The financial shock waves are taking a painful toll on our sector. The future seems so uncertain – what will be left, and what, if anything, can we do? Actually, there is a lot we can do. We just need the chance to stop, think, talk to each other, and be inspired.
The temptation when times are hard can be to hunker down and retreat to conventional ways of doing things. But real change happens when the status quo is no longer an option. Tough times can spark creative and dynamic thinking about purpose, vision and ways of working.
Next Top Model: Creating the Museums of the Future is one of the themes at this year’s Museums Association (MA) conference in Brighton (3-4 October). This strand will offer the chance to explore our sector’s future through innovative thinking and new business and management models.
The MA has first-hand experience of positive change and fresh ways of working through its Smarter Museums programme (2009-10). The programme supported ten museums to change their internal culture by improving the ways people work together.
Smarter Museums created opportunities for people to work collaboratively and differently – it pushed them to think about alternative models for managing their organisations.
The working practices introduced through participating in the programme have resulted in stronger organisations, better placed to face the difficulties that lie ahead.
Missons Models Money (MMM) shares the MA’s thinking that, despite cuts in public funding, and potentially more far-reaching challenges ahead, such as unsustainable economic growth, dwindling resources and climate change, there are opportunities to be taken.
Fiona Ellis, chairwoman of the Capital Matters task force, sets out MMM’s two causes for optimism in her forward to the Capital Matters report: “First we have found examples of where arts and cultural organisations have already anticipated the sort of change required and are evolving their business models.
Secondly, we subscribe to Nietzsche’s notion that ‘one must always have a little chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star’. Within this turbulence we have an opportunity to create a forward-looking, national long-term policy and support framework for the not-for-profit arts and cultural sector in the UK.”
Next Top Model will explore the possibilities that lie ahead for our sector – we want you to think big and talk big. Sessions will take you from thinking about what the museum of the future could look like, to discussing and sharing practical applications for new business and management models.
It will offer you bite-size training opportunities in the Smarter Room where you can try out new ways of working to take back to your museums.
Clare Cooper, from MMM and co-author of the Capital Matters report, will join us alongside other colleagues with skills and expertise in developing organisations and managing change to explore and discuss new visions and opportunities.
Other sessions will look at how we work with our people – reinvigorating management models and working practices – exploring new business models and sharing expertise.
It will give us the chance to take stock and think together about effective management and business models, which we need for our organisations if we are to survive and perhaps even flourish in these tough times.
Lucy Shaw is a cultural consultant. She is coordinating the Next Top Model theme at the Museums Association 2011 conference. Click here for booking details
The temptation when times are hard can be to hunker down and retreat to conventional ways of doing things. But real change happens when the status quo is no longer an option. Tough times can spark creative and dynamic thinking about purpose, vision and ways of working.
Next Top Model: Creating the Museums of the Future is one of the themes at this year’s Museums Association (MA) conference in Brighton (3-4 October). This strand will offer the chance to explore our sector’s future through innovative thinking and new business and management models.
The MA has first-hand experience of positive change and fresh ways of working through its Smarter Museums programme (2009-10). The programme supported ten museums to change their internal culture by improving the ways people work together.
Smarter Museums created opportunities for people to work collaboratively and differently – it pushed them to think about alternative models for managing their organisations.
The working practices introduced through participating in the programme have resulted in stronger organisations, better placed to face the difficulties that lie ahead.
Missons Models Money (MMM) shares the MA’s thinking that, despite cuts in public funding, and potentially more far-reaching challenges ahead, such as unsustainable economic growth, dwindling resources and climate change, there are opportunities to be taken.
Fiona Ellis, chairwoman of the Capital Matters task force, sets out MMM’s two causes for optimism in her forward to the Capital Matters report: “First we have found examples of where arts and cultural organisations have already anticipated the sort of change required and are evolving their business models.
Secondly, we subscribe to Nietzsche’s notion that ‘one must always have a little chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star’. Within this turbulence we have an opportunity to create a forward-looking, national long-term policy and support framework for the not-for-profit arts and cultural sector in the UK.”
Next Top Model will explore the possibilities that lie ahead for our sector – we want you to think big and talk big. Sessions will take you from thinking about what the museum of the future could look like, to discussing and sharing practical applications for new business and management models.
It will offer you bite-size training opportunities in the Smarter Room where you can try out new ways of working to take back to your museums.
Clare Cooper, from MMM and co-author of the Capital Matters report, will join us alongside other colleagues with skills and expertise in developing organisations and managing change to explore and discuss new visions and opportunities.
Other sessions will look at how we work with our people – reinvigorating management models and working practices – exploring new business models and sharing expertise.
It will give us the chance to take stock and think together about effective management and business models, which we need for our organisations if we are to survive and perhaps even flourish in these tough times.
Lucy Shaw is a cultural consultant. She is coordinating the Next Top Model theme at the Museums Association 2011 conference. Click here for booking details
