The notion of the museum world borrowing from management thought has become de rigeur over the past two decades. The exhortations to develop a more commercial attitude (especially as funding purse-strings tightened), to employ private-sector specialists and build trading wings, have become constant. And many, if not most, galleries have attempted to embrace such attitudes.
But limiting the influence of changes in the private sector to the commercial sphere means failing to take on board some of the more adventurous thinking coming out of the management arena.
Restricting the entrepreneurial spirit to the retail or corporate sector means missing the chance to adopt a far more flexible attitude towards the organisation, to develop less hierarchical structures, and to engage more effectively with a continually changing world.
Entrepreneurial companies, at their best, adapt to circumstance. Their strategies are continually emerging rather than planned. They develop, and are prepared to change everything to take advantage of gaps in the market. Such companies understand their core mission but are flexible in how that mission is played out in relation to consumers.
The model in museums is to see permanent and temporary exhibitions as separate. Budget restraints mean that permanent exhibits are rarely re-displayed beyond an occasional case, or the addition of a new object or two. Except for museums that are too large to get around in one visit, they offer little to encourage people to return.
Meanwhile, temporary exhibitions are used to pull in the punters. They often originate with marketing departments, and in the traditional blockbuster model call for huge resources. Their success can end up making the rest of the building seem astonishingly empty.
This divide often leaves permanent galleries looking out-dated, uncared for and irrelevant. Which is why it is time for a fundamental shift in perspective to take on board some of the concepts behind the development of emerging strategies, and bridge the division between permanent and temporary exhibitions. The whole of the gallery and museum space should be embraced as one that is always in a state of flux.
Such an attitude would provide a broader canvas on which to work. Treating the whole space as flexible would allow galleries to react much faster to the changing world, whether in terms of object re-display or reinterpretation of existing displays. It would provide a space that constantly attracted visitors wanting to see what was different.
This new way of working would require adaptations in terms of technical infrastructure and job demarcation. The curatorial post would have to become more focused on a policy of continual change.
Training in interpretation and education skills would have to be speeded up; the ponderous discussion of the correct way to re-write labels would have to be replaced by a flexible attitude to interpretation. Expertise would need to be shared across the organisation, rather than kept in departmental silos.
Some galleries and museums are already seizing the opportunity. The Dana Centre at the Science Museum is one solution; a space that reacts to changes in contemporary debates. Other museums are abandoning blockbuster temporary exhibitions in order to concentrate resources on introducing more flexibility across the entire space.
Some galleries are leaving most of the objects in place but developing methods for continually reviewing and redefining the systems of knowledge through which the objects are interpreted.
These lessons have been somewhat forced on us at Urbis in Manchester. Founding a centre focusing on the contemporary and future city was a wonderful idea. Populating it with permanent displays was less so. It guaranteed that the displays were out of date almost from opening.
As we now move to redevelop, we're aware of having to build in the ability to change, to react to the continually evolving city (not to mention to include space to reflect what's happening in our city and be part of it, rather than stand aside and observe).
We're lucky in some ways - 80 per cent of our audience is under 40, a demographic most galleries would die for. These are people raised on continual change, on an ever-expanding media bubble, who are resistant to things staying the same. This forces us to explore and motivates us to develop.
But these lessons are relevant to all museums and galleries. The entrepreneurial spirit should not be restricted to the business sector. The museum should be as swift, as perceptive and as innovative as anything in the private sector. Otherwise we risk losing our audience.
Vaughan Allen is the chief executive of Urbis in Manchester
But limiting the influence of changes in the private sector to the commercial sphere means failing to take on board some of the more adventurous thinking coming out of the management arena.
Restricting the entrepreneurial spirit to the retail or corporate sector means missing the chance to adopt a far more flexible attitude towards the organisation, to develop less hierarchical structures, and to engage more effectively with a continually changing world.
Entrepreneurial companies, at their best, adapt to circumstance. Their strategies are continually emerging rather than planned. They develop, and are prepared to change everything to take advantage of gaps in the market. Such companies understand their core mission but are flexible in how that mission is played out in relation to consumers.
The model in museums is to see permanent and temporary exhibitions as separate. Budget restraints mean that permanent exhibits are rarely re-displayed beyond an occasional case, or the addition of a new object or two. Except for museums that are too large to get around in one visit, they offer little to encourage people to return.
Meanwhile, temporary exhibitions are used to pull in the punters. They often originate with marketing departments, and in the traditional blockbuster model call for huge resources. Their success can end up making the rest of the building seem astonishingly empty.
This divide often leaves permanent galleries looking out-dated, uncared for and irrelevant. Which is why it is time for a fundamental shift in perspective to take on board some of the concepts behind the development of emerging strategies, and bridge the division between permanent and temporary exhibitions. The whole of the gallery and museum space should be embraced as one that is always in a state of flux.
Such an attitude would provide a broader canvas on which to work. Treating the whole space as flexible would allow galleries to react much faster to the changing world, whether in terms of object re-display or reinterpretation of existing displays. It would provide a space that constantly attracted visitors wanting to see what was different.
This new way of working would require adaptations in terms of technical infrastructure and job demarcation. The curatorial post would have to become more focused on a policy of continual change.
Training in interpretation and education skills would have to be speeded up; the ponderous discussion of the correct way to re-write labels would have to be replaced by a flexible attitude to interpretation. Expertise would need to be shared across the organisation, rather than kept in departmental silos.
Some galleries and museums are already seizing the opportunity. The Dana Centre at the Science Museum is one solution; a space that reacts to changes in contemporary debates. Other museums are abandoning blockbuster temporary exhibitions in order to concentrate resources on introducing more flexibility across the entire space.
Some galleries are leaving most of the objects in place but developing methods for continually reviewing and redefining the systems of knowledge through which the objects are interpreted.
These lessons have been somewhat forced on us at Urbis in Manchester. Founding a centre focusing on the contemporary and future city was a wonderful idea. Populating it with permanent displays was less so. It guaranteed that the displays were out of date almost from opening.
As we now move to redevelop, we're aware of having to build in the ability to change, to react to the continually evolving city (not to mention to include space to reflect what's happening in our city and be part of it, rather than stand aside and observe).
We're lucky in some ways - 80 per cent of our audience is under 40, a demographic most galleries would die for. These are people raised on continual change, on an ever-expanding media bubble, who are resistant to things staying the same. This forces us to explore and motivates us to develop.
But these lessons are relevant to all museums and galleries. The entrepreneurial spirit should not be restricted to the business sector. The museum should be as swift, as perceptive and as innovative as anything in the private sector. Otherwise we risk losing our audience.
Vaughan Allen is the chief executive of Urbis in Manchester
