The Museums Association (MA) has come through tough times and it has thought hard about its purpose and priorities as a result.

At our first meeting, the new board was immediately called on for leadership: Arts Council England (ACE) invited our views on its future role in taking over key museum functions. We created a small task group to develop our thinking and to build on contributions from other board members and senior staff. We presented our submission to ACE in exactly seven weeks.

We saw this as an opportunity to think afresh and boldly in a completely changed political and cultural landscape; to draw on the huge breadth of the MA’s membership, sector knowledge and experience; to encourage the development of a framework for a balanced museum portfolio; and to think beyond Renaissance to a strategy to guide longer-term investment and decision-making.

The consensus was strong around these key points. ACE’s funding and support should broaden the reach, impact and public benefit of museums and galleries, giving broad opportunities for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. To this end, the MA encouraged ACE to broaden its investment “portfolio” to foster a healthy and diverse ecology in the sector.

Funding should encourage coalitions that strengthen impact and reach, and drive efficiencies; investment should support the whole public purpose of organisations or coalitions: it should not foster discrete “projects”, or support infrastructure or institutional improvement per se.

Evidence-gathering and evaluation should focus on outcomes and the impact of services, and enable national comparisons to be made. ACE should encourage honest reporting and shared reflection in order to build on learning. Sector-wide programmes should also be driven by the overarching goals of reach, impact and public benefit.

We each brought our own thinking about leadership to this task. For me, the questions are: where are the most creative and courageous leaders providing new thinking in this changed landscape? What qualities do we need to develop and nourish?

How might we move beyond limiting assumptions, to generate new possibilities? How will museums foster and generate new kinds of prosperity, well-being and citizenship, based on experience, connection and participation? What part will they play in a genuinely sustainable future?

Some organisations are finding new expressions of their institutional purpose. The people in them explore new territory, guided by a deep sense of what they stand for, what fulfils and sustains audiences, and other stakeholders, their business and themselves. They look to their longer-term purpose, expanding their portfolio and repertoire. They are not following others, or what they think others expect of them.

Organisation that are doing this, to name a few, are: the Museum of East Anglian Life in its pursuit of happiness; Historic Royal Palaces, especially the Enchanted Palace, for its storytelling and intrigue, bringing hidden stories to life; the Green Museum Leaders in the North West for the diversity and impact of initiatives generated; and the commitment to rethink collaboration from the Marches Network.

What stands out for me in all of these is the passion and engagement of the people involved – staff and volunteers. The museum experience has been invigorated, enriched and become more rewarding for them too.

Gaby Porter is an MA board member, co-director of the Museum Leaders Programme and an independent consultant