Are museums wising up to benefits of digital age?
Study into the use of technology in the cultural sector reveals that organisations are getting smarter about how they do digital, but barriers such as a lack of funding mean museums are not benefiting as much as their counterparts
A new report on the use of digital technology in the English cultural sector has raised the question of whether the digital development of museums is lagging behind that of other cultural organisations, and highlighted the ongoing barriers that museums face in this area.
The Digital Culture 2017 report, carried out by the innovation charity Nesta and Arts Council England (ACE) and published in September, surveyed 1,424 cultural organisations, including 211 museums (galleries was a separate category). It was the fourth such report, with the first undertaken in 2013.
The findings suggest that cultural organisations are getting smarter about how they do digital.
“There has been a fall in the average number of digital activities undertaken per organisation but this has not led to a decline in reported impact, which suggests that organisations may be focusing their efforts and resources in a more targeted way,” says the report.
In 2013, arts and cultural organisations carried out 9.2 types of digital activity each, which fell to 7.8 this year.
But the proportion of organisations regarding digital as important or essential to their business model rose from 34% in 2013 to 53% in 2017.
This trend is being mirrored in museums. On average, they engaged in 7.5 activities in 2017 (down from 8.8 in 2013), with 48% saying digital is important to their business model – up 16 percentage points from 2013.
The most widespread digital activities in museums are digitising collections (73%) and publishing content on free platforms (72%). These are followed by email marketing (56%), making existing recordings available for digital consumption (56%) and publishing content on their website (50%).
The focus of museums’ digital work has shifted significantly since 2013. The largest increases were in providing educational content online (+25%), paid search and online display advertising (+14%) and accepting online donations (+10%). Meanwhile, efforts in search engine optimisation (-12%), email marketing (-11%) and providing interactive educational experiences (-11%) have dropped off.
In eight of the 26 business areas tracked by the survey, the proportion of museums saying that digital technology has had a major positive impact has “significantly increased”. The areas experiencing the biggest increase are “reaching a bigger audience” (+20%) and “selling tickets online for events and/or exhibitions” (+17%). The only significant decrease in impact was in “collaboration with other organisations on artistic projects” (-8%).
Cultural differences
The survey has also revealed significant differences between museums and the wider arts and culture sector. Museums are less likely than the sector as a whole to say that digital technology is important to their organisation in three key areas: marketing, operations, and distribution and exhibition. In the case of the last category, there has been a decline of 18 percentage points since 2013 in the proportion of museums regarding this as important.
There is also evidence that museums are not seeing as big an impact from digital as other cultural organisations. Overall, a smaller proportion of museums (62%) say that digital has had a positive impact on achieving their organisation’s overall mission than in the cultural sector as a whole (70%).
In 19 of the 26 business areas tracked, a smaller proportion of museums report a major positive impact from digital technology than cultural organisations as a whole. The biggest differences are in “selling tickets online” (24% compared with 39%), “how they distributed their work” (9% compared with 24%) and “connecting with new communities” (18% compared with 34%).
But Bridget McKenzie, the founding director of the Flow Associates cultural consultancy, urges caution about these results, because the survey questions may not have captured the extent of museums’ less public-facing digital work.
“The arts are generally expressive, open-ended, performative and spectacular, and all about interacting with audiences,” she says. “Of course, the best museums are also brilliant at narrative, participation and engagement – but that’s not their only purpose.”
McKenzie points out that a large proportion of museum funding is granted for purposes such as acquisitions and capital development, whereas arts organisations receive more direct support for public engagement activities.
“In museums, technology has functions that are more operational, more back end and more to do with research,” she says. Pointing to work such as improving environment control in stores, digitising collections more efficiently and working internationally to preserve heritage damaged by conflict, McKenzie says: “All of those functions use technology in incredibly innovative ways, but the survey questions are not enabling museums to showcase the work they do”.
The survey results indicate that smaller museums, in particular, are experiencing less impact from digital. Large museums (those with a turnover of more than £500,000) report similar levels of digital impact to the similar-sized organisations in the wider sector (76% compared with 80%). But only 54% of small museums (those with a turnover less than £100,000) report a positive impact from digital, compared with 67% of organisations of this size across the wider sector.
Larger museums also report a greater positive impact from digital technology than small and medium-sized museums across all business areas, with the exception of archiving.
Barriers to success
But the survey found that museums of all sizes face similar barriers to achieving their digital aspirations.
One key issue is funding. More than half (56%) of museums report a lack of funding to allocate to digital projects as a major barrier, and 48% are held back by a difficulty in accessing external funding for digital projects.
The way in which funders operate can also cause problems, even if inadvertently. Katie Moffat, the head of digital at the Audience Agency, which provides information and analysis on audiences to cultural organisations, says a project-based approach can mean that museums are not able to maintain or update digital work once it is done.
“A museum might get funding to digitise a collection and put it online, but the problem is that there is no long-term support,” she says.
Moffat adds that it is easier to receive funding for public-facing projects, especially those that showcase exciting technology, than the less glamorous infrastructure that supports these.
“I recently spoke to a regional museum that is digitising its collection, but it has an issue with server space,” she says. “That sort of thing is quite difficult to get funding for.”
McKenzie adds that the bureaucracy involved can discourage innovation. “The hoops that you have to jump through and the process that you have to go through requires you to be very un-agile,” she says. “Funding bodies could do more to allow technology to be used in a more fluid and emergent way.”
Other reported major barriers are limited IT systems (49%) and a lack of control over these (38%).
There are also barriers relating to the museum workforce. A lack of in-house staff time is the biggest reported obstacle to achieving digital aspirations, identified as a major barrier by 72% of museums. A lack of skills and knowledge (39%) and confidence (36%) are also major hindrances.
“Bottom-up approach”
But Sejul Malde, the research manager of Culture 24, says identifying gaps through a “top-down” benchmarking exercise is only part of the answer to encouraging digital development. In contrast, the One by One project, which is led by his organisation and the University of Leicester, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is seeking to promote a “bottom-up” approach that uses digital technology to support and enhance what museums are already doing. The project will promote a broader idea of digital literacy that includes qualities such as being open to experimentation, as well as specific skills.
Malde says this approach is open to all institutions, whatever their size. “Often it’s not about expense, it’s about how to change the working practices of the people that you have already got,” he says. One by One will involve testing practical initiatives in six museums (including Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, National Museums Scotland and Derby Museums) to help develop a digital literacy framework for the sector.
Malde says he would like the conversation on digital transformation to broaden from a narrow focus on income generation to take in social purpose as well. This is the aim of the Culture 24-led research project, Let’s Get Real 6, which will run from January to October 2018.
“If you look at other sectors, digital is not just about a very functional, tools-oriented approach,” he says. “It’s about the fact that the world is changing because of the influence of digital technology and culture.”
Visitors were given a handheld wooden device that triggered audio content depending on how it was pointed or placed. Tim Powell, a digital producer at HRP, says they wanted to avoid the cerebral experience of a screen. “It was about how we could use different multi-sensory technologies to create emotional responses to the stories,” he says.
In 2015, HRP funded the development of five prototype ideas. Two of the organisations that submitted these – a design studio and a theatre company – were chosen to collaborate on the final offer.
Powell says the organisation used a “completely new” iterative approach that required it to be more flexible. “Everything is based on rounds and rounds and rounds of testing,” he adds.
“You can have what you think is the best idea in the world, but if it doesn’t work, you just have to get rid of it. It’s quite a humbling process.”
The Digital Culture 2017 report, carried out by the innovation charity Nesta and Arts Council England (ACE) and published in September, surveyed 1,424 cultural organisations, including 211 museums (galleries was a separate category). It was the fourth such report, with the first undertaken in 2013.
The findings suggest that cultural organisations are getting smarter about how they do digital.
“There has been a fall in the average number of digital activities undertaken per organisation but this has not led to a decline in reported impact, which suggests that organisations may be focusing their efforts and resources in a more targeted way,” says the report.
In 2013, arts and cultural organisations carried out 9.2 types of digital activity each, which fell to 7.8 this year.
But the proportion of organisations regarding digital as important or essential to their business model rose from 34% in 2013 to 53% in 2017.
This trend is being mirrored in museums. On average, they engaged in 7.5 activities in 2017 (down from 8.8 in 2013), with 48% saying digital is important to their business model – up 16 percentage points from 2013.
The most widespread digital activities in museums are digitising collections (73%) and publishing content on free platforms (72%). These are followed by email marketing (56%), making existing recordings available for digital consumption (56%) and publishing content on their website (50%).
The focus of museums’ digital work has shifted significantly since 2013. The largest increases were in providing educational content online (+25%), paid search and online display advertising (+14%) and accepting online donations (+10%). Meanwhile, efforts in search engine optimisation (-12%), email marketing (-11%) and providing interactive educational experiences (-11%) have dropped off.
In eight of the 26 business areas tracked by the survey, the proportion of museums saying that digital technology has had a major positive impact has “significantly increased”. The areas experiencing the biggest increase are “reaching a bigger audience” (+20%) and “selling tickets online for events and/or exhibitions” (+17%). The only significant decrease in impact was in “collaboration with other organisations on artistic projects” (-8%).
Cultural differences
The survey has also revealed significant differences between museums and the wider arts and culture sector. Museums are less likely than the sector as a whole to say that digital technology is important to their organisation in three key areas: marketing, operations, and distribution and exhibition. In the case of the last category, there has been a decline of 18 percentage points since 2013 in the proportion of museums regarding this as important.
There is also evidence that museums are not seeing as big an impact from digital as other cultural organisations. Overall, a smaller proportion of museums (62%) say that digital has had a positive impact on achieving their organisation’s overall mission than in the cultural sector as a whole (70%).
In 19 of the 26 business areas tracked, a smaller proportion of museums report a major positive impact from digital technology than cultural organisations as a whole. The biggest differences are in “selling tickets online” (24% compared with 39%), “how they distributed their work” (9% compared with 24%) and “connecting with new communities” (18% compared with 34%).
But Bridget McKenzie, the founding director of the Flow Associates cultural consultancy, urges caution about these results, because the survey questions may not have captured the extent of museums’ less public-facing digital work.
“The arts are generally expressive, open-ended, performative and spectacular, and all about interacting with audiences,” she says. “Of course, the best museums are also brilliant at narrative, participation and engagement – but that’s not their only purpose.”
McKenzie points out that a large proportion of museum funding is granted for purposes such as acquisitions and capital development, whereas arts organisations receive more direct support for public engagement activities.
“In museums, technology has functions that are more operational, more back end and more to do with research,” she says. Pointing to work such as improving environment control in stores, digitising collections more efficiently and working internationally to preserve heritage damaged by conflict, McKenzie says: “All of those functions use technology in incredibly innovative ways, but the survey questions are not enabling museums to showcase the work they do”.
The survey results indicate that smaller museums, in particular, are experiencing less impact from digital. Large museums (those with a turnover of more than £500,000) report similar levels of digital impact to the similar-sized organisations in the wider sector (76% compared with 80%). But only 54% of small museums (those with a turnover less than £100,000) report a positive impact from digital, compared with 67% of organisations of this size across the wider sector.
Larger museums also report a greater positive impact from digital technology than small and medium-sized museums across all business areas, with the exception of archiving.
Barriers to success
But the survey found that museums of all sizes face similar barriers to achieving their digital aspirations.
One key issue is funding. More than half (56%) of museums report a lack of funding to allocate to digital projects as a major barrier, and 48% are held back by a difficulty in accessing external funding for digital projects.
The way in which funders operate can also cause problems, even if inadvertently. Katie Moffat, the head of digital at the Audience Agency, which provides information and analysis on audiences to cultural organisations, says a project-based approach can mean that museums are not able to maintain or update digital work once it is done.
“A museum might get funding to digitise a collection and put it online, but the problem is that there is no long-term support,” she says.
Moffat adds that it is easier to receive funding for public-facing projects, especially those that showcase exciting technology, than the less glamorous infrastructure that supports these.
“I recently spoke to a regional museum that is digitising its collection, but it has an issue with server space,” she says. “That sort of thing is quite difficult to get funding for.”
McKenzie adds that the bureaucracy involved can discourage innovation. “The hoops that you have to jump through and the process that you have to go through requires you to be very un-agile,” she says. “Funding bodies could do more to allow technology to be used in a more fluid and emergent way.”
Other reported major barriers are limited IT systems (49%) and a lack of control over these (38%).
There are also barriers relating to the museum workforce. A lack of in-house staff time is the biggest reported obstacle to achieving digital aspirations, identified as a major barrier by 72% of museums. A lack of skills and knowledge (39%) and confidence (36%) are also major hindrances.
“Bottom-up approach”
But Sejul Malde, the research manager of Culture 24, says identifying gaps through a “top-down” benchmarking exercise is only part of the answer to encouraging digital development. In contrast, the One by One project, which is led by his organisation and the University of Leicester, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is seeking to promote a “bottom-up” approach that uses digital technology to support and enhance what museums are already doing. The project will promote a broader idea of digital literacy that includes qualities such as being open to experimentation, as well as specific skills.
Malde says this approach is open to all institutions, whatever their size. “Often it’s not about expense, it’s about how to change the working practices of the people that you have already got,” he says. One by One will involve testing practical initiatives in six museums (including Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, National Museums Scotland and Derby Museums) to help develop a digital literacy framework for the sector.
Malde says he would like the conversation on digital transformation to broaden from a narrow focus on income generation to take in social purpose as well. This is the aim of the Culture 24-led research project, Let’s Get Real 6, which will run from January to October 2018.
“If you look at other sectors, digital is not just about a very functional, tools-oriented approach,” he says. “It’s about the fact that the world is changing because of the influence of digital technology and culture.”
The Lost Palace
One acclaimed digital museum project is The Lost Palace, which ran at Banqueting House (part of Historic Royal Palaces – HRP) in London this summer and attracted more than 6,000 visitors. The biggest audience group was 25- to 34-year-olds and three-quarters of visitors had never been to the venue before.Visitors were given a handheld wooden device that triggered audio content depending on how it was pointed or placed. Tim Powell, a digital producer at HRP, says they wanted to avoid the cerebral experience of a screen. “It was about how we could use different multi-sensory technologies to create emotional responses to the stories,” he says.
In 2015, HRP funded the development of five prototype ideas. Two of the organisations that submitted these – a design studio and a theatre company – were chosen to collaborate on the final offer.
Powell says the organisation used a “completely new” iterative approach that required it to be more flexible. “Everything is based on rounds and rounds and rounds of testing,” he adds.
“You can have what you think is the best idea in the world, but if it doesn’t work, you just have to get rid of it. It’s quite a humbling process.”