Over the next few months museums will be faced with challenging funding decisions.
Critical factors determining how successfully they respond will include their relationship with their stakeholders, their ability and willingness to ruthlessly evaluate themselves and their attitude to risk.
Focus on the museum, not on the money. A thorough examination of why the museum exists, what its unique purpose is, what its audience is and could be and how it relates to its main stakeholders, would be a good start.
Analyse activities and ensure that they all contribute to the aspirations of the governing body, the community and the local economy (through tourism, for example). Then the culture of the museum must be clinically analysed.
In many museums the main barrier to short-term survival and long-term sustainability is staff attitudes. We all know that there are serious professional and ethical issues to both challenge and protect, but in many places culture change will hold the key to happiness.
Money. Firstly strip out costs. How many people do you need to do the absolute essentials? Reduce management capacity rather than front-of-house or creative people. If the key performance indicator is number of visits, then buy-in marketing expertise. Sweat your assets. Think entrepreneurial.
We must take risks. This means going to uncomfortable places: introducing admission charges; altering opening hours; commercialisation; relying more on volunteers; rationalising collections.
There are some general pointers to survival in times of retrenchment. Try looking at yourself as others see you; especially others who may be able to determine your long-term fate. You may well need external assistance with this. Focus on those things that you can actually do something about.
What sort of strategic actions may be necessary? Get closer to the parent body and align your activities closely to the priorities of stakeholders. Instrumentalism is a well-tested route to survival in a corporate environment.
Semi-detached resentment is not a sustainable attitude. The greater the museum’s integration into other public services, the greater the protection from not just being cut but being cut adrift completely.
Refocusing the entire museum and all its staff towards income generation might help. This may be professionally unpalatable, but it could make the difference between being still around in five years’ time or not.
Encourage the business community to get involved in the museum. Try setting up standing focus groups from the community, with a brief to not just react to what the museum is doing, but gradually have a significant influence over what the museum is planning.
This could be done through a number of vehicles, including Friends’ groups. It is also an effective way of influencing local democracy.
What needs to exist if any of this is to happen? To me, the most important factor is leadership. A driving force at the head of the museum determined to do what is best for the long term, regardless of short-term risks and disapproval from more reactionary colleagues.
And if that does not exist inside the museum, then it has to be brought in from outside. Now is not the time of the faint hearted or the high minded.
Stuart Davies is a consultant, stuartwdavies@btinternet.com
These issues will be debated in the Smarter Museums theme at this year’s Museums Association conference in Brighton (3-4 October)
Click here to find out more
Critical factors determining how successfully they respond will include their relationship with their stakeholders, their ability and willingness to ruthlessly evaluate themselves and their attitude to risk.
Focus on the museum, not on the money. A thorough examination of why the museum exists, what its unique purpose is, what its audience is and could be and how it relates to its main stakeholders, would be a good start.
Analyse activities and ensure that they all contribute to the aspirations of the governing body, the community and the local economy (through tourism, for example). Then the culture of the museum must be clinically analysed.
In many museums the main barrier to short-term survival and long-term sustainability is staff attitudes. We all know that there are serious professional and ethical issues to both challenge and protect, but in many places culture change will hold the key to happiness.
Money. Firstly strip out costs. How many people do you need to do the absolute essentials? Reduce management capacity rather than front-of-house or creative people. If the key performance indicator is number of visits, then buy-in marketing expertise. Sweat your assets. Think entrepreneurial.
We must take risks. This means going to uncomfortable places: introducing admission charges; altering opening hours; commercialisation; relying more on volunteers; rationalising collections.
There are some general pointers to survival in times of retrenchment. Try looking at yourself as others see you; especially others who may be able to determine your long-term fate. You may well need external assistance with this. Focus on those things that you can actually do something about.
What sort of strategic actions may be necessary? Get closer to the parent body and align your activities closely to the priorities of stakeholders. Instrumentalism is a well-tested route to survival in a corporate environment.
Semi-detached resentment is not a sustainable attitude. The greater the museum’s integration into other public services, the greater the protection from not just being cut but being cut adrift completely.
Refocusing the entire museum and all its staff towards income generation might help. This may be professionally unpalatable, but it could make the difference between being still around in five years’ time or not.
Encourage the business community to get involved in the museum. Try setting up standing focus groups from the community, with a brief to not just react to what the museum is doing, but gradually have a significant influence over what the museum is planning.
This could be done through a number of vehicles, including Friends’ groups. It is also an effective way of influencing local democracy.
What needs to exist if any of this is to happen? To me, the most important factor is leadership. A driving force at the head of the museum determined to do what is best for the long term, regardless of short-term risks and disapproval from more reactionary colleagues.
And if that does not exist inside the museum, then it has to be brought in from outside. Now is not the time of the faint hearted or the high minded.
Stuart Davies is a consultant, stuartwdavies@btinternet.com
These issues will be debated in the Smarter Museums theme at this year’s Museums Association conference in Brighton (3-4 October)
Click here to find out more
