A new paper funded by the National Museum Directors’ Conference (NMDC) aims to provoke debate within the sector about the extent of museums’ cultural impact in light of the “target culture” of the past decade.
Making a Difference: the Cultural Impact of Museums, by independent museum consultant Sara Selwood, “attempts to move beyond Labour’s preoccupations with economic and social impacts to demonstrate ways in which museums expand people’s understanding of the world”.
Twenty-two NMDC members submitted details of 85 projects to illustrate how museum collections and programmes affect visitors’ understanding of the world, and how people respond to museum experiences.
Selwood argues that the “substance” of museum programmes has been neglected in policy debates over the past decade.
The second part of the paper discusses how cultural impact may be identified, focusing on value assessment frameworks. Part three explores “strategies for making a difference”, with sections on rebranding, partnerships and digital dissemination.
But a commentator who preferred to remain unnamed said: “If the NMDC wants a piece of advocacy that actually works, to convince the government of the value of museums, then it should carefully tease out the direct [economic] and indirect [cultural] benefits to communities of expertise and communities of commerce.”
Adrian Babbidge, director of heritage consultancy Egeria, said: “This is a thorough and thoughtful piece of analysis demonstrating that museums can stimulate a broad span of cultural impacts.”
Click here to download the paper (pdf)