, ‘museums can contribute to more just, equitable
and fair societies’ (Ibid.). David Fleming, who had led organisational change to
embed social inclusion as Director of Tyne & Wear Museums in the 1990s, and
then as Director of National Museums Liverpool in the 2000s, welcomed the social
justice agenda and described the challenges in building new organisational cultures
that actively encouraged social inclusion/social justice approaches (Fleming 2012,
pp.74–79). In some ways, the social justice model can be seen as a halfway posi-
tion between the welfare model and the community agency model, in framing the
museum itself as an agent for change.
The concept of the ‘useful museum’ is one that has gained currency over the
past decade, and seeks to synthesise both welfare needs and community agency.
It was adopted by Alistair Hudson when he took over as Director of Middles-
brough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) in 2014, as a way of dealing with a
contemporary art gallery that had landed like an alien spaceship on a soulless
164 Helen White

green space in the centre of a depopulating post-industrial town in north-east

England. Hudson likened the gallery to a colonial power descending from above
to convert people to contemporary art: he hoped to remake the museum as a civic
institution that actually worked for its constituents, rather than catering primarily
for the cultural capital of the art market. Rejecting ‘participatory’ art as merely
asking people to participate in someone else’s agenda, Hudson embraced com-
munity agency:

the ambition – and this is why I talk about ‘usership’ and the useful museum – is
that you create an institution that is created by and through its usership, so
that the content and the function is increasingly less determined by those
in power, but rather you redistribute authorship, you redistribute power, to
make the institution the true manifestation of its community. Now that takes
a long time, it’s not something you do overnight.
(Hudson 2017)

Hudson’s first exhibition at MIMA, Localism (October 2015–February 2016),

presented a history of art in Middlesbrough with, in his words, ‘the idea that we
should not tell the story as singular curators, but we should open up the narrative to
the communities around us – so we basically did an open call and in effect crowd-
sourced the exhibition. It was this mayhem of artworks suggested and contributed
by people, artists, non-artists and archives from the environment around us’ (Ibid.).
A subsequent exhibition, called If all relations were to reach equilibrium, this
building would dissolve (June–September 2016), of work by migrant and asylum
seeker artists, didn’t just represent them, it was also a useful resource:

The gallery also operates as a centre for service provision, learning and de-
bate. Free resources and activities include a suite of computers with Internet
access, a food bank, study groups, and opportunities for convening such as a
communal weekly lunch, creative workshops and ESOL informal sessions.
(MIMA 2016)

As we have seen, community engagement in UK museums has been much

thought about, and debated, over the past 40 years, and there is no one agreed
definition. In 2013 the Museums Association, the membership and organisation for
museum professionals in the UK, launched the Museums Change Lives Campaign
which advocated ‘socially engaged practice’ in three areas for change: Enhancing
health and wellbeing; Creating better places to live or work; Inspiring engage-
ment, debate and reflection (Museums Association 2013). It thus attempted to en-
compass the various ways in which museums view their community engagement
remit. Whilst the first category for action clearly sits within the welfare model, the
other two categories move further towards a social justice model. The Museums
Association website carries a toolkit for measuring socially engaged practice in
museums developed by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund to help it evaluate
grant applications and the outcomes of the projects funded. The toolkit uses the
 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion 165

same three areas of change as the Museums Change Lives campaign and suggests
a range of methods by which social impact might be evaluated, from Theory of
Change and logic models to quantitative and qualitative outcomes and outputs.
Like the campaign, the toolkit avoids being prescriptive in how it expects socially
engaged practice to operate (Museums Association 2018a). Also in 2018, the Mu-
seums Association published on its website a framework for participatory practice
(Museums Association 2018b.)

Ways Forward?
Museum professionals who believe that community engagement is central to the
work of their institution have a complex task ahead of them, but there is now a
plethora of advice and experience to draw on, and it is worth concluding with a few
observations that may be of use in navigating what will most likely be a messy and
unclear process:

A museum is part of a network of community assets and needs to find a role that
can effectively complement other resources. Museum staff need to understand
the circumstances, needs and priorities of the museum’s constituencies and
communities.
Consultation exercises are just that: they do not empower a community. If followed
up with commitment, they can be the start of an ongoing dialogue.
Projects should be part of an ongoing activity stream, not ends in themselves. There
should always be options for future engagement for people who have been in-
volved in a project.
Museums aren’t just about ‘creativity’. There are lots of other routes of engagement –
and a participatory art project may not be the one that individuals will find the
most stimulating or useful.
A museum’s staff are members of communities too. Members of the front of house
staff, for example, may be a vital untapped link in connecting the museum with
communities who are less likely to make use of its resources.

Voluntary sector organisations are vital partners in community engagement

but they are not the community. They are made up of workers and activists who
form sectoral interest groups and will have their own agendas (Wilcox 1994, p.4).
This throws up one of the most fundamental dilemmas of community engagement:
who do you talk to? Volunteers or ‘Friends’ groups often reflect the interests of a
relatively narrow socio-economic band of people with a committed interest in the
museum: focusing on them risks simply reinforcing the status quo. Community en-
gagement is usually taken to mean looking beyond elected members of parliament
or of local authorities. Instead, community representatives are sought: these may
be self-appointed ‘gatekeepers’, and it is difficult for an outsider to know how rep-
resentative they really are, especially if they haven’t been elected. This last point
is key: for a museum to be genuinely engaged with its communities, its leadership
and staff must have an intimate knowledge of its local ‘ecology’.
166 Helen White

All this is, of course, easier said than done, and it is difficult for a great national
institution based in South Kensington to approach the idea of community engage-
ment in the same way as a municipal or local museum. But no publicly funded
museum in the UK can afford to ignore community engagement, and after several
decades of work in this field there is no excuse for the approach to be tokenistic or
superficial. The debates played out in the wider cultural and intellectual world will
prove equally challenging when the museum has to face them – the ‘platforming’
(or not) of anti-liberal opinions, for example – but this is no longer an excuse for
museums to stand apart from what is going on around them; indeed, they have a
critical role to play in these fractured and turbulent times.

Postscript
This chapter was originally submitted to ICOM in the spring of 2019: it goes
without saying that the world has undergone seismic change since then. By mid-­
September 2021 the Johns Hopkins University had recorded more than 225 million
Covid-19 cases worldwide and more than 4.6 million deaths across almost 200
countries. In the UK alone, 7.3 million cases of Covid had been recorded, and
134,772 people had died (Johns Hopkins University & Medicine 2021). Despite
the development of new vaccines and more effective treatments, the threat that
Covid posed hasn’t gone away, and its lasting impacts are myriad. Amongst these
impacts are the accelerated growth of conspiracy theories; the widening gulf be-
tween those who have to go to out work and those who can work from home or
indulge in ‘hybrid working’; the developmental delay suffered by young children
who were isolated from welfare services and socialisation; and the ongoing ‘long
Covid’ illnesses suffered by many. Most poignant of all, yet often unheard, are the
grief and anger of people whose lost loved ones could perhaps have been better
protected from the virus.
The impact of the pandemic on priorities and practice in the museum sector
has been the subject of countless ‘Zoom’ webinars, and much speculation has
focused on the virtual experiences that replaced in-person visits for those with
the leisure and inclination to explore online offerings. Yet early indications were
that the ‘new normal’ of pandemic life was much like the ‘old normal’ of an art
and cultural audience characterised by significant inequality. A report analys-
ing data from two large-scale surveys of cultural consumption patterns in the
UK suggested that the ‘digital pivot’ prompted by the pandemic did not open
up avenues of participation to new audiences previously unengaged in cultural
activity, but simply shifted existing audiences online (Feder, T. et al. 2021; Red-
mond 2021).
In May 2020 the death of George Floyd on a street in Minneapolis beneath the
knee of Derek Chauvin once again brought the structural racism of Western socie-
ties into sharp relief. In the UK, attacks on statues coincided with a foregrounding
of colonial histories and a redressing of the imbalances of historic representation.
Work in these areas that had begun long before the death of George Floyd was now
in the spotlight.
 Managing for Accessibility and Inclusion 167

The National Trust, a charity devoted to protecting historic buildings and natu-
ral landscapes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, experienced a particu-
larly bitter and protracted campaign by some of its members in opposition to its
‘Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in
the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery’ (National
Trust 2020). The report had been in preparation since 2018 under the leadership
of Corinne Fowler, Professor of Colonialism and Heritage at the University of
Leicester. Its publication provoked the formation in 2021 of a right-wing pressure
group, the Restore Trust, which criticised the report and campaigned against ‘the
distraction of ephemeral trends and political activism’ (Restore Trust, n.d.).
In response to the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol on 7
June 2020, and the initiation of reviews into memorials of people associated
with the trade in enslaved people, the museum and heritage sectors were re-
minded by the Culture Secretary that ‘as publicly funded bodies, you should
not be taking actions motivated by activism or politics’ (Department for Cul-
ture, Media and Sport 2020). The government promoted a policy of ‘retain and
explain’ on issues of contested heritage. In January 2021 new legal protection
for statues was announced: no historic statue or monument should be removed
without listed building consent or planning permission, and the power to grant
the latter was transferred from local authorities to central government (Depart-
ment for Culture, Media and Sport 2021). In May 2021 a new Heritage Advisory
Board was set up and in October 2023 new ‘Guidance for custodians on how
to deal with commemorative heritage assets that have become contested’ was
published, setting out procedures for three potential responses: doing nothing,
‘retaining and explaining’ and (in very rare cases) removing a statue or monu-
ment that was causing controversy or offence (Department for Culture, Media
and Sport 2023).
For museums, the challenges have been less about whether to keep something
on display, and more about interpreting the motives and activities of the people
who originally acquired and donated these collections. Art curators have made
more effort to place artworks in their social, political and cultural context. The
curators of Tate Britain’s Hogarth and Europe exhibition invited academics and
artists to contribute their own commentaries beside Hogarth’s paintings. They were
accused of giving wall space to ‘wokeish drivel’ under a headline that announced:
‘Britain’s Brexiteer artist yanked into today’s culture wars’ (Januszczak 2021), and
even left-leaning newspaper The Observer criticised the curators’ ‘extreme anxiety
towards social attitudes… They treat the work like bombs that are about to deto-
nate’ (Cooke 2021).
Museums and heritage sites may have become flashpoints in the so-called
‘culture wars’, but the roles that museums play in people’s lives are many and
multi-faceted. The ambition to practice meaningful engagement that enriches and
empowers communities, rather than merely paying lip-service with ‘add-ons’ that
tick a funding box, should be regarded as a critical one for all museums. The jour-
ney towards realising this ambition has in many places made significant progress,
but still has a long way to go.
168 Helen White

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Part IV

Decline in Public Funding

14 New Governance Models for
Museums
The Case of Organizações Sociais in
São Paulo, Brazil

Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau

Introduction
In Brazil, the organisation of public cultural institutions has evolved through time,
through a process of decentralisation and désétatisation (removal from state con-
trol) (Klamer et al. 2006), which has characterised the reorganisation of cultural
policies; this implies the reduction of the role of central governments in the im-
plementation of cultural policies and the devolution of power to lower levels of
governments and the private sector. The latter has been increasingly active in fi-
nancing and managing cultural institutions through various hybrid models that are
examples of public-private partnerships (PPPs).
With these agreements, public cultural institutions are run in cooperation with pri-
vate (both for- and not-for-profit) organisations. The public sector plays a regulatory
role, provides administrative support and facilitates investments. The private sector
provides financial and human resources together with skills and competencies that are
often currently absent from the public sector. Examples of PPP are appearing in many
countries. One example is that of the Organizações Sociais (OS – social organizations)
introduced in Brazil at the end of the 1990s. This model was introduced for all sec-
tors of public intervention; however, for the purpose of this study, the focus is on OSs
responsible for the management of cultural organisations, and in particular, museums.
The analysis will consider the effect of OSs in terms of attendance maximisation, as
well as financial stability and reduction of dependence on public funds. Existing litera-
ture on OSs is still scarce and focuses more on legal, qualitative and implementation
aspects. To the best of our knowledge, a quantitative analysis regarding the assessment
of the effectiveness of the model and its evolution has been missing.
The next section provides a brief illustration of the evolution of cultural policies
and the introduction of PPPs in the cultural sector. The focus will then shift to OSs
in Brazil, considering the motivation for their introduction as well as the pros and
cons of their application and their use in the cultural sector in Brazil.

The Evolution of Cultural Policies: PPPs and Culture

Reduction of government funds to support the cultural sector intensified during
the 1990s and increased the demand for public accountability, leading to the adop-
tion of performance indicators to monitor operations and management of cultural

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-19
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
174 Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau

organisations (Pignataro 2011). This resulted in a general complaint around the

alleged inappropriateness of the managerial approach used in the cultural sector.
As a consequence, in many cases, new organisational models were introduced to
create more efficient and flexible institutions (e.g., the transformation of Dutch
public museums or of Italian opera houses into foundations and, more recently, the
reform of Italian national museums and historical sites) or to reduce costs (e.g., the
merging of cultural organisations in the United Kingdom or the Netherlands after
the 2008 crisis and the reduction of public expenditures for culture).
In some cases, new hybrid organisations involving both the public and private
sectors were introduced. These PPP models regulate the cooperation among the
various actors involved. The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships
(n.d.) defines a PPP as a ‘contractual agreement between a public agency … and
a private sector entity. Through this agreement, the skills and assets of each sector
(public and private) are shared in delivering a service or facility for the use of the
general public’. Bramwell and Lane (2000), meanwhile, define PPP as a pooling
of knowledge, expertise, capital, and other resources from various stakeholders.
PPPs have been commonly used for infrastructure or industrial projects but
were slower to take root in the cultural sector (Dubini et al. 2012; Macdonald and
Cheong 2014). UNESCO (2013) acknowledges the potential of the cultural sector
for partnerships in the area of culture. Though the debate about PPPs for culture is
rather controversial, there are a growing number of examples of PPP in the cultural
sector: PPPs have been formed for the management of World Heritage Sites in the
Netherlands (Keuper 2015), for the management and conservation of heritage sites
in Italy (Dubini et al. 2012; Klamer and Mignosa 2019), and the management of
public theatres and museums in Brazil. The last example is the focus of this work.

Motivations for the Creation of the Organizações Sociais (OS)

The concept of the OS model was included in a 1995 plan to reform the Brazilian
state, Plano Diretor de Reforma do Estado (Alcoforado 2005; Costin 2008; Fiore
et al. 2011). The idea was to adopt more efficient mechanisms to manage public
services (e.g., museums, theatres, hospitals and scientific institutes). According to
this model, the private sector could step in to run public organisations.
Costin (2008) underlines that Brazilian legislation for public services was elab-
orated to prevent the misuse of resources and human capital by politicians and
public managers. The legal framework, created to avoid undesired behaviour from
public agents, resulted in a bureaucratic, inflexible and inefficient structure, with
strict norms in terms of hiring, purchase of supplies and other expenditures (Fiore
et al. 2011). The concept of the OS was meant to make public services in Brazil
more flexible, agile and efficient.
Federal law no. 9637, of May 1998, officially created the OS. The OS is a quali-
fied organisation of the third sector (i.e., a not-for-profit association) that can be
contracted by the state for the provision of public services (Alcoforado 2005).
The legal instrument that regulates the relationship between the state and the OS
is the ‘management contract’ (contrato de gestão), which defines the rights and
 New Governance Models for Museums 175

obligations of each party. On the one hand, the State is responsible for financing
of activity and/or the concession of public assets. On the other hand, the OS is re-
sponsible for the execution of the activities and the provision of the public service
(Costin 2008). The contract defines the overall responsibilities of each party, the
specific goals of the OS, the amount of public resources involved in the agreement,
the rules for the evaluation, and penalties in case of contract breach (Fiore et al.
2011). The performance evaluation of the OS considers performance indicators and
goals. In the case of a cultural OS, the contract sets specific goals related to earned
income (e.g., admissions and sponsorships), fundraising (e.g., donations) and pro-
ject support using tax benefits (Alcoforado 2005).

Benefits and Limitations of the OS Model

Besides the benefits in terms of increased efficiency in the management of cultural
services, according to Fiore et al. (2011), OSs can provide services with higher
quality not having to follow strict bureaucratic procedures when choosing a service
provider. Furthermore, the model facilitates access to external funding through cor-
porate sponsorships, corporate support to specific projects (allowing the company
supporting the project to get tax incentives) and ancillary activities (e.g., shops, res-
taurants), reducing an organisation’s dependency on public resources. The model
also allows the sharing of management of public services with civil society (Costin
2008). Fiore et al. (2011) argue that, as many OSs have artists, cultural managers
and personalities as board members, civil society is brought closer to the formula-
tion, execution and evaluation of public policies.
Some authors, however, criticise the OS model. Fiore et al. (2011) expose two
opposite views of the role of OSs for culture: they can have a high level of au-
tonomy, designing and implementing cultural policies; or they can still be highly
dependent on the government, the OS being a mere tool to avoid the bureaucratic
and inflexible framework of the public system. Depending on the autonomy given to
OSs, Costin (2008) believes that there is a risk of the state losing control over public
policies. In her opinion, OSs are instruments for the implementation of public poli-
cies and should not participate in the formulation or coordination of such policies
(ibid.). Some authors also highlight problems with transparency, government over-
sight and lack of control over OSs (Fiore et al. 2011); they call for a more transpar-
ent online system (Martins 2016), providing open access to citizens, who would be
able to consult OSs’ objectives, goals and the evolution of performance indicators.
Regarding the methods to assess OSs’ accomplishment of the goals set out in
the contracts, on the one hand, Fiore et al. (2011) argue that many performance
indicators – used to evaluate the OSs – are still incipient and crude, making proper
analysis impracticable. On the other hand, they suggest that there is a lack of
qualified OSs capable of managing cultural organisations. Therefore, the state is
dependent on already-active OSs, although they may not have expertise in the re-
quired cultural field (Fiore et al. 2011). While there are OSs throughout Brazil,
the focus of this paper is on the State of São Paulo, where it has been used as the
primary model for cultural activities management.
176 Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau

Organizações Sociais (OS) and Culture

With the first culture management contracts signed in 2004, OS became an estab-
lished model in the State of São Paulo (Fiore et al. 2011), and it remains the only
model for the implementation of new cultural activities and programmes. In 2015,
79 per cent of São Paulo’s budget for culture was assigned to OSs (Unidade de
Monitoramento da Secretaria da Cultura do Estado de São Paulo 2016a). In 2017,
30 entities qualified as an OS; 18 of them having contracts for 28 cultural institu-
tions (Secretaria de Estado da Cultura).1 Hence, some OSs are responsible for
more than one contract.
In São Paulo, OSs’ cultural activities are divided into the following four catego-
ries: Libraries and Reading (Bibliotecas e Leitura); Cultural Dissemination (Di-
fusão Cultural) related to performing arts; Cultural Education (Formação Cultural)
including artistic and cultural education; and Museums (Museus).2 Figure 14.1
shows a ten-year evolution in the number of management contracts since the adop-
tion of the OS model for cultural institutions in the State of São Paulo; it is evident
that contracts for the management of museums prevail.
In this study, to make the analysis feasible, we restricted our research to the OSs
involved in museum management active in the municipality of São Paulo. The final
sample includes six organisations (Table 14.1).
To prove that they reached the goals set in the contract, OSs are legally required
to disclose, in addition to their financial statements, the assessment of goal achieve-
ments (operational, financial, educational, etc.). This study acknowledges the im-
portance of a broad concept of accountability in non-profit organizations (NPOs),
which should consider financial, non-financial, quantitative and qualitative data
(Carnegie and Wolnizer 1996), as well as their mission statements (Barton 2000;
Rentschler and Potter 1996; Turbide and Laurin 2009). However, to avoid the use
of potentially biased data because of the different information that funding agencies

Figure 14.1 – E
 volution of the number of management contracts for cultural institutions in
São Paulo. Unidade de Monitoramento da Secretaria da Cultura do Estado de
São Paulo (2016b).
Table 14.1 Selected social organisations
Social organization – OS Legal entity Date of Date of First Cultural equipments Management Term Number of
taxpayer registry incorporation qualification management contract in employees
(CNPJ) as OS contract force (2015)

Associação Pinacoteca 96.290.846/0001-82 11.01.1993 18.08.2005 01.01.2006 Pinacoteca Luz 05/2013 22.12.2013 to 196
Arte e Cultura – Estação Pinacoteca 30.11.2018
APAC Memorial da Resistência
(Former Associação de de São Paulo
Amigos da Pinacoteca
do Estado)
Associação do Paço das 71.929.889/0001-34 22.08.1993 16.08.2006 30.11.2006 MIS – Museu da Imagem 06/2013 01.01.2014 to 110
Artes Francisco e do Som 30.11.2018
Matarazzo Sobrinho Paço das Artes

New Governance Models for Museums 177

Associação Museu de 67.848.994/0001-71 18.05.1992 07.05.2007 01.07.2007 Museu de Arte Sacra 07/2013 01.01.2014 to 50
Arte Sacra de São 30.11.2018
Paulo – SAMAS
(Former Sociedade
Amigos do Museu de
Arte Sacra)
A Casa – Museu de 03.031.145/0001-48 16.03.1999 30.04.2008 02.05.2008 Museu A Casa 10/2016 01.01.2017 to 54
Artes e Artefatos 31.12.2021
Brasileiros
IDBRASIL Cultura, 10.233.223/0001-52 24.06.2008 22.08.2008 08.09.2008 Museu do Futebol 04/2016 01.07.2016 to 131
Educação e Esporte 31.12.2020
(Former Instituto da Arte Museu da Língua 08/2016 01.01.2017 to
do Futebol Brasileiro) Portuguesa 31.12.2020
Associação Museu Afro 07.258.863/0001-02 17.02.2005 07.04.2009 22.06.2009 Museu Afro Brasil 04/2013 22.06.2013 to 68
Brasil – AMAB 31.12.2017
Source: Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau.
178 Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau

and cultural institutions possess (Peacock 2003),3 this study only uses data about
visitor numbers and financial data, which are less susceptible to manipulation due
to mandatory accounting standards and the assessment of independent auditors.
For the purpose of this research, each organisation’s funds were classified into
five different streams:

1 Public Direct Funds: transferred by the government to the OS according to the

management contract;
2 Public Indirect Funds: derived from Federal, State or Municipal tax incentives
to taxpayers who invest in selected cultural projects;
3 Earned Income: tickets sales, museum shop sales, facility rental, registration
fees, sponsorships, etc.;
4 Private Support (Donations): donations collected by the organisation and
5 Financial Revenues: generated by the financial investments of the organisation.

An important part of this research is based on the analysis of historical perfor-

mance indicators, which measure the relationship between the volume of inputs
(e.g., money) and outputs. The comparison of resource inputs with outputs over time
demands that deflation be taken into consideration using an appropriate price index
(Peacock 2003). To avoid this problem due to the use of nominal values, which cre-
ate unrealistic data in countries (such as Brazil) with high inflation rates, this study
uses the IPCA (Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo)4 price index to
deflate all financial data to 2016 Brazilian Real values (Earp and Estrella 2017).

Results of the Analysis

The results of the analysis allow some interesting reflections with respect to three
main aspects: attendance, dependence on public funding, and financial results.
Firstly, as evident in Figure 14.2 and in reference to attendance, the total number
of visitors for the six selected OSs increased by 33 per cent from 2009 to 2016.
This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4 per cent. 2014 was
a record year with approximately 2.6 million visitors. Possible explanations are the
fact that Brazil held the FIFA World Cup in 2014, as suggested in IDBrasil’s 2014
financial statements, and the attractiveness of two blockbuster exhibitions: David
Bowie and Castelo Ra Tim Bum as argued by the Associação do Paço das Artes.
The museum had more than 352,000 visitors in 2014, around 14 per cent of the
sample’s total attendance. The Associação do Paço das Artes shows impressive re-
sults; it managed to increase its attendance on a yearly average (CAGR) of 67 per
cent. The decrease in attendance in 2016 can be explained by two main events: the
economic crisis derived from the impeachment of Brazil’s president; and the fire at
Museu da Língua Portuguesa in December 2015.
The second set of results refers to the evolution of the funding structure, and
specifically, dependence on public funding. In the cultural domain, OSs introduced
more agility and flexibility for institutions seeking revenue diversification. For ex-
ample, when selecting a private company to operate ancillary activities (e.g., shops,
 New Governance Models for Museums 179

Figure 14.2 – Attendance in the six selected OSs. Elaborated by the author based on OSs’
Activity Reports.

restaurants, parking lots), cultural OSs are not legally required to use public ten-
ders. The management contract states that the cultural organisation must look for
additional financial resources on the market (e.g., admissions, sponsorships, dona-
tions and support to cultural projects leading to tax benefits). It is thus clear that one
of the main objectives of the use of the OS model in the cultural sector is to reduce
dependence on public funds. Therefore, when analysing the data on the evolu-
tion of the OSs’ funding structure, it is important to verify whether or not OSs are
evolving towards a more balanced funding structure: one less dependent on public
resources. An overview of the samples’ funding structure evolution for the period
2010–2015 is shown in Figure 14.3.

Figure 14.3 – Evolution of OSs’ funding structure (2010 and 2015).

Elaborated by the author based on OSs’ financial statements.
180 Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau

Overall, data show a reduction in the OSs’ dependence on public direct fund-
ing of 7 per cent and the reliance on a more diversified operational income, which
increased by 4 per cent in the period. Public indirect funds, donations and financial
revenues also contributed to OSs’ funding structure. Although the decrease in pub-
lic funding is still small, it shows a shift towards a more balanced funding structure
that might lead to financial stability (Carroll and Stater 2009), unless this reduction
is only due to a decrease in public direct funding, which is not compensated by an
increase in other income streams. It is then fundamental to assess OSs’ financial
performance.
Regarding financial results, the analysis shows that they have become less vola-
tile through the years and that OSs have succeeded in diversifying their funding
resources. Four OSs showed positive financial results5 and two accumulated losses.
On average, OSs presented financial stability, which, however, might be affected
by unexpected changes in public direct funding. Higher levels of financial sta-
bility corresponded to the years in which organisations achieved greater revenue
diversification (i.e., in the last years of the analysis). Some organisations, such as
Associação do Paço das Artes, which had reduced the ratio of expenses to income
from 0.91 in 2009 to 0.84 in 20126, in 2013, had the highest ratio (1.27) in the OS’s
history. A possible explanation is that until 2012 the organisation had accumulated
significant profits, which, according to the management contract, had to be returned
to the government by the end of the agreement in 2013. Interestingly, that year, the
Associação do Paço das Artes posted the highest loss. Nevertheless, after termina-
tion of the management contract the same year, the organisation was selected by
the government for another five-year contract. In subsequent years (2014, 2015 and
2016), the organisation managed to reduce the ratio of expenses to income again.
These data might be interpreted as evidence of a strategy of deficit optimisation
to ensure optimal subsidies from the government. An organisation does not have
an incentive to keep costs at the minimum level and might decide to adopt uneco-
nomic behaviour (Peacock 2003). Frey and Meier (2006) underline that for public
museums that rely exclusively on public grants, a surplus might lead to a decrease
in public grants. Without incentives to produce a surplus, museum managers might
change their focus to emphasise ‘non-commercial aspects, such as referring to in-
trinsic “artistic”, “scientific”, or “historical” values’ (Frey and Meier 2006). In line
with what the theory suggests (Netzer 2011), the results also demonstrate that OSs
might be strategically optimising their deficits.

Concluding Remarks
The OS model has been used as a tool for the management of cultural institutions
by the state of São Paulo since 2004. The model’s importance has grown consider-
ably in terms of budget allocation and expansion of cultural activities and assets
involved. The OS continues to be the preferred model for the development of cul-
tural activities in the State of São Paulo. Between 2010 and 2021, 73 per cent of
São Paulo’s budget for culture was assigned to OSs, achieving as much as 86 per
cent in 2016, and reduced to 54 per cent and 71 per cent during the Covid pandemic
 New Governance Models for Museums 181

years of 2020 and 2021 (Unidade de Monitoramento da Secretaria da Cultura do

Estado de São Paulo 2022b). It appears that the OS model continues to be effective
in reducing not-for-profit cultural organisations’ dependence on public funding. In
2015, the private funds (i.e., Earned Income and Private Support) raised by OSs
represented 28 per cent of the Public Direct funds transferred by the government to
the OSs, while in 2019, this figure reached 33 per cent (Unidade de Monitoramento
da Secretaria da Cultura do Estado de São Paulo 2022a).
Overall, the results show a clear evolution in terms of museums’ attendance in
the sample investigated. The analysis shows that the OS model is effective in reduc-
ing not-for-profit cultural organisations’ dependence on public funding. Thus, the
OS model can be seen as an effective instrument to generate greater accountability
for public money, as it demands a balanced funding structure for the supply of
cultural services. Moreover, the model also enhances accountability by encourag-
ing a more commercial and economic approach in cultural NPOs. In this sense, the
observed diversification of revenues is a means towards financial stability (Carroll
and Stater 2009).
However, the development and improvement of the OS model in terms of the
strengthening of oversight agencies, OSs accountability and application of penal-
ties and sanctions is still poor. Martins and Olivieri (2019) analysed OSs operat-
ing in the cultural sector in the State of São Paulo, and their findings point to low
transparency from the selection of the OSs to the measurability and timeliness of
information, which has a negative impact on the accountability of the OS. Their
research emphasises the need for public agencies to improve the mechanisms of
internal control and the results of the management contracts.
It is necessary to strive for the continuous development and improvement of
the OS model in terms of performance indicator quality (Ferraz 2008; Fiore et al.
2011), the strengthening of oversight agencies (Fiore et al. 2011); and the applica-
tion of penalties and sanctions (Martins 2016) to boost the effectiveness and effi-
ciency of the OS model for cultural institutions in the State of São Paulo, especially
in terms of revenue diversification and decreased dependence on public funding.

Notes
1 http://www.transparenciacultura.sp.gov.br/organizacoes-sociais-de-cultura/os-­
qualificadas/, accessed on 18 May 2017.
2 The ‘Libraries and Reading’ and ‘Cultural Dissemination’ categories were merged by
Decree number 61.832/2016 and renamed as ‘Cultural Dissemination, Libraries and
Reading’ (Difusão Cultural, Bibliotecas e Leitura).
3 In economics, this is known as asymmetry of information as one of the parties has pri-
vate information, i.e., not shared with the other.
4 The IPCA index is measured by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics –
IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) and can be retrieved from http://
www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/indicadores/precos/inpc_ipca/ipca-inpc_201704_3.shtm
5 For this study, positive financial result is considered as profit generation or result equal
to zero, due to the nonprofit nature of OSs.
6 Detailed presentations of each organisations’ individual performance can be provided
by the authors.
182 Anna Mignosa and Christian Mayer Tibeau

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15 Ethical Fundraising in Museums
Marek Prokůpek

Introduction
Museums have always had limited budgets (Greffe et al. 2017), but in recent years,
they have faced greater pressure than ever before. Museums have had to respond
to a rapidly changing social, political and economic climate and demonstrate their
value and relevance, and this shift seems to be the most significant in Western
Europe (Prokůpek et al. 2022). These pressures have been intensified by declining
public funding for cultural organisations, a trend that has impacted the majority of
cultural institutions. At the same time, museums have been asked to provide a wide
range of activities and to attract more visitors, thereby increasing operating costs.
In short, museums have been forced to do more with fewer funds since the 1980s.
Therefore, they have had to react to a decrease in public investment and secure
more private funding, develop partnerships with the private sector, and, in some
cases, compromise their values.
For example, the sale of 4,000-year-old Egyptian statues from the Northampton
Museum and Art Gallery collection to a private collector in 2014 can serve as an
example of how such behaviour can lead to a loss of accreditation and reputation.
In this case, the Northampton Borough Council, which was at that time the govern-
ing body of the museum, made a decision contrary to professional codes of ethics,
such as those of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) or the Museums
Association UK, and did not maintain values that are generally held in the museum
sector.
As a result, community groups, social campaigners and environmental activists
have scrutinised sources of museums’ funding and the ethical basis of museum
work. This led to expectations that museums will not only seek to diversify their
audiences but also to take account of, and engage with, contemporary inequalities
and contested social and political issues in their employment, curatorial and public
programming activities and funding.
The aim of this chapter is to identify the main ethical issues museums have
faced in these challenging times, to explore the ethical dilemmas of fundraising in
museums, and to provide guidance to museum professionals in ethical fundraising.
Some partnerships between cultural institutions and private companies
or foundations have caused controversy and even caught the attention of the

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-20
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 185

mainstream media. Cases such as sponsorship of the Science Museum in Lon-

don by fossil fuel companies Shell or British Petrol (BP), the British Museum
and BP were prominently debated in The Guardian, The New York Times and
other mass media outlets. So, too, were actions of an activist group called
PAIN, initiated by the American artist Nan Goldin against ties between several
museums and the Sackler Trust (members of the family-run trust own Purdue
Pharma, a company selling the prescription strongly addictive painkiller Oxy-
contin, which has been accused of fuelling the opioid addiction crisis in the
United States). Nan Goldin, who herself developed an addiction to Oxycontin,
in 2019 claimed that she would decline to plan her retrospective show at the
National Portrait Gallery in London if the museum accepted a gift of £1 mil-
lion from the Sackler family. As a result of this claim, The National Portrait
Gallery became the first significant art organisation to reject a grant from the
Sackler family. As a result, a lot of other organisations have decided to stop
accepting gifts from the Sackler family and have taken the Sackler name off of
their walls.
The issue of ethics in fundraising, partnerships and corporate sponsorships has
been present in museums for many years, but the last few years have been es-
pecially rich for scandals and controversy and showed unprecedented interest by
public media in ethical issues and museums. One of the reasons encouraging such
discussions might be the growing awareness of climate change and increasing scru-
tiny of the impact of the activities of fossil fuel companies.
Museum fundraisers and directors have had to face difficult ethical questions,
and their decision-making process is influenced by many factors. Do we accept
funds from a company that does not share the same values as our museum? The
easy answer would be no, of course not. But these funds might be used to develop
a new educational programme, or allow new acquisitions, the extension of an ex-
hibition space, development of a research project, or a new exhibition. There is,
accordingly, no uniform answer to this question. Each contribution requires care-
ful consideration. The boundary between what is ethical and what is not is so thin
that many people within the sector are not able to come to a consensus. Almost all
sponsorships can evoke controversy. Public investment can also put museums in
difficult decision-making positions.
The Gdańsk Museum of the Second World War, opened in Poland in 2017,
offers an example of the tensions that may arise between museums’ own ethical
standards and governments who exercise full control over the cultural sector in
certain countries. The political party Law and Justice (PiS) became interested in
the way the museum presents the history of the Second World War. Developing
the permanent exhibition was a long project, and the museum was considered to
be one of the most ambitious devoted to the Second World War. But PiS decided to
use the exhibition as an occasion to glorify the nation, offering a biased, highly na-
tionalist account of its history in the process. As a result, the museum director was
dismissed and a new director was appointed, who changed the exhibition’s content
to glorify Polish military actions and cast Poland as a righteous nation. The former
director and other historians involved in the initial exhibition sued the new director
186 Marek Prokůpek

over the infringement of their copyright for the exhibition’s content (Flieger 2019),
and in October 2020, they won the lawsuit in question.
Other museums have learned that accepting money from a company or an in-
dividual whose business is perceived as controversial or unethical can cause ir-
reversible damage to a reputation that took decades to establish. Examples such as
the fossil fuel company BP’s sponsorship of certain British cultural organisations,
protests at the Louvre Museum against sponsorship by the French oil company
Total, London’s Natural History Museum being rented to host an event in honour
of the Saudi Arabian embassy, and a third of the artists featured in the exhibition
Hope to Nope in the Design Museum in London pulling their work from display
after learning that the museum had hosted an event for an arms company, all show
that such partnerships can create public-relations nightmares for museums, as well
as significantly damaging their reputations.
The title of this chapter is ‘Ethical Fundraising in Museums’. But what does
it take for fundraising to be ethical? In practising ethical fundraising, fundraisers
need to be aware of the museum’s vision, mission and values and seek partners
sharing these values.

What Is Ethical?
Defining ethics is complicated since it is not an exact science. There have been
attempts by several philosophers to make ethics objective and universal, but op-
ponents of this stance argue that a moral decision is not mechanical; rather, it is an
intuitive, individual process of making choices. In the non-profit sector, in which
museums are situated, ethics play a crucial role. Museums are recognised as having
ethical responsibilities, both internal and external (Weinstein and Barden 2017).
Internal responsibilities are connected with museum staff, their health and safety,
equal opportunities, and fostering a common sense of values within the museum.
External responsibilities, on the other hand, are linked to external stakeholders and
include stating the truth in fundraising, marketing and public relations, protecting
the environment and meeting promised obligations to donors.
Museum ethics are not a universal set of values that can be applied to every
museum in the same way. We must distinguish ethical principles that represent
ideals and values that we hold dear from applied ethics, which is the application
of these principles and values to a specific area of activities such as museum work
(Marstine 2012).
Ethics are a reflection of our museum institutions and values and are also con-
nected to our vision. To recognise what is ethical and what is not when it comes
to funding is a difficult proposition, however, and the line between these two can
be thin. It is and always will be the ultimate responsibility of fundraisers, museum
directors and museum board members; they have to make the final decisions and
consider the consequences of these actions. First of all, the decision in question
should be aligned with the museum’s mission and values: museums should never
compromise their values. Professional codes of ethics can provide guidance, but
museums should also have a written policy for such cases.
 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 187

Ethics have always played a crucial role in museum activities, but in recent dec-
ades, we have witnessed an even stronger need for establishing ethical standards
around sponsorship and fundraising for museums. It is important that executive
teams be aware of, and clear on, what they will and will not do regarding fundrais-
ing and sponsorship. The key principle for ethical fundraising is that the museum’s
values should always remain front of mind when decisions are made. Other prin-
ciples that are eligible to form part of ethical fundraising are demonstrations of
respect for public opinion. Last, but not least, it is imperative to communicate with
donors and corporate sponsors in an attempt to obtain as much information and
feedback as possible about their backgrounds, activities, values and key stakehold-
ers. Nevertheless, there may yet be situations in which a museum conducts a deep
investigation about a potential contributor and does not find any reason that they
should not accept money. However, information later comes out that reveals un-
ethical business activities that are not in alignment with museum values.
One situation that is of major concern in the museum sector is one in which an
individual donor or corporate sponsor has a say in the development of museum pro-
grammes. Such a case occurred in 1999 when the Brooklyn Museum of Art hosted
an exhibition entitled Sensation: Young British Art from the Saatchi Collection.
The exhibition was first presented in 1997 at the Royal Academy of Arts in Lon-
don. Charles Saatchi, the owner of the artworks, turned out to also be a significant
sponsor of the exhibition. In the beginning, the museum tried to hide this crucial
fact, which made the situation even worse. Moreover, later on, an information leak
revealed that the famous collector had also been involved in curating the exhibition
(Barstow 1999).
Another alarming case appeared when the Science Museum in London came
under scrutiny over its partnerships with fossil fuel companies. In 2015, email
leaks revealed that Shell, one of the Science Museum’s sponsors, had attempted
to influence the climate science exhibition, Atmosphere, at the museum. It stirred
significant controversy, and a group of 30 scientists including James Hansen, a
former NASA climate scientist and naturalist Chris Packham claimed that partner-
ship with Shell, BP and Statoil undermined the museum’s credibility as a scientific
institution (Vaughan 2018). Such incidents have an irreversible impact on muse-
ums’ reputations and can cause a decline in the trust of professionals, peers and the
general public. These sorts of partnerships can also cause other sponsors, some less
controversial, to terminate their support of a given museum.

Current Museum Fundraising Practices

Current declines in cultural funding have changed the fundraising environment. We
have witnessed a downwards trend in public investment and have also seen that pri-
vate companies and donors are more cautious and strategic in their support. Moreo-
ver, funders are demanding more accountability and transparency. These changes
make fundraising in museums more competitive and challenging.
Museums need to raise funds to cover operational costs and capital costs to ex-
tend or redevelop buildings, as well as project funding for temporary exhibitions,
188 Marek Prokůpek

new educational or accompanying programmes, publications, research, etc. Fund-

raising strategies and activities differ from museum to museum. Generally speak-
ing, it is easier to raise money for one-off projects than for everyday museum
operations. There are different types of funding for museums that can be broadly
divided into three groups: earned income, public contributions, and private contri-
butions (Lindqvist 2012).
Historically, fundraising has always played a crucial role in American museums
since most cultural organisations in North America are non-profit, non-governmen-
tal institutions. Without fundraising, museums would not be able to operate. But
in recent decades, museums in Europe that have traditionally been mostly gov-
ernment-funded have had to adopt fundraising as an integral part of their survival
strategy. The ratio between private and public contributions in museum budgets
varies in each country and each museum; some museums are able to cover 50 per
cent of their budget from funds realised from non-governmental sources, while
others rely solely on public subsidies.
In order to thrive in the current social, political, technical and economic envi-
ronment, museums have had to become more entrepreneurial, diversifying their
income sources and finding creative new solutions. These pressures have made
fundraising for museums even more competitive and have required a professional
approach. But this difficult financial situation does not give museums what Gardner
(2012) calls carte blanche to do whatever they feel necessary. Museums operate in
the public trust and unethical behaviour is never acceptable. But the line between
ethical and unethical behaviour is fine, and even though it may be unintentional,
it is relatively easy to slip into unethical behaviour and compromise a museum’s
values and mission.

Ethical Dilemmas in Fundraising

Fundraisers, museum directors and museum boards face ethical dilemmas on
an everyday basis. On the one hand, museums suffer from a decline in public
investment and, on the other hand, are asked to remain ethical and faithful to
their values. Imagine a situation where a museum is offered a sponsorship from
an oil company or an alcoholic beverage manufacturing company. A museum
director knows that this sponsorship deal would help to develop a new edu-
cational programme, but is also aware of the reputation of the company that
offers the sponsorship. What should he/she do? Recent cases from the museum
world speak for themselves. In certain cases in which museums agreed to ac-
cept sponsorship from such companies, they had to deal with harmful conse-
quences. They faced criticism of some of their key stakeholders and negative
media exposure. Sometimes, moreover, the costs of carrying out ‘damage con-
trol’ following such decisions exceeded the original financial contribution from
the sponsorship deal.
When an ethical dilemma appears, former Chair of the ICOM’s Standing Com-
mittee on Ethics, Sally Yerkovich (2016), proposes to think about the dilemma in
 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 189

two phases. The first phase, which consists of six steps, is about analysing the situ-
ation and problem formulation:

1 Collect all the information and facts about the situation.

2 Identify all stakeholders and other parties that might be affected.
3 Remove all superfluous information and select the most important pieces of
data.
4 Consider whether there is a conflict of interest between the fundraiser as an
individual and as a museum staff member.
5 Formulate the problem based on the relevant facts, perspectives and values.
6 Determine the potential ethical issue(s) (p. xii).

When the first phase is accomplished, then the second phase, Formulating Solu-
tions, comes into play. The second phase consists of the five following steps, ac-
cording to Yerkovich:

1 Consider potential outcomes.

2 Propose possible solutions to achieve the desired outcomes.
3 Refer to relevant codes of ethics.
4 Consider possible internal and external reactions to the proposed solution.
5 Invent an alternate solution in order to be prepared for a worst-case scenario
(p. xii).

Ethical Decision-Making
Decisions are easier to make when they involve a choice between an obviously cor-
rect option and an obviously wrong one. Some decisions can be navigated through
museum policy, codes of ethics, other guidance, or previous experiences. But un-
precedented situations can and do appear. Some decisions might be right for one
person and not right for another. Some decisions can compromise one ethical value
for another ethical value. Let us consider the situation mentioned above: a museum
is offered funding from a controversial sponsor to develop a new educational pro-
gramme. How do we navigate decision-making in such a situation? How do we
stay true to our values? Which value is more important: to develop a new educa-
tion programme, or not to accept funding from a controversial company? There are
several different frameworks for decision-making. Marilyn Fischer (2000, p. 21)
highlights a hierarchy of three basic value commitments for fundraisers:

1 Organisational mission,
2 Relationship,
3 Sense of personal integrity.

Fischer claims that there is no single magical formula that could be applied
and would lead to an ethically correct decision (pp. 25–26). Alternatively, ethi-
cal decision-making represents a process of interconnection of concerns with
190 Marek Prokůpek

facts and considerations of a particular situation. Fischer proposes to use an

ethical decision-making chart using the key values of organisation mission, rela-
tionships and personal integrity in a matrix that requires describing alternatives
(p. 24).
The final decision is the responsibility of a museum director or a museum board,
but it is always helpful to discuss decisions with other museum staff and the gov-
erning body. Try to get many points of view and consider all the consequences of
the decision.

Sponsorship and Donation Rejection

It is not easy for a museum to refuse funds. Whether an offer should be accepted
or not requires deep research, ideally with the guidance of internal documents such
as a sponsorship and donation acceptance policy, and a strong decision-making
process. Cases in the museum sector have shown that accepting funds or donations
from certain industries, such as fossil fuel, can put a museum in an unwelcome
spotlight. Some sponsors and donors may be very generous, but in certain cases,
their business may be associated with practices generally not seen as ethical. Ac-
cepting a gift from them or renting them a museum property could possibly dam-
age a museum’s reputation. And if a museum and a sponsor or donor decide not to
reveal information about the deal, it might cause even greater damage. Museums
need to be transparent about their partnerships and sponsors and all sources of
funding.
In such cases, museums should not be afraid to reject an offer when it is not
aligned with their ethical values. The Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee made
such a decision in 2018, turning down a funding offer of £10,000 from a local busi-
nessman who happened to be the owner of 14 nightclubs, including strip clubs. The
director of philanthropy and partnerships at the museum replied to the offer stating
that the museum could not accept the money owing to the nature of the business in-
terests of the contributor being contradictory to the museum’s core aims and values
(Steel 2018). Museums need to preserve public trust in each individual museum as
well as the museum sector as a whole.
To be fair, we also need to state the arguments of opponents, those who do not
see museum sponsorships by companies such as BP, Total, Sackler Trust, etc., as
problematic or controversial. In January 2019 Financial Times published an article
entitled ‘Corporate Arts Patrons Deserve Praise Not Blame’. The Editorial Board
of Financial Times (2019) claims that artists have benefited, directly or indirectly,
from wealthy capitalists’ patronage prior even to the royal patronage of the Medi-
cis; even though times have changed, corporate benefactors remain a key part of
art funding. But their main argument is that companies such as BP and Total are
overseen by shareholders and regulators, and therefore, their sources of funding are
clear. We can agree on the fact that these companies are not doing anything illegal.
Their funding sources might be clear, but the core of their business activities might
be seen as unethical or in contravention of current societal values, such as combat-
ing climate change.
 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 191

Leadership in Ethical Fundraising: Codes of Ethics

Codes of ethics play a crucial role in many areas of our society and professional
practices. They are not universally applicable and, of course, do not provide the
answer to every difficult question. Their aim is mainly to guide behaviour and
to promote professional standards. The museum sector has many codes of ethics
developed by museum associations and organisations and museums themselves.
Codes of ethics are constantly evolving and need to be updated. Museums are not
obliged to follow them, but their adoption demonstrates their commitment to ethi-
cal behaviour. Codes of ethics, standards of professional practice, and best prac-
tices encourage professionalism in museum fundraising.
One of the most important codes of ethics in the museum sector is that of ICOM.
This organisation’s code was first adopted by the 15th General Assembly in Buenos
Aires on 4 November 1986 and last revised in 2004 by the 21st General Assembly
in Seoul. After the 2019 25th ICOM General Conference held in Kyoto, the organi-
sation decided to review and, if necessary, revise the code. At the time of writing
this chapter, the review and revision are still in the process. The Standing Commit-
tee on Ethics (ETHCOM) plans to create a draft of the Code of Ethics which will
be subject to a consultation in 2024. ETHCOM expects to have the revised Code of
Ethics ready for approval by the triennial meeting in 2025 (ICOM 2023).
The code provides a general statement of professional ethics, respect for which
is regarded as a minimum requirement to practise as a member of the museum pro-
fession. Only a small section is dedicated to fundraising. It states that ‘the govern-
ing body should ensure that there are sufficient funds to carry out and develop the
activities of the museums and that all funds must be accounted for in a professional
manner’ (ICOM 2017, p. 4). The codes of European associations are closely related
to the ICOM code: for example, the Museums Association in the UK prevents mu-
seums from disposal of collections in order to increase earned revenue (Schmidt
1992), but fundraising and sponsorship are also given scant attention in this code
as well. It states that museums are ‘in an important position of trust in relationship
to their audience, local communities, donors, source communities, partner organi-
sations, sponsors and funders’ (Museums Association UK 2016, p. 2) and that due
diligence ensures ‘that all reasonable measures are taken to establish the facts of a
case before deciding a course of action, particularly in identifying the source and
history of an item offered for acquisition or use before acquiring it, or in under-
standing the full background of a sponsor, lender or funder’ (Museums Association
UK 2016, p. 23).
These codes of ethics provide rather broad, and not especially concrete, state-
ments regarding fundraising. Codes of ethics are built on commitments to public
service and personal accountability. They have no enforcement mechanism, in-
stead expecting self-motivation and peer pressure to be effective (Malaro 1994).
Museum codes of ethics offer museums a variety of recommendations; however,
they do not substantially narrow their range of action. Rather, the codes represent a
balance between the realities of daily operations and ethical duties. Besides codes
of ethics in the museum sector, which sometimes lack emphasis on fundraising
192 Marek Prokůpek

issues, fundraisers can use codes of ethics developed by associations dealing with
fundraising in the non-profit sector, such as the Code of Ethical Standards by The
Association of Fundraising Professionals. These are often more applicable to mu-
seums’ fundraising activities.

Sponsorship and Donation Acceptance Policy and Ethical Guidelines

Every museum that raises funds should create a sponsorship and donation ac-
ceptance policy in order to avoid ethical conflicts and improve decision-making
processes as well as enhance transparency and credibility. This written statement
should outline what kind of sources the museum is willing and unwilling to accept.
Acceptance policies should describe potential relationships between a museum
and a corporate sponsor as well as an individual donor. According to Rich Cohen
(2002, pp. 12–13), an acceptance policy should address these three main questions:

• What kind of corporations and industries will a museum solicit for funding, and
what kinds will it avoid or reject?
• What, if any, conditions or restrictions imposed by the potential sponsor or do-
nor will the museum accept?
• How will the museum evaluate corporate sponsors and individual donors?

As in the case of codes of ethics, the basis for acceptance policies is again mu-
seums’ stated mission and values. There are several reasons why every museum
should have an acceptance policy. First of all, such a document encourages mu-
seum staff and reminds them of the organisation’s values and beliefs; museum staff
should accordingly also be involved in creating the policy. Secondly, it promotes
museum transparency and accountability towards all stakeholders, such as govern-
ment, corporate sponsors, individual donors, peers, museum associations, and the
general public.
In several countries, for example, France, cooperation between public cultural
and other institutions and tobacco or alcohol companies is illegal. Nevertheless,
such companies might create foundations funded from company revenues but not
directly associated with the nature of business activities; in these cases, the founda-
tion in question may provide funding.
Acceptance policies can take different forms and names depending on the mis-
sion and values of a museum, its size and fundraising objectives and needs. The
Louvre Museum in Paris has two documents that have been established as ethical
guidelines for the museum’s relations with individual donors and corporate spon-
sors. One is called ‘Musée du Louvre Ethics Charter on Relations with Individual
Donors’ and the other ‘Musée du Louvre Ethics Charter on Patronage, Sponsor-
ship, and Other Relations with Companies and Foundations’. The document deal-
ing with individual donors is divided into six main sections:

• General Principles Regarding Public Institutions

• General Principles Regarding the Individual Donor
 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 193

• General Principles Regarding Donations

• The Granting of Special Benefits and the Naming of Rooms
• Artistic Independence
• Communication Concerning Donations (Musée du Louvre n.d., pp. 1–4)

The preamble of the document assures potential donors that their donations will
be used in compliance with principles regarding the gathering and use of personal
information, rigorous management of funds raised, ethical operations and financial
transparency regarding donors. The first part of the charter details legal issues and
laws regarding donations that the museum has to follow as a public institution
founded by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. The second part
deals with principles regarding individual donors. It states that the museum has
the option to refuse certain individuals’ donations or membership in the museum’s
patronage programmes if there is a current or future risk of harm to the museum’s
image, its operations, or the fulfilment of its missions, with an emphasis on per-
sons whose donations are potentially connected in a visible manner to political or
religious causes. Moreover, the museum claims that it reserves the option to re-
fuse donations from individuals whose business is harmful to the objectivity of the
Louvre’s decision-making process or donors where there is doubt as to the legality
of their business or their situation with the tax authorities. This section is followed
by one dealing with donations and bequests themselves, and their restriction also
including bequests of artworks.
The other document focusing on sponsorship and the museum’s support from
corporations and foundations is of similar scope to the previous one. Besides other
issues, the charter states that the museum is committed to not accepting any in-
tervention on the artistic content of a project by a company or individual that has
provided financial support. The sixth part of the charter claims that the museum
will ensure that any use of the Louvre name by its partners as part of their com-
munications policy is respectful of its image and the reputation of its employees.
Both documents are well structured and developed and cover broad areas of spon-
sorship and donations, even though the Louvre Museum has not entirely avoided
controversy regarding its sponsorship. The Louvre’s long-term partnership with the
company Total, respectively its foundation, spurred protests by environmental activ-
ists associated with the campaign launched in January 2017 by the group ‘Libérons
le Louvre’ (Liberate the Louvre) led by the NGO 350.org. The campaign called
for the museum to bring an end to its sponsorship from oil giant Total. Libérons le
Louvre was inspired by the successful resolution, in March 2016, of the concerns
raised by Liberate Tate, which was the long-standing campaign to end the 26-year
sponsorship deal between British Petrol and Tate Gallery in London. In January
2017, Jean-Luc Martinez, the president of the Louvre, reacted to the campaign and
sent a letter to 350.org France stating the importance of the financial support that
Total provides and that it allows the museum to fund exhibitions, renovations, cul-
tural education, and social action (Muñoz-Alonso 2017).
CultureHive, a free online resource library for cultural professionals run by the
Arts Marketing Association, launched a guide written by fundraising consultant
194 Marek Prokůpek

Sarah Winchester (2015) and entitled Creating Ethical Guidelines for Fundraising.
The goal of this guide is to provide advice to non-profit organisations on how to set
up ethical guidelines to ensure all stakeholders including trustees, staff and poten-
tial sponsors, share the same understanding of an organisation’s ethical values. The
guide summarises a number of advantages to setting up ethical guidelines, which
are seen to accomplish the following:

• serve as a risk management tool for leadership and potential partners

• be used as useful material for fundraisers during negotiations
• help to cement an organisation’s sense of identity and purpose
• provide guidelines to an organisation to keep its values and philosophy front of
mind and its reputation safe

Furthermore, the guide provides information on how to set up ethical standards,

which areas should be included in ethical guidelines, with whom an organisation
should consult on the creation of the guidelines, etc.
Each organisation has its own vision, mission, needs and goals. Therefore, it
should establish its own specific code of ethical practice. However, merely replicat-
ing the guidelines of other museums would not likely create the desired impacts.
Moreover, developing such a document might strengthen the museums’ integrity
and the sharing of common values. Of course, inspiration and examples of best
practices can help your organisation while developing your own guidelines. Fi-
nally, every museum should carefully and independently scrutinise each potential
source of income.

Fundraising vs. Marketing

Fundraising activities in museums go hand-in-hand with marketing and public rela-
tions. Fundraisers, therefore, need to develop close cooperation with PR managers
and marketing managers. In order to create a strong and successful fundraising
campaign, a museum needs to implement robust marketing strategies. A discred-
ited museum will hardly be able to develop new partnerships and raise funds.
Moreover, solid marketing activities can help a museum to effectively communi-
cate a fundraising campaign to targeted donors (Jung 2015; Weinstein and Barden
2017). Naturally, donors tend to give to museums that are both trusted and have a
good reputation. Therefore, it is crucial for museums to uphold their stated values
and maintain a strong reputation in order to retain trustworthy and loyal donors.

Ethical Questions of Online Fundraising

The questions of ethics in museum fundraising and sponsorship have received in-
creased attention in recent years, and museums have been pressured towards more
transparency, but with economic, political, social and technical changes, the ethi-
cal fundraising environment constantly faces new challenges. Therefore, ethical
 Ethical Fundraising in Museums 195

fundraising needs to continuously adapt. New and emerging challenges for mu-
seums come with the rise of digital funding methods. Online fundraising is more
and more popular among museums, spurred on by the pandemic, which, of course,
raises new ethical and legal questions and challenges. Museums raise funds and
use crowdfunding strategies through their websites. On one hand, this approach
has several advantages, notably that it is not as expensive as traditional fundraising
campaigns. On the other hand, museums continue to have ethical responsibilities.
This recent trend has completely changed the relationship between museums
and donors in that museums have less control over the acceptance of donations.
They do not have enough information about who has donated through their web-
sites, and there is no direct communication and negotiation. Therefore, the risk of
unethical behaviour may occur since museums do not have control over the origin
of donations. On the other hand, the amount of funds raised via crowdfunding is
usually smaller than via traditional fundraising activities.

Fundraising Costs and Compensation

Fundraising activities can be expensive, and museums must ensure that resources
are used in an efficient manner. The risk of not investing enough money in a fun-
draising campaign might end with failure, with institutions not achieving the
maximum possible return and therefore wasting resources. Of course, a sufficient
amount of funds are not the only aspect of a successful fundraising campaign, but
museums need to carefully consider the expenditures associated with fundraising
activities and set a target for each action. Naturally, museums also need to evaluate
the efficiency of fundraising activities and measure costs against return on invest-
ments. Moreover, museums need to be strictly transparent when it comes to fund-
raising activities including related expenditures. Transparency increases the trust of
potential donors and other stakeholders.
While museums need to keep their fundraising costs low and use their resources
efficiently, fundraisers, of course, should be properly compensated. It is not le-
gally possible in many countries, but museum fundraisers should never be paid on
commission as a general principle. To practice ethical fundraising, museums need
trustworthy fundraisers. Fundraisers also need to be motivated and feel that their
work contributes to museum development and their work should be treated with
respect by other museum staff. Fundraisers do not necessarily need to have experi-
ence in the museum sector, but they need to be aware of and support the museum’s
mission—and, of course, they need to be familiar with all applicable laws.

Conclusion
Ethical aspects of fundraising have become a focal point in the museum sector.
Cases that are often reflected in mass media concern funding by companies operat-
ing within three main industries: fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals and arms. But there
are many other areas of business that might pose problems, such as, for example,
the funding of exhibitions in public museums by art dealers and auction houses.
196 Marek Prokůpek

Museums find themselves in a difficult position in the present day: the majority
struggle with declining public funds, a more competitive environment for fundrais-
ing, and increasing scrutiny of their activities. Therefore, there is a need for more
research and discussion dedicated to this pressing issue.
Ethical fundraising is not a one-sided act. All parties should benefit from the co-
operation. Donors should be motivated to support a museum because they feel that
their contribution is meaningful. Sponsors, in turn, receive marketing benefits or
other advantages such as tickets for employees, access to special events and others.
Museum fundraising is gaining importance as museums have been pushed to
rely on the contributions of corporate sponsors, private donors, fundraising events,
and earned revenues, and we can expect an even stronger emphasis on these sources
in the future. Fundraising activities have become both more time-­consuming and
more challenging, and museums need to adjust to these trends. They must develop
strong internal guidance and clearly articulate their own ethical standards; but
above all, museums need to stay faithful to their principles and values, even in
difficult times.

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16 Perspectives on Cultural
Philanthropy in Museums
Geneva’s Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
and its Philanthropists

Laura Zani

Introduction
In Article 28 of its Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion
of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society, UNESCO
(2015) affirms the key role of governing bodies in providing funding for public
museums.1 However, in some parts of the world, public funding is now largely
insufficient, both to sustain museums and to develop a wide range of their activi-
ties, above all following the global Covid-19 crisis, when ‘the pandemic laid bare
the fragility of the museum’s business model. (…) While museums demonstrated
laudable dexterity in pivoting to remote work and free online programming, none
those measures offset the cratering of their finances’ (Szánto 2020, pp. 10–11).
Governing bodies are, therefore, increasingly encouraging museum professionals
to become more financially self-sufficient, both in managing their operating budg-
ets and seeking new income-generating activities. In this context, museums tend
to see external financing (partnerships and patronage) as an important source
of funding. It is useful to remember that there are many types of external funding
and that interaction between partners is becoming more complex. In this article,
we will examine the link between public institutions and private entities, whether
individual or corporate philanthropists, in funding a non-profit project. First, we
will examine the experience and practices of the Musée d’art et d’histoire (MAH)
in Geneva. We will then analyse the opportunities and limitations of public-private
partnerships (PPPs) by referring to the normative frameworks that could define
these types of collaborations. Finally, we will attempt to draw conclusions about
the outlook for cultural philanthropy in museums in the coming years.

Methodological Note

As regards methodology, it is important to specify that we are using the word ‘phi-
lanthropy’ in the universal sense, ‘meaning all assistance freely undertaken by pri-
vate initiative, whether from an individual, a company, or a group of companies
(…), in support of a non-profit activity’ (Lamy 1999, pp. 3, 23). We would refer
the reader to the Dictionnaire encyclopédique de muséologie (2011) for a detailed,
theoretical definition of the terms ‘philanthropy’, ‘partnership’ and ‘sponsoring’

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-21
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Perspectives on Cultural Philanthropy in Museums 199

(Desvallées and Mairesse 2011), as well as to different national tax laws, as the
general principles determining these definitions are specific to each country.

How to Fund over 1,000 Museums for almost 9 Million People?

In order to better understand the organisation and goals of philanthropy at the
MAH, one must first examine the distinct characteristics of philanthropy in Swit-
zerland, ‘where individual participation and inclinations are combined with a feel-
ing of responsibility for systematic encouragement (…) to which our country owes
a great deal’.2
Counting more than 1,000 museums,3 ‘Switzerland has the largest number of
museums per capita in the world. … Their creation reflects a very strong popular
commitment …’ (Griener 2010, p. 89), and this tradition lives on today. In Switzer-
land, cultural funding is provided by four main partners: the federal government,
cantons, cities, and the private sector. Lotteries also play an important role by cov-
ering nearly 10 per cent of the country’s cultural budget, in which companies invest
an estimated 350 million to 1 billion CHF a year.4
Switzerland’s strong philanthropic tradition makes philanthropists key partners
for public cultural institutions. ‘Swiss collectors assume their responsibility en-
thusiastically, in large part as a civic duty. They do not simply donate important
archaeological or artistic works but give entire collections… of unique historic or
aesthetic interest’ (Griener 2011, p. 35). In addition, the number of philanthropic
foundations in Switzerland continues to grow. An average of one new foundation
is created every day, and Switzerland now has 15.5 foundations for every 10,000
inhabitants, one of the highest rates in the world. These entities manage assets
worth over 139,5 billion CHF. Geneva alone has 1,333 philanthropic foundations.5
Many Swiss banks and companies have also created their own foundations with
dedicated funds6.

Geneva’s Musée d’art et d’histoire and Its Philanthropists

The MAH was founded in the early 20th century on the initiative of a number of pri-
vate philanthropists who continue to support it today. ‘One can easily imagine what
our museum would be without the contributions of private collectors. Not much,
honestly’ (Lapaire 1976, p. 59). That was how, in 1976, Claude Lapaire, MAH
Director from 1972 to 1994, commended the generosity of native and adopted Ge-
nevans who donated major works to the institution or bequeathed some of their
wealth to the acquisition, maintenance, and study of its works, which themselves
were often housed in buildings donated by philanthropists or built and outfitted
with their support. At that time, unlike other Swiss museums, the MAH’s philan-
thropists did not yet include Geneva’s largest companies. Philanthropy was then
mostly the domain of individuals. The situation has changed considerably since,
with the MAH now benefitting not only from the generosity of private donors and
foundations but also from banks and companies contributing to the development
and diversity of Geneva’s cultural life.
200 Laura Zani

Since it was founded, the MAH has taken on a social role in the centre of the
city. It was created by the people of Geneva, and most of its founding families
are still members of the Society of Friends of the MAH. For example, a private
Geneva banker whose ancestor was the treasurer of the association that funded the
construction of the Reformation Wall in Geneva in the early 20th century spon-
sored a museum exhibition tracing the history of the project. The MAH’s philan-
thropists include leaders of private companies who wish to make a contribution
in the interest of sharing, reviving, and passing on family values and traditions, a
selfless act in favour of the MAH that gives meaning to their philanthropic goals.
This philanthropic tradition was not challenged during the pandemic. Through an
exceptional outpouring of solidarity, the museum partners once again demonstrated
their confidence. The MAH was thus able to maintain its activity while review-
ing its cultural programmes, choosing to revisit its exhibition strategy as part of
the future MAH. At the same time, the annual international ICEE conference held
virtually at the MAH in 2021 explored new forms of collaborations that originated
during the health crisis and influenced the post-pandemic museum life, rethinking
the way audiences engage with exhibition content, examining opportunities and
challenges brought about by technology, discussing more sustainable exhibitions
and reimagining new strategies for exhibition exchange.
In its partnerships with private entities, the MAH seeks a true, long-term com-
mitment, dialogue, increased visibility, expertise in different areas, the exposure
of its collections to new audiences, and above all, the possibility of offering more
services to the public. Exhibitions, room renovations, acquisitions, and the devel-
opment of collections, restorations, multimedia projects, publications, artistic pro-
ductions, cultural events and educational programmes providing greater access for
different types of audiences, for example, differently abled persons or those living
with mental health issues. All of these activities, which are directly linked to the
museum’s mission, are supported on local, national and international bases.
The MAH has devised a new cultural programme, in constant evolution, based
on multifrequency experiences, as a way to increase the number and diversify the
profile of the museum’s visitors, and support and encourage artistic creation. Every
year, the MAH hosts approximately ten exhibitions of various sizes as well as
many artistic events, trying to anticipate social transformations and needs and ex-
plore new cultural practices. The most important project takes place during the
first half of the year when major international curators (artists, art historians, phi-
losophers…) receive carte blanche to curate original displays that both bring their
individual visions and create an ongoing dialogue with the museum collections.
Furthermore, in the perspective of renovation and extension projects for the mu-
seum, which have been envisioned as an original laboratory of ideas to rethink the
way the museum engages its audience through the creation of unique experiences,
the MAH is reinforcing its spheres of influence in order to increase the support of
private donors through the organisation of strategic events.
In addition, different forms of support supplement financial philanthropy: in-
kind sponsorship and skills-based sponsorship. The development of multi-faceted
 Perspectives on Cultural Philanthropy in Museums 201

philanthropy makes it possible to address all dimensions of a project through com-

plementary components, such as its cultural, social or environmental aspects. For
example, following the restoration of a major piece in our painting collection, The
Entombment, by Paolo Cagliari, known as Veronese, a series of visits and 2D and
3D reproductions of the work for the blind and visually impaired were also devel-
oped with support from a bank’s foundation.
Philanthropy is also a way to promote the activities and actions of Geneva’s
companies abroad, alongside the museum’s activities with its international part-
ners. Following the tradition of international cultural relations, museums con-
tinue to loan and share their collections and regularly organise international
exhibitions. Such exhibitions can also be used as tools for brand diplomacy, a
strategy that helps a country form alliances and expand its influence by promot-
ing a positive image to international audiences. The MAH’s international activi-
ties are, therefore, clearly beneficial to private partners. For example, with the
support of individuals and companies that are based either in Lebanon or that
are based in Geneva but that have important ties to Lebanon, a selection of over
350 archaeological objects and works of art belonging to the National Museum
of Beirut was placed on display as part of the Fascination du Liban exhibition
(2012). In addition, another exhibition was devised to celebrate the bicentennial
anniversary of Greek Independence, and organised in partnership with Greek
and Geneva philanthropists (2021). Furthermore, the MAH reaffirmed its im-
portant mission as an institution of refuge to underscore that art is a universal
heritage,7 inviting the Kyiv National Art Gallery to present the exhibition From
Dusk to Dawn (2022). Organised against the backdrop of war between Russia
and Ukraine, this exhibition brought together some 50 major artworks from the
Ukrainian museum’s collection on the theme of the night. The project was devel-
oped with the Kunstmuseum Basel and counted on the collaboration of Ukrainian
partners and community.
Abroad, among the museum’s different international projects based on private
supports, we can mention at the Capital Museum in Beijing, the Geneva at the
Heart of Time exhibition (2015), which was jointly organised by the MAH through
the presentation of the museum’s rich variety of watchmaking, enamelware jewel-
lery and miniatures collections, and a watch manufacturer was also a partner in the
event. Geneva at the Heart of Time was the first watch exhibition organised at the
Capital Museum and the largest watch exhibition ever hosted in China, allowing
500,000 visitors to trace the origins of Swiss timekeeping. The project also coin-
cided with the 65th anniversary of Swiss-Chinese diplomatic relations and was
part of a diverse cultural programme coordinated by the Swiss Embassy in Beijing.
The public particularly enjoyed the workshops and presentations by Swiss mas-
ter watchmakers, which were organised by the watch manufacturer from Geneva,
and provided real added value. The renown of the MAH has also been reinforced
through the partnership with the private Foundation La Caixa: a touring exhibition
on the MAH Flemish and Dutch painting collections which was presented in the
Caixa Forum of Girona, Tarragona and Lleida (2017-2019).
202 Laura Zani

These examples of successful partnerships are an important starting point when

considering new possibilities for public-private collaborations. At the same time,
at the Musée Rath, the MAH also presents renowned private art collections (such
as Marisa and Mario Merz and Loving – Collection Hugh Nini et Neal Tread-
well, among others) as well as projects related to the Swiss watchmaking sec-
tor, such as the Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie, highlighting Geneva’s watchmaking
tradition.

Philanthropy and the ICOM Code of Ethics

Government bodies have required the heads of main cultural institutions to secure
the funding essential to maintaining a very significant portion of their activities.
How has this change influenced and challenged museum practices and policies?
Private sources of funding vary: private companies managing private collections,
renting out of works or travelling exhibitions, and museums franchising their
brands, posting advertisements on their façades, privatising rooms, and so on are
the order of the day.8 Controversial examples of PPPs highlighted in the news
also show that the rules for collaborations between museums and private actors
sometimes lack clarity and transparency in the eyes of the public. For example,
it is not uncommon to see partners attempt to interfere in a museum’s operations.
In this context, should a cultural institution have to choose between accepting
all of a partner’s demands, finding a compromise, and completely disassociating
itself? The latter option has become increasingly difficult in the current economic
climate, not only owing to budget cuts but also due to competition with other non-
profit entities.
Some private entities are able to influence the organisation of exhibitions,
while others prefer to disassociate themselves from institutions to create their own
cultural foundations – creating permanent spaces and public exhibitions that can
sometimes rival museums given their extensive resources. Another risk is the loss
of independence related to a partner’s excessive demands, such as requesting cer-
tain benefits, but also the damage to a museum’s credibility and image if the part-
ner’s values do not align with the institution’s missions or are otherwise considered
morally questionable.
In 1970, Hugues de Varine-Bohan stated in ICOM News: ‘The laws of the
market cannot become the laws which govern museums’(de Varine-Bohan 1970,
p. 49). Museums are meant to benefit society and its development, so any message
they convey or express must be in line with the main missions of their community’s
public policies. To define solutions and a corpus of reference, institutions and mu-
nicipalities examine and publish ethical policies. As part of its approach to promot-
ing transparency and exemplarity in public policy, the City of Geneva developed
a code of ethics for PPPs, the first of its kind in Switzerland. Such documents are
essential tools for managing and regulating any alliance between a public authority
and a private entity.
In 2014, ICOM Switzerland outlined practical solutions by developing an
ethics ‘kit’ that included recent examples of PPPs and how they were managed
 Perspectives on Cultural Philanthropy in Museums 203

by Swiss museums. It also provided guidance on ways of approaching partner-

ships and interesting avenues for reflection. The ICOM Practical Handbook also
warns of the complex nature of such partnerships, highlighting that the funds
to carry out and develop the activities of the museum may be from the public
sector, from private sources or generated through the museum’s own activities.
As Geoffrey Lewis, Chair of the ICOM Ethics Committee from 1997 to 2004
affirms, ‘there should be a written policy of acceptable practice for all funding
sources and all funds must be accounted for in a professional manner’ (Lewis
2004, p. 6). In this respect, the museums should be vigilant and attentive to the
content and integrity of their programmes and should not let them be influenced
by the partners’ imperatives. Thus, the constant evolution in philanthropic prac-
tices raises a number of challenges and questions. How can we ensure that PPPs
do not affect the diversity of cultural offerings? What kind of balance should be
achieved in terms of benefits? What instruments can museums use to research a
philanthropist’s background? What terms can a museum accept without risking
changing its identity?
Looking at the ICOM Code of Ethics (ICOM 2006), one may wonder if, in its
current state, the text provides a sufficiently comprehensive model that covers all
kinds of PPPs and answers all of the questions museum professionals are faced
with in the quotidian. What exactly does the Code say on the subject? Chapter 8 of
the Code discusses conflicts of interest but never mentions PPPs. The information
on external funding in Articles 1.109 and 6.610 is vague and general. It reflects the
state and perception of philanthropy when the Code was last revised in 2004. Inci-
dentally, the 1986 Code (ICOM 1986) explicitly mentioned sponsorship and stated
that it must be clearly defined.11 In 2004, that idea had disappeared: at that time, the
influence of the private sector was not as much significant as today, and it was not
considered necessary to develop this point. As mentioned, the situation has deeply
changed. The ICOM Code of Ethics offers a general reference framework, but in its
current form, museums must make do with an abstract principle for implementing
the professional management of any funds they receive. In this context, it seems
necessary to develop a report on sponsorship and expand the glossary by adding
terms defining any new activity developed by museums (Schärer 2016, p. 15).12
Thus, referring to the ICOM Code of Ethics, ETHCOM published guidelines on
this topic, approved by the Executive Board on September 202013. Following the
25th General Conference of ICOM, held in Kyoto in 2019, ICOM decided that
the Code should be revised. Sharing and publishing best PPP practices could help
develop new guidelines, resulting in a series of annexes delineating and defining
these challenging interactions.

Conclusions and Outlook

Museum partners do not fund institutional operating expenses. They cannot, should
not, and do not wish to replace governing bodies, but they do allow museums, dur-
ing times of budgetary restrictions, to continue to organise large exhibitions, en-
hance their collections through donations, develop educational projects, undertake
204 Laura Zani

renovations, and build new structures. They want to be engaged, contribute their
expertise, and bring in new audiences and networks.
In recent years in Switzerland, and particularly in Geneva, we have wit-
nessed the emergence of a new form of philanthropy that can play a large role
in promoting culture. These new philanthropists can become key partners for
museums. They want to take more pragmatic action that gives meaning to
their personal engagement. They also demand transparency, professionalism,
consistency and concrete action. They often want to invest by using the same
methods as the private sector, and they expect tangible results. Today, a process
of ongoing evaluation guides decisions and, when needed, changes in direc-
tion. The new generation of philanthropists gets involved early on and wants
to tackle problems at their source, to change the world here and now (Besson
2017).
Corporate philanthropy is now part of companies’ strategic management. Com-
panies invest in museum projects because culture allows them to link themselves
to initiatives based in a specific geographic area. As a local marketing instru-
ment, cultural partnerships allow a company to set itself apart from its competitors
and counter the mistrust the public often has in the corporate sector. To commu-
nities, museums represent universal values. By helping to protect and dissemi-
nate cultural heritage, philanthropists are showing an awareness of their social
responsibility.
It is up to museums to engage in a constant dialogue with philanthropists while
maintaining their independence and staying true to their original scientific and so-
cial missions, since in ‘the heritage field, the cultural professionals are the real
creators for the ethical norm’ (Goffaux-Callebaut 2016, p. 12) Collaboration be-
tween a museum and its partners should be based on mutual trust and respect, with
the main objectives being the carrying out a public service mission and serving the
public good, above all. A balanced relationship is essential for successfully under-
taking a joint venture – if possible in the long-term – in order to work together to
take innovative and creative steps towards provide greater access to culture for the
public of the future.

Notes
1 ‘The effective functioning of museums is directly influenced by public and private fund-
ing and appropriate partnerships. Member States should strive to ensure a clear vision,
adequate planning and funding for museums, and a harmonious balance among the
different funding mechanisms to enable them to carry out their mission to the benefit
of society with full respect for their primary functions’. (UNESCO Recommendation
concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity
and their Role in Society, adopted by the General Conference at its 38th Session, Paris,
17 November 2015, p. 20.) On the same subject: ‘The governing body should ensure
that there are sufficient funds to carry out and develop the activities of the museum. All
funds must be accounted for in a professional manner’ (Article 1.9 of the ICOM Code
of Ethics for Museums, 2006).
2 Message of the Swiss Federal Council regarding the initiative ‘in favour of culture’, art
661, https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/fga/1984/2_501_521_441/fr
 Perspectives on Cultural Philanthropy in Museums 205

3 According to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2021, there were 1,081 museums in
Switzerland: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/culture-medias-societe-
information-sport/culture/musees.html
4 In Switzerland, culture is the responsibility of cantonal governments, according to
Article 69 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Each year, public authorities invest nearly
3 billion CHF in culture (in 2021), 50 per cent of which comes from local governments,
40 per cent from cantonal governments, and 10 per cent from the federal government
(Jauslin 2010, p. 13).
5 Rapport sur les Fondations Suisses 2023, Ceps (Centre d’etudes de la philanthropie en
Suisse) Forschung and Praxis Band 30, Université de Bâle p.7.
6 ‘A (corporate) foundation has an independent identity, with its own operating rules, is
not subjected to the same accounting and financial restrictions of the company’ (Vescia
1996, p. 27)
7 Already in the past, the MAH was known for its efforts in protecting cultural heritage
in armed conflicts. In 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, the MAH contributed to save
the Prado Museum’s master pieces hosting an exhibition visited by more of 400,000
people. In 2007, the MAH presented the archaeological remarkable artefacts of the Gaza
Strip in the Gaza à la croisée des civilisations. Furthermore, in 2017, nine confiscated
archaeological works from Syria, Yemen and Libya were shown to MAH visitors for
both educational and dissuasive purposes to raise awareness of the damage caused by
the looting of cultural heritage.
8 The Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de Muséologie (2011) examines the consequences
of the growth of commercialisation in museum life and operations in the article on
‘Management’.
9 ‘The governing body should have a written policy regarding sources of income that
it may generate through its activities or accept from outside sources. Regardless of
funding source, museums should maintain control of the content and integrity of their
programmes, exhibitions and activities. Income-generating activities should not com-
promise the standards of the institution or its public’ (Article 1.10 of the ICOM Code of
Ethics for Museums, 2006).
10 ‘When seeking funds for activities involving contemporary communities, their interests
should not be compromised’(Article 6.6 of the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, 2006).
11 ‘Where it is the policy of the museum to seek and accept financial or other support
from commercial or industrial organisations, or from other outside sources, great care is
needed to define clearly the agreed relationship between the museum and the sponsor.
Commercial support and sponsorship may involve ethical problems and the museum
must ensure that the standards and objectives of the museum are not compromised by
such a relationship’ (Article 2.9, Commercial Support and Sponsorship, ICOM Code of
Professional Ethics, 1986).
12 These proposals are those of Martin Schärer, President of the ICOM Ethics Committee
from 2012 to 2018.
13 Fundraising is increasingly a part of many museums’ activities. At the same time, the
environment for raising funds is becoming more challenging and competitive. These
standards are intended as guidance for museums so that they may maintain professional
standards and the confidence of the public they serve. (Standards of Fundraising of the
International Council of Museums: https://icom.museum/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/
Fundraising-Standards_EN.pdf)

References
Besson, S., 2017. ‘La philanthropie, ce nouveau must mondain qui pourrait sauver le
monde’, Le Temps, 1 October 2017.
de Varine-Bohan, H., 1970. Ethics of acquisition, ICOM News 23(2), p. 49.
206 Laura Zani

Desvallées, A. and Mairesse, F., eds., 2011. Dictionnaire encyclopédique de muséologie.

Paris: Armand Colin.
Goffaux-Callebaut G., 2016. Préface. In: Ethique et patrimoine culturel: Regards croisés.
L’Harmattan, Paris.
Griener, P., 2010. Les formes du mécénat privé en Suisse: contexte, histoire, présent. In:
Direction générale des médias et des industries culturelles and Ministère de la Culture et
de la Communication. In: Mécénat et fondations culturelles France – Suisse. Paris: La
documentation française, pp. 89–98.
Griener, P., 2011. Culture du mécénat en Suisse et en France. In: P. Turrel, ed., Mécènes. Les
bâtisseurs du patrimoine. Neufchâtel: Chaman Edition and Martigny: Fondation Pierre
Gianadda, pp. 30–35.
International Council of Museums, 1986. ICOM Code of Professional Ethics. Paris: ICOM.
International Council of Museums, 2006. ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums. Paris: ICOM.
Jauslin, J.-F., 2010. La politique culturelle en Suisse. Edited by Direction générale des mé-
dias et des industries culturelles and Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. In:
Mécénat et fondations culturelles France – Suisse. Paris: La documentation française,
pp. 11–15.
Lamy, Y., 1999. Le mécénat culturel d’initiative patronale. Pratiques d’équivalences et jus-
tifications de l’échange. In: J. Y. Ribault, ed., Mécènes et Collectionneurs. Les variantes
d’une passion. Actes du 121e congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifique,
Nice, 1996. Paris: Éditions du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, Vol. 1,
pp. 321–339.
Lapaire, C., 1976. ‘Le Musée d’art et d’histoire et le mécénat à Genève dans le domaine
des Beaux-Arts’. In: M. Pianzola, ed., Le Musée Rath a 150 ans. Geneva: Musée d’art et
d’histoire.
Lewis, G., 2004. The role of museums and the professional code of ethics. In: P. J.
Boylan, ed., Running a Museum: A Practical Handbook. Paris: ICOM, French edition,
pp. 1–16.
Schärer, M. R., 2016. The works of the ICOM Ethics Committee. In: B. L. Murphy, ed.,
Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage. London and New York: Routledge/Taylor and
Francis Ltd, pp. 14–18.
Szánto, A., 2020. The future of the Museum. 28 Dialogues. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, pp. 10–11.
UNESCO, 2015. Recommendation Concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums
and Collections, Their Diversity and Their Role in Society Adopted by the General Con-
ference at its 38th session, Paris, 17 November 2015. Paris: UNESCO, p. 20.
Vescia, R., 1996. Aujourd’hui, le mécénat: treize entretiens sur le mécénat humaniste et
humanitaire. Paris: Cercle d’art.
Part V

Sustainability and Risk

Management
17 Museums and Sustainable
Development
A Case Study of the First ‘Green’
Museum in South Africa

Beverley Thomas

Introduction
The new Amazwi South African Museum of Literature (Amazwi) building is the
first museum, indeed the first Public and Education Building, to achieve a five-star
rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA). The idea to
construct a ‘green’ building came from the Department of Public Works (DPW)
and was welcomed by the museum. The project was initiated in 2010 and the mu-
seum’s first task was to specify its needs in detail. Over the next few years, staff
gathered all the information that was available at the time on ‘green’ and ‘sustain-
able’ museums, principally those published by the Museums Association (UK), the
Canadian Museums Association, Museums Australia, and the American Alliance
of Museums.
South Africa’s reintegration onto the world stage after 1994 heralded a new
era of participation in matters of global concern. In 2002, South Africa hosted the
World Summit on Sustainable Development, where strategies to address poverty,
unsustainable patterns of consumption, energy efficiency, the management of natu-
ral resources, and climate change were discussed (United Nations 2002). South
Africa was also represented at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable De-
velopment held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 (Rio+20). South Africa’s commitment
to sustainable development is articulated in the 2008 National Framework on Sus-
tainable Development and the 2011 National Strategy and Action Plan. This had
the effect, in theory, of mainstreaming sustainability in all spheres of government
(Department of Environment and Tourism 2008, p. 7).

Sustainable Development
Concern for the environment as a political strategy emerged in the 1960s, but
its urgency only surfaced with the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987
(Brundtland 1987, p. 8). Brundtland emphasised the connection between eco-
nomic development (poverty in developing countries) and environmental is-
sues; hence the widely accepted definition being ‘development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs’ (Brundtland 1987, p. 16). Acknowledging this definition,

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-23
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
210 Beverley Thomas

South Africa’s National Strategy for Sustainable Development ‘regards sustain-

able development as a long-term commitment, which combines environmental
protection, social equity and economic efficiency with the vision and values of
the country’ (Department of Environmental Affairs 2011, p. 5). The country also
links national, regional and global collaboration to sustainable development and
considers it a factor in safeguarding democracy (Department of Environment and
Tourism 2008, p. 8). Rio+20 used the term ‘green economy’ in the context of sus-
tainable development and poverty eradication (United Nations Division for Sus-
tainable Development 2012, p. 9); the term ‘green’ is, therefore, sometimes used
to imply sustainability or to refer only to the environmental aspect of sustainable
development.
While the Brundtland definition advocates three pillars of sustainable
development – economic development, social equity and environmental protection –
the Hangzhou Declaration affirms that culture should be considered a ‘fundamental
enabler of sustainability, being a source of meaning and energy, a wellspring of
creativity and innovation, and a resource to address challenges and find appropriate
solutions’ (UNESCO 2013, p. 5). In the museum context, we accept this, either by
including a fourth pillar (Hawkes 2013, p. 2) or, in developing countries, by ensur-
ing that the first three pillars succeed in order for culture to thrive. We also use the
term ‘sustainable’ in museums to indicate that funding sources are reliable and that
the museum and its programmes can be considered permanent.

Museums and Sustainability

When embarking on a new museum building project, there is every reason to aspire
to the very best standards of environmental control, but controlling temperature,
relative humidity and light and air pollution consumes a vast amount of energy.
Public spaces like galleries, auditoriums, conference rooms, shops and restaurants
may have different comfort levels. In its ESD (Ecologically Sustainable Develop-
ment) Design Guide for Office and Public Buildings, the Australian Government
Department of the Environment and Water Resources notes:

Galleries, libraries and museums are special spaces with particular require-
ments, such as high levels of lighting and strict temperature and humidity
control. This constrains the possibilities for use of some sustainable building
practices and requires greater innovation to incorporate sustainable measures.
(Australian Government Department of the
Environment and Water Resources 2006, p. 58)

In an article in Museum Practice in 2006, David Martin questions ‘whether the

energy and other resources used in building new or expanded storage facilities, and
in maintaining the environmental conditions needed to preserve and display their
collections, are environmentally (and financially) sustainable’ (2006, p. 61). This
has not gone unnoticed by conservation scientists; Dardes and Staniforth reassure
us that ‘conservators have acknowledged the need to reconsider environmental
 Museums and Sustainable Development 211

policies and practices for collections as part of the museum world’s commitment to
sustainable practices’ (2015, p. 21).
Not forgetting the other pillars of sustainability, in 2018, ICOM established a
Working Group on Sustainability to investigate how museums could incorporate
the UN Resolution, Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development (2015b), and the Paris Agreement (2015a), which is part of the UN
Convention on Climate Change, into their work. The Working Group’s achieve-
ment was the adoption, at ICOM’s 34th General Assembly, of the resolution On
sustainability and the implementation of Agenda 2030, Transforming our World
(ICOM 2019, p. 2).

The New Amazwi South African Museum of Literature

Amazwi is situated in Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), a small
university city in the Eastern Cape province. Although culturally rich – it
is home to the National Arts Festival, many museums and excellent private
schools – it is socially and financially challenged, with high rates of unemploy-
ment and poorly performing public schools. The multi-million rand investment
by the government required a substantive socio-economic return and assurance
that the new museum would contribute, as Sandell puts it, to ‘the ameliora-
tion of the symptoms of social inequality’ (2007, p. 96). Before planning was
completed, the Department of Arts and Culture, the funders of the museum,
decided to expand the mandate of the museum to include the literatures of the
Indigenous languages of South Africa. Revised plans took the additional facili-
ties required into account.
The museum was established in 1980 from a collection of South African
literary manuscripts assembled by Professor Guy Butler of Rhodes University.
Amazwi is a small museum, even by South African standards, with a collec-
tion of 150,000 items. There are two satellite museums: The Eastern Star Gal-
lery, a printing and press museum in Makhanda, and Schreiner House, a house
museum dedicated to the author Olive Schreiner. Schreiner House is situated
in Cradock, 150 km further inland. Prior to the construction of the new build-
ing, the museum was housed in three separate buildings with the collections
on the upper floor of a former school dormitory. The only exhibition space
was a 25 square metre room in between offices. The only space for education
programmes and functions was a hall at the Eastern Star Gallery with a seating
capacity of 50 people.
The climate in Makhanda is unpredictable. In theory, it is warm and temperate
(Cfb on the Köppen system). The average high in February, the hottest month of
the year, is 27°C and the average low in July, the coldest month, is 5°C. Rainfall
occurs year-round; March is the wettest month with over 80 mm of precipitation,
and June is the driest with less than 40 mm (https://en.climate-data.org). Although
this may seem ideal, the reality is that in one day, during a violent thunderstorm,
the temperature and humidity can fall from 35°C with a relative humidity of 30 per
cent to 18°C with high humidity for several days.
212 Beverley Thomas

Needs Assessment

At the start of the design process, the DPW undertook an assessment of the needs
of the museum based on its functions and operations. These needs included ade-
quate and secure accommodation for the safe storage and retrieval of the museum’s
collections, exhibition galleries and spaces for performances, events, learning and
research. These needs and future development plans, the features of the site chosen
for the building, along with DPW building standards and the need to ‘go green’,
formed the brief for the professional team led by the architect. The museum also
wanted a building that was prominent, contemporary and accessible. The profes-
sional team was not appointed through a design competition process, as is often the
case, but through standard government procurement systems aimed at achieving
the lowest price.
The planning phase took two years and involved lengthy, and regular, meetings
with the DPW project manager, the architect, engineers of all disciplines, an exhi-
bition designer, a quantity surveyor, a landscape designer and sustainable building
consultants. At this stage museum needs, for example, dehumidification, were de-
bated in terms of their energy use. At the time, the GBCSA had not yet developed
a rating tool for Public and Education Buildings, so the Amazwi building became
the pilot. The plans were submitted to the GBCSA and, based on the nine environ-
mental impact categories (below), achieved a five-star rating (SA excellence) for
design.

Management

• The appointment of a Green Star professional on the design team

• Implementation of an environmental management plan for the entire duration
of the project
• A waste management plan, i.e., construction would reuse or recycle at least
70 per cent of waste, by mass, on site
• Building management system that monitors and records power and water
consumption

Indoor Environmental Quality

• Adequate daylight and glare control

• Exclusive use of low volatile compounds (paints, varnishes, adhesives, flooring)
• No or low-formaldehyde content in composite wood materials

Energy Efficiency

• Energy efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning with occupancy sen-
sors installed in offices
• Low-voltage lighting with occupancy sensors
• Heat pumps for hot water in bathrooms and kitchen
 Museums and Sustainable Development 213

Transport

• Bicycle parking and showers to encourage staff to cycle rather than drive to
work
• Bus parking on site
• Priority parking reserved for hybrid vehicles and motorcycles

Water Use

• Stormwater detention from higher ground

• Rainwater harvesting
• Water-efficient plumbing fixtures

Materials

• Recycled materials, e.g., flooring made from old tyres, soundproofing from co-
conut shells
• Use of PVC minimised, if not entirely eliminated
• Steel with a recycled content of more than 90 per cent
• Reduction in Portland cement mix
• 95 per cent of timber by cost Forest Stewardship Council certified or reused or
recycled
• Clay bricks with a 30 per cent weight-reduction factor were used

Land Use and Ecology

• Topsoil removed during earthmoving protected from degradation and reused

• Landscaping to avoid urban heat island effect with hardscaping less than 10 per
cent of landscape
• Roofing with specified reflectance index

Emissions

• Gaseous ozone depletion potential of insulating materials, refrigerants and fire

suppression systems specified

Innovation

• Balance between functionality (a museum) and stringent demands of green rat-

ing tools
• Pilot for the GBCSA

The design of the building is based on freeform curves, which are echoed in
the landscaping and the exhibitions. On completion, the building was re-assessed
and again received a five-star rating from the GBCSA. The multi-storey design
214 Beverley Thomas

minimises the ecological footprint of the building: 5,000 square metres of occupied
space on a footprint of 4,000 square metres on a site of 2.7 hectares. The architect’s
design maintains a visual connection to the existing built environment. The locally
quarried stone cladding and gabions on the building functionally represent a pas-
sive design strategy to regulate indoor temperature, but aesthetically, they draw
cues from local historical buildings.
The collections’ storage facilities are underground. The subsurface basement
is constructed as a continuous concrete slide to ensure absolute water-tightness. It
has a ‘green’ roof, minimising natural fluctuations in temperature, which reduces
energy use in controlling humidity. This section of the building is an isolated zone
with a nitrogen and argon fire suppression system. Temperature and humidity con-
trol are powered by a generator during power outages. Drains below ground chan-
nel any residual moisture beneath the building into the storm water system. In the
old building, the collections’ storage areas were routinely fumigated. When the col-
lections were moved they were professionally fumigated off-site with the goal of
never having to fumigate indiscriminately again. Equipment for low-temperature
treatment has been installed and an integrated pest management strategy based on
prevention was implemented.
In the main exhibition gallery, an open grid carries lighting and audio-visual
services to various parts of the exhibitions, above which are clerestory windows.
Large windows in the children’s area provide natural light but are filtered by a
90 per cent solar shield to reduce glare, heat gain and prevent ultraviolet light from
reaching the exhibitions. The exhibitions are lit with LED lights. A smaller gallery
in the centre of the building with no natural light and LED lighting controlled to
40 lux is used for displaying fragile paper artefacts. The materials used for the
construction of exhibition furniture and accessories are to the same standard of
materials as the building. Office furniture was sourced from a supplier registered
as a member of the GBCSA.
Another important feature of the building is the garden. Makhanda is situated at
the convergence of four biomes: Albany Thicket, Fynbos, Savanna Grassland and
Nama Karoo. Applying the principles of xeriscape landscaping, the garden is planted
to show the different biomes and growing conditions. Educational programmes on
landscaping have been developed that teach about water conservation, medicinal
plants and plants in folklore. This has allowed Indigenous knowledge systems and
intangible cultural heritage to be merged into literary museum programmes.
The permanent exhibitions in the museum focus on the literary representation of
the South African landscape from early colonial times to the present day. Through
literary imaginings, the landscape is presented as a physical place with its long his-
tory of ownership conflicts, and as an aesthetic symbol of cultural identity. A sec-
tion of the exhibition entitled ‘Nightmares Revisited’ describes the fear of global
contagion that has emerged as a theme in post-apocalyptic literary fiction. It is a
critique of consumerist capitalism and the fear by the privileged that they will be
overrun by the masses of unemployed citizens. This section was included in the
exhibition to challenge visitors to think about the consequences of a society that
fails to consider sustainable development.
 Museums and Sustainable Development 215

A temporary exhibition called ‘Humanature’ explores the ways in which South

African literature expresses the complex relationship between humanity and na-
ture. In this time of ecological crisis, many writers represent humanity within the
natural systems in which all life is entangled, and consider human responsibilities
towards those systems:

He told me of the despair of the people who had once lived here, and of the
slow rise of the water when it was too late to do anything.

‘They knew,’ he said softly. ‘The governments all over the world – they knew
a hundred years before, they knew that change was already happening. They
knew that the way of their world was wrong, and yet they chose to do noth-
ing. And when the change came, it came quickly, because the harm was al-
ready done.
(From Remembering Green by Lesley Beake 2009, p. 33)

The exhibition includes contributions from young people and a programme of

interdisciplinary activities aimed at encouraging positive social-ecological change
to continue.

Impact of the New Building

Job creation and the alleviation of poverty is one of the South African government’s
key priorities, and public works are a key contributor to job creation. In addition to
this, the Expanded Public Works Programme ‘has successfully made a significant
socio-economic impact to the communities through the creation and maintenance
of community assets’ (Department of Public Works 2016). At the opening of the
South African Museums Association Conference hosted by Amazwi in 2018, the
Executive Mayor of Makana, Cllr Nomhle Gaga, remarked that the new Amazwi
was a welcome and unique addition to the city’s cultural assets. The construction of
Amazwi’s building created 205 local job opportunities: there were National Youth
Service Programme beneficiaries and nine small, medium and micro-enterprises
were sub-contracted, creating 135 jobs. The DPW project manager who oversaw
the new Amazwi building described its value as follows:

With this building, attributes beyond cost, time and quality became key
measures, such as the achievement of social objectives through job creation,
local SMMEs [small, medium and macro enterprises] and suppliers’ involve-
ment, and the project being accepted by the broader community.
(PropertyWheel_GLP 2017)

The response of visitors to the new museum has been overwhelmingly positive
compared to the old premises, which were poorly resourced to receive museum
visitors. A 2012 review on Tripadvisor condemns the old museum as ‘Not worth
visiting …. Luckily there was no entrance fee’. In 2018, by contrast, the museum
216 Beverley Thomas

was described as a ‘Complete surprise – the new complex is superb and certainly
worthy of its status as a national facility …’.
The museum site was previously used by people walking their dogs and a deci-
sion was made not to fence the front of the property so that the local community
could retain a connection with the site. The landscaping extends to the street which
allows for integration of the building into a park setting and the streetscape. A safe
pedestrian environment is created by centralising all the parking in one distinct
vehicle zone. Walkways and public open spaces lead towards the building entrance.
The public’s response to the open space has been very positive. People still walk
their dogs on the premises, which in addition provide a safe space for students to
skateboard or hang out in the outdoor amphitheatre, and the museum building has
become a popular site for wedding photography. Although it cannot be ascertained
whether these users visit the museum, the museum is still fulfilling a recreational
and community function.
Reaction from staff working in the building has been mixed. In 2018, Kenneth
Rampou undertook a post-occupancy evaluation of the museum using the Build-
ing Use Studies Methodology. Assessing satisfaction with the overall performance
of the building based on design, health, needs and productivity, Rampou’s results
indicate that:

• the building performs better than the benchmark for overall performance (2018,
p. 58);
• overall comfort outperformed other comfort factors as well as the benchmark,
but
• control of lighting and noise levels in the building was a concern to many (2018,
p. 62).

Control of glare on the north-western side of the building has been problematic.
This is either due to the eaves not being deep enough or the low-emissivity glass
not performing as expected. Tolerance of noise is subjective.
Perhaps the most interesting question posed by the survey was ‘To what extent
do users tolerate the green building’s environment?’ (2018, p. 62). The result is
shown as a ‘forgiveness factor’. Rampou informs us that the typical value of the
forgiveness factor ranges from 0.80 to 1.20; Amazwi’s score of 1.05 indicates that
‘the occupants may be more tolerant of the environmental conditions of the build-
ing’ (2018, p. 63). This, he concludes, ‘may be attributable to pro-environmental
behaviours’ (2018, p. 63).

Conclusion
In 2019 the museum’s mandate was officially expanded to include the literatures
of the Indigenous languages of South Africa. This is reflected in the museum’s
new name, ‘Amazwi’, which means ‘voices’ in isiXhosa, the dominant language of
the Eastern Cape province. This makes the museum more inclusive and addresses
issues of social equity in cultural preservation and promotion. In many ways, an
 Museums and Sustainable Development 217

entirely new museum has been created. The scale of the change from the museum’s
old premises – and the vastly different working conditions that the new building
provides – has at times challenged comfort zones.
The most important lesson learnt is that even change for the better requires
a carefully managed change process. In the post-handover stage, inadequate
demonstration of complicated systems, like the building management system,
has had a negative impact. However, the new building’s shortcomings don’t
necessarily relate to it being a ‘green’ building. Rampou notes that problems
can occur because of the lack of experience of ‘first-time clients in building
projects … timing, financial pressure and the practice of hastening design solu-
tions’ (2018, p. 20), which can compromise the ultimate functionality of the
building.
Amazwi will expand its facilities and services at Schreiner House in Cradock,
and with a firm commitment to build ‘green’. The climate in Cradock is more
extreme than in Makhanda, and the project will require an appropriate integration
between the historical house and new buildings on the site – offices, a shop, café
and additional exhibition space. A landscaped garden is also planned, but unlike
Makhanda, Cradock has plentiful access to water.
Integrating sustainability into the daily activities of the museum has not been
difficult. In 2011, the governing body adopted an environmental policy ensuring
that the museum operates in a sustainable manner in all its operations. This in-
cludes reducing waste, recycling and reusing, using non-toxic cleaning materials
and taking suppliers’ sustainability credentials into account when making pur-
chasing decisions. An environmental champion on the staff ensures that this ethos
continues. The Canadian Museums Association, in its Sustainable Development
Guide, asks, and answers, the following question: ‘Why integrate sustainable de-
velopment into museum operations? In short, to serve as a model to society, eco-
nomic efficiency and viability, social responsibility and an attractive marketing
image’ (n.d, p. 17).

References
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Water Resources, 2006. ESD
Design Guide: Office and Public Buildings [online]. Available from: https://p2infohouse.
org/ref/37/36457.pdf [Accessed 11 March 2024].
Beake, L., 2009. Remembering Green. London: Frances Lincoln.
Brophy, S. S. and Wylie, E., 2008. The Green Museum. A Primer on Environmental Prac-
tice. Lanham: Altamira Press.
Brundtland, G.,1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Develop-
ment: Our Common Future [online]. Available from: http://www.un-documents.net/our-­
common-future.pdf [Accessed 24 October 2012].
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from: https://www.museums.ca/client/document/documents.html?categoryId=361 [Ac-
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Dardes, K. and Staniforth, S., 2015. Preventive conservation: Sustainable stewardship of

collections. Conservation Perspectives, 20(2), pp. 19–21.
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Framework for Sustainable Development in South Africa [online]. Pretoria: Republic
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201409/nationalframeworkforsustainabledevelopmenta0.pdf [Accessed 11 February
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Department of Environmental Affairs, 2011. National Strategy for Sustainable Development and
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strategy.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2019].
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community/Downloads/ShapingPolicies.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2019].
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American Alliance of Museums.
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Assembly Kyoto, Japan [online]. Available from: https://icom.museum/wp-content/
uploads/2019/09/Resolutions_2019_EN.pdf [Accessed 3 November 2020].
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MuseumsEtc.
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Reflections on Conservation. Ottawa: CCI, pp. 8–11.
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Attraction_Review-g312557-d2513710-Reviews-National_English_Literary_Museum-
Grahamstown_Eastern_Cape.html [Accessed 8 February 2019]
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Development Policies Adopted in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, on 17 May
2013 [online]. Available from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000221238/
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United Nations.
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book to the Green Economy Issue 2: exploring green economy principles [online].
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Guidebook%202%20-%20Principles_final.pdf [Accessed 11 March 2024].
18 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums
Corine Wegener

Museums that integrate disaster resilience thinking into everyday operations are
better able to protect people and collections as well as to be available to help their
own communities during disaster response and recovery. A resilient museum has a
disaster plan that is updated and exercised regularly. At a higher level, preserving
and sharing collections with the public is part of the basic museum mission and
so constitutes a professional and legal obligation. You cannot share collections if
they are destroyed. Protection of staff, volunteers and visitors also carries legal
obligations and reduces liability. Good disaster planning also supports business
continuity models, ensuring minimal disruption to operations and loss of income
after disasters.
Fires at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019 and the National Museum of
Brazil in Rio de Janeiro in 2018 captured the world’s attention and caused an out-
pouring of disbelief and mourning. How could established institutions suffer such
terrible losses in a commonplace disaster such as fire? The Brazil fire, sparked by
an improperly installed air conditioning unit, quickly burned out of control due to
a lack of fire suppression systems in a historic building with wooden floors. The
result was the catastrophic loss of nearly 90 per cent of its 20 million scientific and
historic collections (Phillips 2018). This loss might have been avoided with the
installation of modern sprinkler systems and routine maintenance. But these types
of measures require funding and support from leadership.
The cause of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire has been ruled accidental, with
investigators initially focusing on possible electrical faults in construction equip-
ment and on-the-job smoking by construction workers. More recent investiga-
tions focus on potentially faulty wiring (Thompson 2021). Fires caused during
construction and repair work are a common cause of damage to collecting insti-
tutions and are preventable with appropriate supervision of outside contractors
(Marrion 2015).
Post-disaster investigations will undoubtedly show that a combination of sev-
eral factors led to these disasters and that at least some of them were human-caused
and thus preventable. How can museum leaders ensure that their institutions are
doing all they can to prevent and mitigate the most common hazards that threaten
their facilities and collections? By practising risk management thinking.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-24
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums 221

Response Thinking vs Disaster Risk Management Thinking

Disaster planning has historically focused effort and money on disaster response
rather than on preparedness and mitigation. The result of this reactive versus proactive
approach is an endless cycle of loss. To break this cycle, those responsible for disaster
planning are increasingly focusing more funding and effort on preventing and mitigat-
ing the impacts of hazards, saving lives and property as well as reducing costs.
Investing in disaster preparation and mitigation can indeed result in significant
cost savings, particularly when preventing or limiting damage to irreplaceable col-
lections. Small investments in mitigation, particularly basic preventive conserva-
tion like improved collections shelving that is secured against earthquakes and
raised in case of flooding, can have a high payoff if earthquakes or floods are a
potential recurring hazard at your museum (Kelman 2014).

Understanding Basic Disaster Terminology

To practise disaster risk thinking and communicate it to others, we need a com-
mon vocabulary. Disaster risk management professionals from different countries
may use somewhat different terminology, so it is useful to begin with the standard
international definitions created by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Re-
duction listed below.1 Local and national emergency management and civil defence
personnel may use variations on these terms.

• Exposure: ‘The situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production capaci-

ties and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas’.2 The expo-
sure may be unavoidable or there may have been opportunities to limit exposure.
• Hazard: ‘A process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life,
injury or other health impacts, property damage, social and economic disruption
or environmental degradation’.3 Hazard events may be naturally occurring or
caused by humans, but decisions or inaction by humans are usually a contribut-
ing factor to the hazard event resulting in disaster. Hazards may be rapid onset,
such as an earthquake, or slow onset, like a slow-moving hurricane. Hazards
often considered to be naturally caused include the following: earthquakes,
landslides, tsunamis, volcanic activity, avalanches, floods, wildfires, tornados,
typhoons/hurricanes, storm/wave surges, extreme temperatures, drought, dis-
eases/epidemics and insect/animal plagues. It is easy to see that many of these
disasters are exacerbated by human decisions or inaction, such as people liv-
ing near active volcanos or in flood zones. Hazards related to human activity
include the following: armed conflicts, political instability, famine, industrial
accidents, transport accidents, fires, nuclear meltdown, unplanned urbanisation,
economic instability, extreme poverty and construction/renovation accidents.
• Disaster: ‘A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society
at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure,
vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human,
222 Corine Wegener

material, economic and environmental losses and impacts’.4 A disaster is an

emergency event that exceeds local capacity to respond and resolve.
• Emergency: A hazard event response using local resources and without exter-
nal assistance. An emergency rises to the level of a disaster when there is not
enough capacity to deal with the emergency on a local level, whether due to a
lack of resources and/or lack of knowledge of how to respond appropriately.
UNDRR does not define ‘emergency’ in its terminology but notes that the term
‘… is sometimes used interchangeably with the term disaster, as, for example,
in the context of biological and technological hazards or health emergencies,
which, however, can also relate to hazardous events that do not result in the seri-
ous disruption of the functioning of a community or society’.5
• Resilience: ‘The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards
to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects
of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preserva-
tion and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk
management’.6
• Vulnerability: ‘The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and
environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an indi-
vidual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards’.7

Understanding the Disaster Cycle

Understanding the disaster cycle is the key to avoiding the tendency to focus re-
sources on response and to adopt disaster risk management thinking. There are
various disaster cycle models, but in this case, we will consider the four-phase
model of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The model below
(Figure 18.1) illustrates disasters as a cycle:

• Mitigation: ‘The lessening or minimising of the adverse impacts of a hazardous

event’.8

Figure 18.1 Disaster management cycle. © Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative.

 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums 223

• Preparedness: ‘The knowledge and capacities developed by governments, re-

sponse and recovery organisations, communities and individuals to effectively
anticipate, respond to and recover from the impacts of likely, imminent or cur-
rent disasters’.9
• Response: ‘Actions taken directly before, during or immediately after a disaster
in order to save lives, reduce health impacts, ensure public safety and meet the
basic subsistence needs of the people affected’.10 Though cultural heritage is not
part of the UN definition, measures may also be taken to save cultural heritage
and other property during the response phase.
• Recovery: ‘The restoring or improving of livelihoods and health, as well as
economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets, systems and ac-
tivities, of a disaster-affected community or society, aligning with the principles
of sustainable development and “build back better”, to avoid or reduce future
disaster risk’.11

Creating a Museum Disaster Plan

The process of creating a disaster plan is a team effort. There are certain elements
every plan should include, but the plan should be tailored to the institution.
Suggested steps to create a disaster plan are defined by the Commonwealth of
Australia (2000):

1 Assess risks and threats (What could go wrong?)

2 Mitigate or remove risks and threats (How can we prevent them or reduce the
damage?)
3 Prioritise your collections (What should we save first?)
4 Establish a disaster response team (Who are we going to call?)
5 Establish support networks (Who else can help us?)
6 Prepare the disaster response plan (What do we do?)
7 Prepare the disaster recovery plan (How do we cope with this?)
8 Train staff, board, and volunteers (Do we all know what to do?)
9 Review and exercise the plan (What worked? What did not work?)

Who Should Be on A Disaster Planning Team and Why?

Successful museum disaster plans are interdisciplinary, include staff at all levels,
and are supported by museum leadership. Consider including various museum de-
partments for the expertise they offer:

• Facilities/building management: knowledge of the building and physical plant

• Security: safety and security of visitors, staff, volunteers, and collections
• Curatorial departments: collections and curatorial records expertise
• Registration/collections management: collection locations, storage, inventories,
loans
• Conservation/restoration: Preventive conservation, conservation treatment
224 Corine Wegener

• Visitor Services: visitor protection considerations for disaster planning

• Volunteer Management: role of docents and other volunteers in disaster plan
• Museum Education: school and tour groups, post-disaster community outreach
programmes
• External Affairs: communication with media, public, and membership through-
out the disaster cycle
• Finance and administration: business continuity planning and providing funds
throughout the disaster cycle

Step 1. Assess Risks and Threats

Each day we make decisions about reducing our personal risk: where to cross the
street, whether to purchase home insurance, or whether to wear seat belts in the
car. These are all risk decisions. We consciously make a cost-benefit analysis:
how difficult or expensive is the protective measure versus the potential harm if
we do not. Similarly, museums should work to integrate disaster risk manage-
ment thinking into everyday operations. For example, they should consider in-
cluding a budget line for disaster preparedness just as we do for staff, exhibitions
or utilities.
It is important to determine the hazards your museum is exposed to and what
harm they may cause. Then you can decide which hazards to eliminate or mitigate
before they occur. When determining hazards and risk to your collections, think
holistically. Think of your museum location, building envelope, and indoor protec-
tive measures as an integrated whole.
Bring your disaster planning team together for a risk brainstorming session. Re-
search your museum’s location and the types of disasters, both natural and human-
caused that may have occurred in the past. Has your museum or the surrounding
area experienced past flooding, hurricanes or earthquakes? List the types of hazards
in your area, the likelihood your museum would be exposed to them, and the vul-
nerability of your museum to a hazard that would result in harm. A mathematical
way to think about risk is:

Risk = Hazard × Exposure × Vulnerability

A group risk assessment walkthrough can also be a good tool for spotting haz-
ards, risks and potential vulnerabilities, and even allow you to make on-the-spot
preventive corrections. Be sure to tour the exterior as well as the interiors. Once
you determine the potential hazards and risks, you can decide together on appropri-
ate mitigation and preparedness actions.
There are several tools available for teams to carry out risk assessment. The
chart below illustrates one way to input potential risks and decide on preventive
measures. Input a possible hazard or event, the probability from high to low that it
will occur, then note the potential impact, high to low. Some hazards may be low
probability, such as a tornado, but result in high impact/damage to the collection if
 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums 225

they do occur. The efforts allocated to preventive actions depend on the resulting
risk category number (see below). Potential risks for:

Risk Probability Impact Total Category of risk Preventive

(event and High–low High– (number) (High 10–8, medium actions
consequence) (5–1) low (5–1) 7–4, low 3–1)

Source: From Be Prepared: Guidelines for Small Museums for Writing a Disaster Plan. A Heritage
Collections Council Project (May 2000). Available from: https://blueshieldaustralia.org.au/wp-
content/uploads/2018/03/CAN-Be-Prepared.pdf

Depending on location, a museum may face dozens of potential hazards. The

decision matrix helps focus effort on the most likely hazards that pose the most risk
to your institution. For example, museums in a desert environment probably will
not waste resources to plan for hurricanes.
The ‘all-hazards approach’ is another useful idea, encouraging focus on invest-
ment in taking measures that will reduce risk to human life and property in the
face of nearly any hazard. For example, an updated museum contact list, emer-
gency first-aid training for staff or advance contracts with disaster recovery com-
panies will be useful for all types of hazard events and are relatively inexpensive
to carry out.

Step 2. Mitigate or Remove hazards/risks and Threats

The best way to deal with a disaster is to prevent it from happening by removing
the hazard. If that is not possible, determine steps you can take to mitigate the dam-
age that might result.
Examples of hazard removal or mitigation include:

• Regular maintenance of roof and building envelope;

• Prohibit smoking throughout the museum;
• Remove dead vegetation and combustible materials from the grounds near the
museum;
• Install, maintain, and test smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems
and hydrants;
• Practice good housekeeping, storage of chemicals in approved cabinets and in-
tegrated pest management;
• Store collections at least 6 in. (15 cm.) off the floor and in locked cabinets if
possible;
• Avoid collections and records storage in basements or attics when possible;
226 Corine Wegener

• Secure storage shelves and exhibition cases against earthquake shaking or float-
ing during floods;
• Monitor/inspect construction activity, especially hot works (welding, cutting
torches, hot lighting), supervise non-staff workers.

Step 3. Prioritise Your Collections

Creating a priority list of collections may be one of the most difficult steps in creat-
ing your disaster plan because it requires group consensus. Registration, conserva-
tion and curatorial staff should all be involved. This list should be kept confidential
but shared in broad terms with first responders during preparedness meetings. The
list will help inform future decisions about what to evacuate first, what to salvage
first after a disaster, and set priorities for conservation treatment during recovery.
Each department should create a list that contributes to an overall museum list.
Priority considerations should include (in this order):

• Objects on loan;
• Collections that most directly support the institution’s mission;
• Significant, unique and/or most valued objects;
• Objects most used and/or most vital for research;
• Objects most representative of subject areas;
• Those prone to damage if untreated;
• Materials most likely to be salvaged successfully when evacuation and salvage
plans are in place (for example, very heavy objects that can only be moved by
heavy equipment may be unrealistic to prioritise for salvage).

Step 4: Engage in Preparedness Measures

Examples of disaster preparedness measures:

• Create and regularly exercise an institutional disaster plan;

• Maintain copies of collections documentation and inventories offsite and in the
cloud;
• Plan for offsite storage in case of emergency evacuation or salvage of collections;
• Secure storage shelving in case of earthquakes;
• Prioritise collections to be evacuated or moved in an emergency;
• Ensure key staff are familiar with locations of water and electrical shutoffs;
• Store emergency salvage supplies in multiple locations, including personal pro-
tective equipment;
• Assign emergency roles to staff, regularly update emergency contact list;
• Plan for both short and long-term power outages, including budget for genera-
tors and fuel;
• Emergency first-aid training for staff;
• Create evacuation and salvage plans using museum floor plans and train staff
on their roles;
 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums 227

• Develop advance contracts with vendors to provide emergency stabilisation

and repairs to the building, salvage and treatment of collections, or temporary
storage;
• Evacuate collections inland or to higher ground in case of flooding or
hurricanes.

Step 5. Establish a Disaster Response Team

Even in the best-prepared museums disasters can happen. Working with first re-
sponders, a trained and prepared Response Team can help collect documentation of
damage for insurance and government assistance purposes, mitigate damage to the
building and collections, and provide input for planning recovery. Each museum
should develop a Response Team based on its own needs, but some positions to
consider include those listed below. Be sure each team member has a designated
backup. Some staff may be impacted by a disaster and not be able to reach the
museum. Teams should meet regularly to update the emergency plan and rehearse
their roles through tabletop and live exercises.

• Disaster team leader;

• Finance/administrative coordinator;
• Materials and supplies coordinator;
• Collections recovery specialist;
• Work crew coordinator;
• Documentation coordinator;
• Technology coordinator;
• Building recovery coordinator;
• Public relations coordinator;
• Security coordinator;
• Safety coordinator.

Step 6. Establish Support Networks

Disaster planners should reach out to local emergency planners, first responders,
civil defence personnel, and possibly the military to learn how the museum fits into
local and national disaster response and recovery plans. There may be special re-
sources available. Invite the local disaster manager, civil defence, fire department,
and other first responders to meet with museum staff and tour the building. Ask if
the museum can participate in community-based disaster drills.
Other cultural organisations such as regional and national museum alliances
may be helpful. For example, in the U.S., many states have professional associa-
tions of museums that work together on disaster response training and provide
mutual assistance. Find out what museums are doing to prepare in your area. The
International Council of Museums (ICOM) has 125 National Committees that rep-
resent museums, and is an excellent place to network.
228 Corine Wegener

Step 7. Prepare the Disaster Response Plan

In this era of increasing number and severity of disasters, collecting institutions
cannot rely solely on their governments for help, particularly in large-scale disas-
ters. National Disaster Management organisations prioritise saving human life and
alleviating human suffering, and saving cultural heritage is not often integrated into
the planning. In order to mitigate damage to the building and collections, museums
must be prepared with emergency funds, trained staff and volunteers, and stock-
piled supplies for disaster response, always keeping good records of efforts and
funds spent in case they may be reimbursable.
There are many resources available for preparing disaster response. The In-
ternational Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural
Property (ICCROM) handbook and toolkit for First Aid to Cultural Heritage in
Times of Crisis (ICCROM 2018) provides step-by-step instructions during disaster
response. The American Institute for Conservation website includes how-to videos
on salvaging collections during disaster response (American Institute for Conser-
vation n. d).
Examples of actions during disaster response include:

• Identify the emergency;

• Call emergency responders;
• Evacuate staff and visitors or shelter in place during a sudden storm or
earthquake;
• Notify staff not already on site if their assistance is required;
• Security manager creates security perimeter and coordinates with the first
responders;
• Conduct an initial damage assessment and prepare detailed documentation of
damage to building and collections in coordination with emergency first re-
sponders; this step may be especially important if there is evidence of criminal
activity as the cause of the disaster;
• Salvage, stabilise, and rehouse objects;
• Maintain inventory of rehoused objects in new location;
• Coordinate external communication with press statements and social media.

Step 8. Prepare the Disaster Recovery Plan

The line between disaster response and recovery can be blurred both in terms of
tasks and time. Some disaster responses can take as little as a few days to transition
into recovery and some can take years. Examples of recovery include:

• Conservation treatment of damaged objects;

• Research into the causes and impact of the disaster;
• Reconstruction/renovation of damaged building, galleries, and storage areas;
• Reopen the institution to the public;
 Creating Disaster Resilient Museums 229

• Help staff and community members recover their personal collections and re-
cover from trauma;
• Establish the ‘new normal’.

Step 9. Train Staff, Board and Volunteers

The most successful disaster plans have support and expected outcomes expressed
by museum directors and their boards. Museum boards bear a fiduciary responsi-
bility for the collections and should support budgeting for disaster planning and
training. Directors should encourage risk management thinking as part of normal
museum operations and include disaster risk management responsibilities in indi-
vidual personnel descriptions and evaluations. All staff, board members and volun-
teers should be encouraged to participate in training events.

Step 10. Review and Exercise the Plan

A disaster plan that never leaves the shelf does not help reduce risk. Disaster plans
must be continually updated and exercised to be effective. Each staff member
should know their role.

• Ensure that the Disaster Planning team sets aside time to review and update
the plan at least annually, particularly current contact information, collections
priorities and any advance vendor contracts;
• Exercise and test the plan at least once a year and require staff participation.
Include local first responders when possible;
• Be sure to include collections evacuation and salvage in exercises along with
evacuation of staff, visitors and volunteers;
• Take time for careful evaluation of exercise results – what worked and what
didn’t – and take steps to correct.

Conclusion
Incorporating disaster resilience into regular museum operations provides clear
benefits by reducing risk to people and collections in museums. By taking these
measures, museum staff fulfil a professional and legal obligation to protect life
and cultural property under their care. When museums are resilient and survive
large-scale disasters with minimal damage, they are then free to carry out further
programmes to help their communities find hope, identity, and meaning during
post-disaster recovery.

Notes
1 https://www.undrr.org/terminology
2 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/exposure
3 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/hazard
230 Corine Wegener

4 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/disaster
5 https://www.un-spider.org/risks-and-disasters
6 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/resilience
7 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/vulnerability
8 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/mitigation
9 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/preparedness
10 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/response
11 https://www.undrr.org/terminology/recovery

References
American Institute for Conservation. n. d. Field Guide to Emergency Response Supple-
mentary Resources [online]. Available from: https://www.culturalheritage.org/resources/
emergencies/disaster-response-recovery/fieldguide [Accessed 10 June 2019].
ICROM. 2018. First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis [online]. Rome: Inter-
national Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
(ICCROM) and Amsterdam: Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. Available
from: https://www.iccrom.org/news/pioneering-resource-first-aid-cultural-heritage-now-
available [Accessed 18 June 2019].
Be Prepared: Guidelines for Small Museums for Writing a Disaster Preparedness Plan,
2000. Commonwealth of Australia on behalf of the Heritage Collections Council, Can-
berra, ACT: Commonwealth Dept. of Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts, pp. 115.
Kelman, I., 2014. Disaster mitigation is cost effective. In: World Development Re-
port 2014: Risk and Opportunity – Managing Risk for Development [online]. Wash-
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handle/10986/16092?locale-attribute=en [Accessed 18 June 2018].
Marrion, C., 2015. Professional development: Protecting historic structures [online]. Fa-
cility Executive, 30 March 2015. Available from: https://facilityexecutive.com/2015/03/
protecting-historic-structures-from-fire/ [Accessed 30 August 2021].
Philips, D., 2018. ‘The museum is alive’ – Rio team toils to rescue items from devas-
tating fire [online]. The Guardian, 28 December 2018. Available from: https://www.
theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/28/the-museum-is-alive-rio-team-toils-to-rescue-items-from-
devastating-fire [Accessed 30 August 2021].
Thompson, H., 2021. Notre Dame fire: New cause investigated as 2024 service date con-
firmed. The Connexion: French News and Views, 15 April 2021.
19 Calculating Museum Carrying
Capacity
Background, Goals, Methods

Ivan Grinko and Nikita Luchkov

Introduction
The issue of growing anthropogenic pressures on natural and cultural heritage sites
first arose at the end of the last century due to consistently increasing tourism. The
myth that maximal attendance is the main indicator of museum effectiveness still
exists. But many museums, faced with problems caused by overcrowding changed
their point of view. Today, the quality of the museum visit has become the main
objective and crowds of visitors will not help us to achieve a quality experience.
We should not forget that one of the functions of a museum is to serve as a refuge.,
It could disappear if we don’t optimise attendance. We also need to improve the
visitor experience for those with special needs.
The discussion surrounding optimal visitor figures, or carrying capacity, has
been increasing in recent years, although, so far, mainly in relation to biosphere
reserves, national parks and memorial places (Cifuentes 1992; Cole and Carlson
2010; Nashwa 2015). The topic has acquired even greater relevance with increased
concern about sustainable development in the heritage sphere (Hassan 2013; Mow-
forth, Munt 2003; Nocca 2017) and the ratification by many European countries of
the Framework Convention of the Council of Europe on the significance of cultural
heritage for human society (Council of Europe 2005).
Russia is no exception in this process. By 2011, a team from the Heritage In-
stitute1, headed by Yuriy Vedenin had already developed a system for assessing
the carrying capacity of open-air museums (Ministry of Culture of the Russian
Federation, 2013). However, during the re-testing of these guidelines in the frame-
work of our study, certain technical issues arose from within the professional
community.
No system had been developed for assessing museum carrying capacity, al-
though attempts to determine the optimal space required for a comfortable visit
experience per visitor had been made (Lord, Lord 2001). As a rule, individual mu-
seums set limits on attendance figures based on their own data. For example, the
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (New York City) officially informs the public
that it can receive no more than 6,000 visitors at a time.
The methods we devised and described below, entitled ‘Guidelines for Visitor
Attendance Management in Museums of the Russian Federation Based on a Site’s

DOI: 10.4324/9781003000082-25
This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
232 Ivan Grinko and Nikita Luchkov

Ability to Receive Visitors’ are based on two main principles: heritage preservation
and visitor comfort (Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, 2017).2 In this
chapter, we justify the need to calculate museum carrying capacity and propose a
system for assessing anthropogenic pressure on museums, providing recommenda-
tions for optimising human impact as well as briefly describing the results of their
application in museum practice.
Why must a museum determine its capacity to receive visitors? First and fore-
most, owing to global trends in the museum industry. The relationships between
museums and visitors will continue to evolve, with increasing emphasis on the
visitor experience (Falk 2009; Van Mensch 2014). A museum’s openness towards
visitors will be implemented at all levels of its activity, from the introduction of
inclusive programmes that extend attendance to previously excluded groups to the
revision of the concept of permanent exhibitions.
In this regard, there will be an increasing need to deepen interactions with
the visitor not only at the formal level but to develop mutual exchange and visi-
tor participation in programmes which will lead inevitably to an increase in the
amount of time visitors spend in museums, and consequently, to an increase in
anthropogenic pressure3 on museums and heritage sites. In addition, an increase
in museum visitor numbers was expected. In 2019, visitor numbers for the 20
most-visited museums in the world declined by 2.4 per cent, but 11 of the 20
most-visited museums showed a positive trend, while an unimpressive average
percentage was largely triggered by a sharp drop in the number of visitors to Chi-
nese museums (14.2 per cent for the National Museum of China (Beijing) and 11
per cent for China’s Science and Technology Museum in Beijing (Rubin, 2020).
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in dramatically lower visitor numbers.
For example, in the first quarter of 2020, visitor numbers in Great Britain de-
clined by 90 per cent compared to the same period in 2019 (DCMS-Sponsored
Museums 2021).
Prior to the pandemic, museums in the Russian Federation showed slight but
steady growth in real attendance, with continued uneven attendance due to both
seasonal and geographical factors. For example, visitors recorded on weekdays
are lower than on weekends by a ratio of 1:3. This trend may at first glance appear
insignificant, yet at weekends, the number may greatly exceed maximum human
impact levels. According to a study of anthropogenic pressure in museums in Mos-
cow, in a number of cases, the ratio of attendance figures on weekdays compared
to free Sundays was as low as 1:10. In addition, inter-museum events, such as Mu-
seum Night and Art Night, are gaining popularity; during these events, museums
experience peak anthropogenic pressure on their premises. Of course, this scheme
is simplified, and there are large differences between museums in cities, towns
and rural territories, those on tourist routes and those in economically depressed,
single-industry communities.
Likewise, the impact of visitor comfort should not be underestimated since neg-
ative visitor experience has a direct impact not only on spending at museums (sou-
venirs, food, etc.) but also on the likelihood of repeat visits and promotion through
word-of-mouth and social media. These factors can seriously affect the museum’s
 Calculating Museum Carrying Capacity 233

revenues and realisation of its main social functions: heritage interpretation, educa-
tion, social inclusion, community outreach, etc.
In some cases, the museum’s reputation depends on accurate calculation of
carrying capacity. Case studies with exhibition projects run by the Tretyakov
Gallery confirm this. The exhibition of works by famous Russian painter Val-
entin Serov (October 2015–January 2016) was the most-visited in the history of
museum, but also fuelled many media scandals because of enormous queues at
the museums. The phrase ‘queue to Serov’ even became an internet meme. In ad-
dition, a comparison between a museum’s carrying capacity and real attendance
figures is a fairly obvious criterion for measuring museum effectiveness and can
be used to illustrate performance. An assessment of maximum anthropogenic
pressure for museums in Moscow showed that among leading museums rated
in terms of visitor experience, real attendance ranges from 75 to 110 per cent of
carrying capacity.
The most important thing to note is that with the help of the measurement
system and methods that we describe below, a museum can determine its maxi-
mum carrying capacity, which is highly relevant given the impact of state tar-
gets on funding. In addition, we list the main managerial elements that may
be affected by an analysis and assessment of a museum’s carrying capacity as
follows:

• design and reconfiguration of exhibitions;

• design and modification of auxiliary areas (entrance area, cloakroom, etc.);
• medium-term (1–2 years) planning of museum activities;
• choice of marketing strategy;
• positioning of a museum within a regional tourism network;
• limiting visitor attendance.

It should be noted that anthropogenic pressure is associated with almost all as-
pects of a functioning museum, and only systematic measures can ensure that the
effects of optimisation are all-encompassing. Standalone decisions made outside
the context of a well-thought-out strategy not only fail to reduce human impact;
they can also cause damage (reputational losses, negative materials in mass media,
etc.).
When devising our methodology, a question arose as to the need to introduce
such a system at all, given the fact that similar measures already exist. For example,
in the Russian Federation, all museum premises open to visitors are officially man-
aged by regulatory documents applicable to public buildings and structures, such
as SNiP 31-06-2009. Public Buildings & Facilities (Construction Norms 2009).
However, this document focuses primarily on the safety of the building and does
not touch on the specific characteristics of individual museums, visitor comfort, or
the preservation of collections susceptible to human impact. Characteristically, a
number of museums faced with the need to calculate maximum attendance figures
used either similar regulatory documents or fire safety standards, which naturally,
took no account of the specific nature of museum exhibitions and buildings.
234 Ivan Grinko and Nikita Luchkov

Here, we consider the procedure method for calculating carrying capacity,

which functions as follows:

1 Identify the basic museum type. Three types were identified in Russia: classical
collection/pavilion-type thematic museums; collection/pavilion-type thematic
museums with interactive and multi-media zones and art museums and memo-
rial museum complexes (house museums, memorial ships, etc). Each type has
its own coefficient, which essentially represents the average area of space re-
quired for a comfortable visitor experience:4

• Sp1 – contextual exhibition (collection and pavilion-type thematic

museums) – 3–4.5
• Sp2 – interactive exhibition (collection and pavilion-type thematic museums
with interactive and multi-media zones) – 7–10
• Sp3 – art exhibitions (art museums, memorial museum complexes) – 10–20 5

We should mention here that 10 m2 was found to be an optimal space for social
distancing (1.5 metres) during the Covid-19 pandemic, so a museum can use this
coefficient to calculate the number of visitors it can receive during periods of simi-
lar restrictions.
In hybrid museums, such as a local history museum with art and thematic exhi-
bitions, the carrying capacity is determined for each separate element, after which
the median value is taken as the base figure.

2 Determine total exhibition area accessible to visitors. For collection/pavilion-

type museums, it is recommended that the ‘clear’ area is calculated, which
excludes space taken up by museum equipment.
3 Determine exhibition type and select correcting factors, which depend, among
others, on the method of exhibition construction.
4 Determine the ground area of Zone A, areas accessible to visitors but not con-
taining collections (entrance area, cafe, etc.). The area of each section of Zone
A should be calculated separately.
5 Determine the visitor movement index6 and average visit duration. The time
spent on individual observation of an object is calculated based on visitor ob-
servations of a representative sample of different target audiences (Yalowitz,
Bronnenkant, 2009).
6 Calculate one-time exhibition carrying capacity (Zone B) based on museum
type, exhibition area, and other characteristics.
7 Calculate one-time carrying capacity of museum Zone A (additional services).
8 Calculate one-time museum carrying capacity, consisting of carrying capacity
of Zones A and B.
9 Calculate daily carrying capacity.
10 Determine carrying capacity for specific periods (day, week, month) based on
daily carrying capacity.
11 Define maximum peak levels of anthropogenic pressure on the museum.
 Calculating Museum Carrying Capacity 235

We suggest using these guidelines in combination with the data from any mu-
seum studies you already conducted to get more precise numbers.

Example of Calculation

To showcase how the methods mentioned in this chapter work in practise, let us
calculate the capacity of an imaginary museum with the following parameters:

Basic museum type: a collection type, science museum (Sp1 selected 3-4,5) with
exhibits of varying levels of popularity (Q = 70% selected).
Total exhibition area: 5,000 m2.
Total Zone A7 area: (an entrance zone (150 m2), a cafe (100 m2) and two recrea-
tional areas (total ground area – 100 m2).
The average visit duration time (tm): 2 hours.
Daily museum opening hours (tp): 8

We should start with the evaluation of the Exhibition area:

Calculation of the maximum one-time capacity of exhibition area (∑emax),

∑ e max = (5,000 / 3) 0.7 = 1,167(1,166,9) visitors

*

Calculation of the minimum one-time exhibition capacity of exhibition area

(∑emin).

∑ e min = (5,000 / 4.5) 0.7 = 778(777,8) visitors

*

The optimal one-time pressure on the exhibition area:

∑ e = Me from (778 and 1167) = (778 + 1167) / 2 = 972 visitors

The calculation of daily carrying capacity of exhibition area:

∑ ed = 972 (8 / 2) = 3,888 visitors

*

Then we proceed to do the same, but for zone A:

The daily carrying capacity of additional services (calculate the one-time capac-
ity of each element of zone A).
The one-time capacity of the entrance zone (∑iB = S in m2/1.5 m2 per visitor

∑ iB = 150 / 1,5 = 100 visitors

The one-time capacity of the cafe (∑iK = S in m2/1,6 m2 per visitor)

∑ iK = 100 / 1,6 = 62 visitors

236 Ivan Grinko and Nikita Luchkov

The one-time capacity of the recreational zones (∑iR = S in m2/2 m2 per visitor).

∑ iR = 100(M ) / 2M per visitor = 50 visitors

2 2

The one-time capacity of Zone A, the total one-time capacity is taken to be the
median value of these four values.

∑ a = Me from(10,50,62,100) = (50 + 62) / 2 = 56 visitors

The daily carrying capacity of Zone A (∑ad=∑а* (tр/tm)).

∑ ad = 56 4 = 224 visitors
*

Now we combine the data from two previous parts to get the total numbers for
our showcase museum:
The total one-time museum’s capacity (∑еm = ∑e + ∑a).

∑ em = 972 + 56 = 1,028
The museum’s daily visitor carrying capacity (∑еmd = ∑ed + ∑ad).

∑ emd = 3,888 + 224 = 4,112

The peak anthropogenic pressure (∑p = ∑em + ∑em * 0.1)

∑ p = 1,028 + 102 = 1,130 .

And lastly, in case we need to extrapolate resulting numbers to prolonged period
of time, we can multiply daily capacity by the number of working days.
In the event that the museum has specialised rooms for events or particular au-
diences (e.g., theatres; cinema halls), overall museum visitor carrying capacity is
calculated. Half of the regulated capacity of such hall should be added to the mu-
seum’s daily attendance value and included in the calculations as an optional value.
A study of anthropogenic pressure on museums in Moscow conducted by
MOSGORTUR in 2017–2018 demonstrated the efficiency of this method and
revealed two new aspects associated with its use. First, aside from specific exhi-
bition features, the functional model of the museum is an important factor in as-
sessing carrying capacity and should be taken into account when making relevant
calculations. Secondly, it is likely that a separate system for calculating human
impact over the long term is required for exhibition halls/galleries because the
structure of visits in such institutions differs from a museum’s one, and when
calculating monthly or annual carrying capacity, it is important to take into ac-
count the number of real working days, not including the exhibition assembly/
disassembly period.
 Calculating Museum Carrying Capacity 237

Every museum is a unique example of historical, cultural or natural heritage;

it is, therefore, impossible to develop universal recommendations. Visitation and
pressure volume depend on a number of factors, including museum type, location,
population density in the surrounding area, tourism intensity, etc. However, since
anthropogenic pressure is linked to almost all museum functions, only systematic
measures can really produce the effect of optimisation. Standalone decisions made
outside a well-thought-out strategy not only fail to reduce human impact, but they
may have harmful consequences (e.g., reputational losses, reduced income, con-
flicts with staff, conflicts with stakeholders).
In the case of the modern museum, a focus on five main factors will help regu-
late anthropogenic pressure on a given museum space:

Scientific and Analytical

Mandatory scientific studies of real and potential audiences have become stand-
ard museum practice. In addition to a general description of visitors, this type
of study includes assessing numbers, as well as an approximate number of visits
per visitor. Naturally, here, it would be logical to include the practice of calcu-
lating total one-time carrying capacity of a museum space. High-quality, long-
term planning is key to regulating anthropogenic pressure on museums. When
creating a new museum or exhibition, the museum must establish a correlation
between its ability to receive visitors and its potential number. This assessment
can be made on the basis of the potential audience size, for example, the number
of residents in the immediate locality, region, number of visiting tourists, etc.
In addition, when assessing potential visitor attendance figures, relevant figures
established for museums of a similar type can be used as a guide.

Economic

As a rule, economic measures taken to regulate attendance figures have a long-

term effect, and for this reason, should be applied with particular care according to
the museum strategy. Increasing ticket cost can directly affect attendance volume
causing a reduction in visitor numbers. However, this measure entails a number of
problems, primarily concerning reputation, because museums as public institutions
should not exclusively concentrate on high-income visitors. This approach also
conflicts with the goals and objectives of museums as social and cultural institu-
tions. However, differentiation in ticket pricing is an extremely simple and effec-
tive method for reducing pressure at peak intervals and distributing visitor flow
more evenly.

Exhibitive

In the case of a museum experiencing high anthropogenic pressure, exhibi-

tion spaces should be reconfigured with maximum focus on high visitor move-
ment. This involves ensuring a minimum number of intersections between
238 Ivan Grinko and Nikita Luchkov

anthropogenic flows, eliminating dead-end spaces, and removing interactive

and multi-media elements from the main exhibition spaces to avoid disrupt-
ing the movement of other visitors. All kinds of navigation may be used to
make a visitor pathway as clear as possible. Given that museum exhibitions are
increasingly saturated with interactive and multi-media elements, it is worth
considering how they are used and perceived. Multi-media and interactive ex-
hibit elements should be integrated into the exhibition space as organically as
possible to ensure that they do not create crowding or otherwise interfere with
visitor paths.

Administrative

Competent management of museum attendance is still underestimated (at least

in many Russian institutions); however, attendance management cannot be ig-
nored in optimising factors of anthropogenic pressure. One of the most effective
measures that can be taken is to extend opening hours. The extension of opening
hours in museums in Moscow has increased attendance and partially relieved
the pressure of high weekend attendance. In 2019, the Department for Culture
of Moscow introduced Museum Week to disperse museum attendance across the
most popular museums. During the third week of each month, visitors may visit
museums for free according to a special schedule (certain museums on Mon-
days, others on Fridays, etc.), rather than on weekends. The latter arrangements
had caused greatly increased crowds and unnecessary rivalry between museums,
since most visitors don’t visit multiple museums on one day. The new system has
allowed museums to prepare for increased attendance and provided an opportu-
nity to highlight important projects, programmes and exhibitions while reducing
strain on the most popular institutions and spotlighting less popular museums.

Service

Taking into account general trends in the museum sector (Idema 2014; Daskalaki
et al. 2020), the tendency for increased leisure visitation is expected to continue,
accompanied by the growing importance of ancillary areas, and the expansion of
Zone A: spaces which are accessible to visitors but which do not contain museum
collections (Parry et al. 2018). Therefore, it is essential that institutions assess
the carrying capacity of these spaces. The development of additional infrastruc-
ture is especially important for open-air museums since the lack of one will, in
most cases, make it impossible to even partially redistribute peak season visitor
pressure.

Conclusion
While there are other elements that might be added to the method we describe
here, it nonetheless offers, for now, a fairly accurate picture of museums’
visitor carrying capacity. Despite all restrictions provoked by the Covid-19
 Calculating Museum Carrying Capacity 239

pandemic, the museum space is still the main instrument of museum agency,
and we should work to better understand its potential and limits. The procedure
method recommended in this chapter should improve the range of museum
management tools and lower the impact of anthropogenic pressures on museum
buildings and sites of historical and cultural heritage. In 2022, this system was
used by the authors to devise a complex attendance forecast for the new build-
ing of the museum Perm Museum of Antiquities. It can be used in this way to
advocate museum projects and demonstrate the potential of museum spaces to
its stakeholders.

Notes
1 The Russian Heritage Institute was a leading research centre for the study of cultural
and natural heritage, ongoing cultural processes, the development of methods for herit-
age conservation and use. In international affairs, the Institute works closely with the
National Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, National Committee
ICOMOS (Russia) and others.
2 The authors once again wish to express their gratitude to the following individuals
for their participation in the creation of Methodical Recommendations: T. Mironova,
S. Zabolotskikh, Z. Matveyeva, O. Sviridova, V. Dukelskiy, T. Polyakov and A.
Klyukina.
3 Under «anthropogenic pressure» we mean the direct or indirect impact of humans and
their activities on the surrounding space and its individual elements.
4 Please note that the metric system is used for all calculations in this chapter.
5 Here, we have drawn recommendations for optimal space for one visitor from Lord, B.
and Lord, G. D. (2001). The Manual of Museum Exhibition. Walnut Creek: Altamira.
6 Or Sweep rating index (SRI) proposed by B. Serell (1998), ‘calculated by dividing the
exhibition’s square footage by the average total time spent there for a tracked sample of
casual visitors’. Serrell B. et al., 1998. ‘Paying attention: Visitors and museum exhibi-
tions’. American Alliance of Museums.
7 We should mention that this part of the procedure is based on standards for public spaces
used in the Russian Federation and should be localised in accordance with relevant local
legislation.

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Index

Note: Locators in italics represent figures; bold indicate tables in the text. Page numbers
followed by ‘n’ denote notes.

Abu Dhabi 44 engagement rules 122; evaluation

acceptance policy 192–194 efforts 123–124; human factor 123;
accessibility 1, 2, 10, 98, 123, 155–167 organisational development 123;
accessibility, Italy 131–141; Italian projects project guidelines, relevant stakeholders
promoting 132–134; museum’s mission, 124; technological utopianism or
perspective 134; outcome research determinism 122
135–139 austerity 31
An Action Plan for Community Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao 119
Empowerment 160
Alberti, S. J. M. M. 47 Baltic Sea 25, 26
alchemy, museum planning 38–48 Bari 131
‘all-hazards approach’ 225 basic disaster terminology 221–222
Amazwi 211–215 Benaki museum 85, 86, 88, 91–96; positive
Amazwi South African Museum 3 review 95
American Alliance of Museums 31 Benque Viejo del Carmen 149
Analogue Chromatic Continuous Scale Beuys, Joseph 59
(ACCS) 136, 137 Bianchi, Luca 133
Anderson, G. 68 BiciTour 144–145
anthropogenic pressures 232, 233, Bin Jelmood House, Doha 47
236–239, 239n3 biodiversity 14
Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University Blair, Tony 160
(UARM) 145, 146 Born with Culture project 132
archeological heritage management 23 Boschee, J. 30
art galleries 31 Boschi, Lucilla 131
artificial intelligence 65 Bramwell, B. 174
Art Museum of Catalonia 85, 91–96 brand-based communication 64
art museums 23, 85, 94, 234 Brandeis University 31
The Art of Relevance (Simon) 61 brand identity 55, 72
Associação do Paço das Artes 178, 180 branding 53–65; in changing world 68–72;
Association of Danish Museums 27 the Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum 72–74;
Atmosphere 187 love 56; not without content 54–55;
audience 1, 2, 9, 58; see also individual entries not without logo 55–56; by social
audience-centred communication 117 engagement 68–77
audience development project 121 brand orientation 54
audience engagement 2, 10, 14, 82, Britain, Tate 167
114–126; change of perspective 122; British modernism 15
242 Index

Brooklyn Museum of Art 187 creative solutions 14

Brundtland Report, 1987 209, 210 Cuban model of ‘Casas de Cultura’ 148
Bruno, Ivana 133 Cultural and Historical Association of
budgetary control 11, 12 Benque Viejo (CHAB) 149
Bunch, Lonnie 12, 13 cultural/culture: behavior 21; identity 70;
business modelling 13 institutions 53, 115, 125, 173, 180;
Butler, Guy 211 overlap 61; and PPPs 173–174; tourism
Butler, Tony 162 infrastructure 54
cultural heritage 23, 25, 27, 75, 152;
Cagliari, Paolo 201 management 23
Camarena Ocampo, C. 153 cultural history: museums 20, 21
Canadian Museums Association 217 cultural improvement 156
Carroll, J. M. 72 cultural philanthropy: ICOM code of
Carty, Hilary 13 ethics 202–203; methodology 198–199;
Chatterjee, Helen 131, 133 perspectives 198–205
Chen, Hui Chien 72 cultural policies: evolution of 173–174
Chinese museums 232 cultural value 156
Chung Yuan Christian University 73 Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis
civic museums 155 9, 10, 15
climate change 12 Culture and community in a time of
code of ethics 55, 203 transformation 10
codes of ethics 191–192 CultureHive 193
cognitive disabilities 139, 140 Culture Track 17n2
Cohen, A. 14, 17 culture wars 167
Cohen, Rich 192 curated communication 57, 61
collaborative/collaboration 13, 14, 39 curating, museums 53–65
collaborative leadership 17
Collins, J. 14 Dana, John Cotton 15
Commonwealth of Australia 223 Danish Agrarian Reforms 22
communication 53, 56, 62, 65 Danish-German museum collaborations 26
community-building 69–70 Danish Museum Act (2006) 20–21, 24
community engagement 148–154; uses and Danish Museum Landscape 20–21
abuses of 155–167; ‘welfare model’ of 162 Danish Museums Act (1984) 22
Community of Artists for Cultural & Dardes, K. 210
Historical Endeavours (CACHE) 150 data 62
compensation 195 Daxi identity 69–70
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 178 Daxi Wood Art Ecomuseum (DWAEM)
consultation exercises 165 68, 70, 74–76; ‘corner houses’ as
core concept variables 115 co-creators 70–72; Taiwan 68–77
corner house project 75 decentralisation 173
corner houses charter ceremony 75 decision-making process 161, 193
Corozal House of Culture 152, 153 democratic deficit 160
‘Corporate Arts Patrons Deserve Praise Not Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s
Blame’ 190 (DCMS) policy guidance 157
corporate identity (CI) 55 Derby Museums 162
corporate philanthropy 204 désétatisation 173
Costin, C. 174, 175 destinations 44
Covid-19 pandemic 7, 10, 26–27, 31, De Varine, H. 150
54, 85, 125, 198, 232, 234, 238–239; de Varine-Bohan, H. 202
communicative visibility, accelerator 54; development strategies: digital outreach in
see also pandemic 104–113
Creating Ethical Guidelines for Dictionnaire encyclopédique de muséologie
Fundraising (Winchester) 194 198, 205n8
Creative Café forums 161, 162 digital disruption 115
 Index 243

digitalisation 123 Facebook 84–85, 94–96, 99; museum

digitality 114 visitor reviews 90–95
digital museum treasure hunt 121 Falsters Minder Museum, Nykoebing 22, 23
digital revolution 114 financial entrepreneurism 13
digital storytelling 126n3 financial revenues 178
digital strategy 56 financial stability 180
digital technologies 9, 113, 126n1 Fiore, D.C. 175
digital transformation 123–125 Fischer, Marilyn 189, 190
Digi-Trans 122 Fleming, David 163
Dilenschneider, C. 9, 17 folk museums 21
disaster cycle 222–223 Frey, B.S. 180
disaster plan 223; prioritise your collections Friends of the Natural History Museum,
226; review and exercise 229; train staff, Zimbabwe 30–36; material and human
board and volunteers 229 resources from 33–34; programmes run
disaster planning team 223–224 by 33
disaster preparedness measures 226–227 From Dusk to Dawn 201
disaster recovery plan 228–229 fundraising 205n13; costs 195; ethical
disaster resilient museums 220–230 dilemmas in 188–189; vs. marketing
disaster response plan 228 194; practices 187–188
disaster response team 227
disaster risk management thinking 221 Gaga, Cllr Nomhle 215
donation: acceptance policy 192–194; Gardner, J. B. 188
rejection 190 Gateshead’s Saltwell Park Museum 156
Dorment, Richard 159 Gdańsk Museum 185
Dortmunder U 117, 119, 122, 123 Geneva 199, 204; Musée d’art et d’histoire
doughnut economics 47 and philanthropists 199–202
Geneva at the Heart of Time 201
earned income 178 Germany 24
ecomuseum 69, 75, 150 GLAM community 123
economic development 210 Glasgow Museums 161
ÉCONOMUSÉE® 77n3 global connectedness 14
economuseums 72 global economic recession 30
effective leadership 1 Global Heritage Fund 146
emotional approach 56 Godin, Seth 56
empathy 10 Goldin, Nan 185
England 31 Greece 85
The Entombment (Cagliari) 201 Green Building Council of South Africa
entrepreneurial leader 12 (GBCSA) 209
entrepreneurial skills 8 green economy 210
environmental protection 210 ‘Green’ Museum, South Africa 209–217;
environmental sustainability 98 new building, impact 215–216
Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund 164 Greenwald, Alice 45
ethical decision-making 189–190 Griffiths, J.-M. 9
ethical fundraising 184–196; leadership in Grossi, E. 136
191–192 Group for Regional Studies in Museums
ethical guidelines 192–194 (GRSM) 157
ethical partnerships 8 group risk assessment 224
ethics 186–187 Guldborgsund Kommune 22
Etopia 117 Guldborgsund Museum 22
European Audience Development Project
114–126 Habermas, Jürgen 53
European museums: quality evaluation Hangzhou Declaration 210
85–86 Happy Museum 162
Expanded Public Works Programme 215 HISTOQUAL model 80–81, 97
244 Index

Hogarth and Europe exhibition 167 Latchford, Peter 155

holistic quality 56 leadership: pre-pandemic research 7–8;
HOLSAT 80, 81 single-authority model of 12; social
HOTELQUAL model 80–82, 84, 97 impact, delivering 15–16; supporting
House of Memories programme 15 museum leaders 12–13; uniqueness and
Houses of Culture (HOC) 148–154 difference 14–15; value of purpose 14
Hsu, Chu Kuan 72 Lewis, Geoffrey 203
Huang, Lan-yen 69 Lima 142
Huang, L.Y. 70 Lithuania 85, 92
‘hub and spoke’ model 116 Living Marxism magazine 159
Hudson, Alistair 163, 164 lobbying 61–62
Hudson, Kenneth 98 local history museums 23
‘Humanature’ 215 Localism 164
human resources 11, 98, 106, 108, 115, 173 LODGEQUAL 80
Hurd, John 146 logo 55–56
Lolland-Falster’s Stiftsmuseum 21–22
ICOM 8–10, 55, 74, 131, 134, 139–141, Lolland Kommune 22
191, 211 London’s Natural History Museum 186
ICOM conference, Prague 13 Lord, B. 239n5
ICOM General Conference in Kyoto 133 Lord, G. D. 239n5
inclusivity/inclusion 10, 13, 139–141, Los Hijos del West 152
155–167 Louvre Museum 186, 193
industrial depression 156 Low, Theodore 150
influencing/influencers 61–62 Lynch, Bernadette 163
innovation 10, 34, 35, 116, 125
institutional communication 64 Macdonald, Sharon 43
INTERCOM 10–13, 17; mentoring Makhanda 211–215
programme 13 Making History project 158
intercultural communication 61 Mall, Ram Adhar 61
international cooperations 25, 26 Mantua 131
Interreg region 26 Maribo 21, 22
intrinsic logic 114, 126n2 Marimba project 151, 152
IPCA index 181n4 Martin, David 210
Isa, Angelica 144 Martinez, Jean-Luc 193
Martins, L.D.J. 181
Janes, R. R. 68 masterplan 39, 42, 43
Jensen, Anna-Elisabeth 26 Matobo World Heritage Site 34–35
Jiang, H. 72 Maya/Mestizo culture 149, 150
McClurg, J. 30
Kani Association 143 meaning 60–61
Kano’s attractiveness model: of service Meier, S. 180
excellence 80 Merriman, Nick 46
KGB Museum in Manhattan 31 Meyne, M. 72
Khami Site Museum 34 Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Khami World Heritage Site 35 (MIMA) 163, 164
Kijkwijzer app 121 Milan 131
King, D. 9 mission statement 55
Korn, R. 15, 16 mitigation 225–226
Krapina Neanderthal Museum, Croatia 81 mixed-methods approach 99
Kyiv National Art Gallery 201 mobile apps 120–121
Montecassino Abbey Museum 133
Lane, B. 174 Morales, T. 148, 153
Lanyang Museum 70 Morales-Lersch, T. 153
Lapaire, Claude 199 Moscow, Russia 236, 238
 Index 245

Musée d’art et d’histoire (MAH) 198–202, Newcastle Courant 156

205n7 new governance models 173–181
Museo dei Cappuccini, Milan 132 ‘Nightmares Revisited’ 214
Museo Teatrale alla Scala 132; aesthetic North America 188
experiences 135–139 not-for-profit institutions 1
MUSEQUAL model 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, Nykoebing 22
91, 95–98
museum carrying capacity 231–239; object-centred approach 114
administrative 238; calculation, example Objects of Desire 158
235–237; economic measures 237; The Observer 167
exhibitive 237–238; procedure method Oldenburg, R. 56
for 234–235; scientific and analytical Olivieri, C. 181
237; service 238 O’Neill, Mark 162, 163
Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark 2, 20– online fundraising: ethical questions of
28; decision to merge 24–25; 15 years 194–195
on 25; merged museums on 21–23; open-air museum 21
merging two museums 23; strategic openness, business models 8
international collaboration 25–27; operations, museum: challenges affecting
structural changes 23–24; upgrading of 30–32; museum members, roles
staff 25–27 32–34; social entrepreneurs 34–35;
museum membership programmes 32 transforming 30–36
Museum of Belize (MOB) 148–154 optimal anthropogenic capacity 3
Museum of Liverpool 15, 16 options appraisal 39, 41–42
Museum of Occupation 92–94, 96; negative organisational change 11
comment 95 organisational culture 114
museum planning 39, 47; planning Organizações Sociais (OS), Brazil
principles 42–47; planning process 173–181; benefits and limitations 175;
39–42 creation, motivations 174–175; and
museum professionals 165 culture 176–178
Museums Change Lives campaign 164,
165 Pachacamac archaeological sanctuary 142
museum’s mission, perspective 134 Pachacamac site museum 142–146; inter-
institutional cooperation 145–146; play
National History Museum of Zimbabwe 2 area 145
National Institute of Culture and History Pachacamac Site Museum in Peru 2
(NICH) 148 PAIN 185
national museum law 21 Pallant House Gallery, England 15
National Museum of Beirut 201 pandemic: museum leaders speak 10–12;
National Museum of Brazil in Rio de museums and publics 8–10
Janeiro 220 Paris Agreement 3, 211
National Museums Liverpool 16 paternalism 159
National Portrait Gallery in London 185 Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) 160, 161
National Trust 167 perceptibility 54
Natural History Museum (NHM) 14, 23 permanent conference, museum 59–60
Network Programme 162 personal compassion 13
new Amazwi South African Museum personal risk 224–225
of Literature 209, 211–215; energy Peru 143, 146
efficiency 212; indoor environmental Picardie, Musée de 118
quality 212; innovation 213–215; land planners: emotional and psychological
use and ecology 213; management 212; role 48
materials 213; needs assessment 212; planning principles 42–47; museums create
transport 213; water use 213; see also future 44–45; relational entity, museum
‘Green’ Museum 43–44; sustainability and evolution
Newark Museum 15 45–47
246 Index

planning process 39–42; masterplan 42; Ruiz, David 149

options appraisal 41–42; situation Ruiz, Luiz Alberto 149
analysis 40–41 Russia 231, 233, 234
Platinum Programme 162 Russian Heritage Institute 239n1
Poland 185
political party Law and Justice (PiS) 185 Saatchi, Charles 187
positive psychology 135 Sackler Trust 185
Poustinia Land Art 149 Saintly Emperor Guan’s Birthday
Private Support (Donations) 178 Celebration 76
Probiviri Committee 131 Sanctuary Management Plan 146
professional codes of ethics 186 Sandell, R. 68, 211
professional development 25 São Paulo, Brazil 173–181
professionalism 26 Sartorelli, Maestro Fabio 138
project approach 115 Scarpati, Dario 131, 133
project structure 117 Schärer, Martin 205n12
public consciousness 56 Schreiner, Olive 211
public direct funding/funds 178, 180 scientific evidence 14
public funding 11, 12, 181, 184 Scott, C. A. 15
public indirect funds 178 Second World War 185
public investment 185 self-care 13
publicly funded bodies 167 self-logic 126n2
public-private partnerships (PPPs) 3, 173, self-motivation 191
198, 202, 203 self-sustaining museums 45
public subsidies 26 Sensation: Young British Art from the
public trust 9 Saatchi Collection 187
push-and-pull effect, museum mergers 23 sensemaking 60–61
Serov, Valentin 233
Qasr Al Hosn 44 Serrell, B. 239n6
Qatar 47 service quality: model for evaluating 79–82
Qhapaq Ñan Project 142 SERVPERF model 81
qualitative data analysis 91 SERVQUAL model 80, 81, 84, 97
quality evaluation 79–100 Shetou culture 76, 77n5
Silk Mill Museum 163
Rampou, Kenneth 216, 217 Silverman, Lois 15
Raworth, Kate 47 Simon, Nina 61, 62
reciprocity 56 Singspiel The Magic Flute (Mozart) 138
recognizability 56 SISAN 143–144
Recovery Programme 162 situation analysis 39, 40–41; comparator
recursive process 39 organisations 40; critical success
redemptive force 38 factors 41; grand vision, museum
reflexive process 39 41; museum’s assets 40; museum’s
reinvention 76 positioning 40; respectful and
relationality 43, 44 empathetic dialogue 40
relevance 60–61; bridge of 61 skills-based sponsorship 200
reliability 60–61 smARTplaces project 114–126; Art
repositories: of value-oriented information 53 of Skate 119; audience data and
resilient museums 220–230 evaluation efforts 123–124; capacity
response thinking 221 building and change management 117;
Reventlow, C.D.F. 22 change of perspective 122; Digital Art
Reventlow Museum 22–24 Trainings 118–119; digitally enabled
Rijksmuseum 72; internal branding in 72, 73 toolkit 119–120; engagement rules
Rio+20 210 122; human factor 123; Innovative
Rome 131 Citizen 118; Media Facade Academy
Rose Art Museum, United States 31 118–119; mediation and cultural
 Index 247

activities 118–119; mediation tools 118; Sullivan, Louis 53

networking and experience exchanges support networks 227
117; new models of leadership 123; sustainability 13, 45–47, 210–211;
organisational development 123; understanding of 62–63, 64
outcomes and findings 121–124; project sustainable audience engagement 14
guidelines, relevant stakeholders sustainable development 209–217
124; project structure and stages Sustainable Preservation Initiative (SPI) 143
of implementation 115–116; small Sutter, Glenn 47
cabinets of curiosity 118; technological sweep rating index (SRI) 239n6
utopianism or determinism 122 Swiss Federal Constitution: Article 69
Smith, Thomas 156 205n4
social dialogue 61 Switzerland 199, 202, 204, 205n4
social embeddedness 61
social entrepreneurs 34–35 Tahoe Maritime Museum, California 31
social equity 210 Taiwan Association of Urban and Rural
social exclusion 157, 158 Development (TAUD) 72
social functions 233 territorial management 142–146
social history 157 Thematic Commission on Museum
Social History Curators Group (SHCG) 157 Accessibility 131, 132
social inclusion 157–159, 163 Tingenes Kulturhistorie (Stoklund) 20
social index 134 Tomlinson, George 156
social inequality 211 Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in
social justice model 163, 164 Object Handling (Chatterjee) 133
social media: mining 79–100 tourism 61–62
social networking sites 82–85, 99 transformational moment 17
social organisations 177 Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda
social reality 60 for Sustainable Development 211
social sculpture 64–65 TripAdvisor 84–86, 95, 96, 99
social transformation 126n1, 200 TripAdvisor user reviews: topic modelling
social value 34 of 87–90
social wellbeing 134 Tyne & Wear Museums (TWM)/Tyne &
South African Museums Association Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM)
Conference 215 158, 159, 162
South Baltic Interreg Region 26
South Kensington museums 156 UNESCO 174, 198
Spain 85 United Kingdom 44
Spiked Online magazine 159 United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial 45
sponsoring/sponsorship 61–62, 191, 193, United States 31
194, 200; acceptance policy 192–194; Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
rejection 190 Article 27 133
Stalder, Felix 126n1 UN Sustainable Development Goals 3
Standing Committee on Ethics (ETHCOM) urban riots 157
191 US Institute of Museum and Library
Staniforth, S. 210 Studies (IMLS) 9
state-approved museums 20, 23
Stiftsmuseet 22, 23 values 13, 14, 16, 54, 72, 74, 99, 123, 143,
Stoklund, Bjarne 20 145, 153, 178, 184, 186, 187, 190, 192,
Stone Age excavation 24 194, 196, 210
storytelling approach 117 Van Abbemuseum 121
strategic planning 20–28 Vedeninhad 231
strategic positioning 16 Victoria and Albert Museum 190
strategic vision 1 visibility 54, 56, 200
subjective wellbeing 139 vision statement 55
subjective wellbeing index 134 visitor relation management 57
248 Index

Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) 135, work programme, examples 117; capacity
136, 138 building and change management 117;
visual identity 55, 56, 73 networking and experience exchanges 117
visual impression, visitor journey 58, 59 World of Speed Motorsports Museum,
voluntary sector organisations 165 Wilsonville 31
‘Volunteering Pachacamac’ programme 146 Worts, Douglas 47

Ward, S. 55 xeriscape landscaping 214

Weick, Karl Edward 60
Weil, Stephen 15 Yerkovich, Sally 188, 189
wellbeing 135–139 Yi-Lan City 70
Wellbeing Programme 162
Wereldmuseum, Netherlands 31 Zaragoza 117
Winchester, Sarah 194 Zhang, S. 72
working-class culture 70 Zhuang, S. M. 70
WorkofArt Live Dialogue Series 120 ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany 117