Vox pop

“We should take a great deal of notice. Customers, stakeholders or taxpayers – or any combination of the above – all have opinions and perceptions that we must canvass, understand and act on.

The key is deciding how to respond. We should not accept existing popular stereotypes or limited expectations as the template for what a museum should be. Instead, we must challenge preconceptions, set new standards and demonstrate our worth. This is precisely why the popularity of museums worldwide has increased so significantly in recent decades.

If the public do not recognise the potential of museums it is because we, as a sector, have failed to consistently communicate, or even demonstrate this potential. It is certainly not a reason to constrain our ambitions!”


“It’s nearly 25 years since Vanessa Trevelyan’s Dingy Places With Different Kinds of Bits exposed non-visitors’ attitudes towards London museums. It’s unclear whether museums paid any attention, but they have changed radically since.

Responses to BritainThink’s findings suggest a massive gap between the public and many in museums. But that’s not necessarily the case. Participants respected the principles in Museums 2020 – that museums should be universally accessible, and that they are about learning and discussion.

In their defensiveness, museum professionals may have missed some of the report’s more salutary findings. It’s not so much about what museums are doing – more whether they could do them more effectively. Listening to the public could help museums achieve their ambitions.”


“Some of the most significant shifts in museum thinking have emerged out of research with visitors and, importantly, non- visitors. But while public opinion should inform our thinking it shouldn’t determine our direction.

I remember working on a contemporary art exhibition, 20 years ago, that sought to dispel myths and raise awareness about HIV and Aids.

If we’d asked the public in advance if this was what they wanted, they might have been cautious, baffled or wholly negative. Yet, the exhibition was well-visited, generated a hugely positive public response and a measurable increase in HIV awareness.

The best organisations listen to the public but, at the same time, museum professionals should be guided by a set of shared values.”


“Good museums are in constant dialogue with their publics, who may also be originators of their cultural resources and co-producers of cultural services.

Development of museums is a craft. There is art in it, and science and technology, as well as social science – including expertise in public research and engagement.

But above all it requires wisdom, skills, humanity and long practice, as well as vision, to create cultural experiences that work.

In 1989 the cultural theorist Neil Postman asked International Council of Museums delegates to imagine they were in Berlin in 1933. What museum would they build?

The one the people of that city wanted, or the one they needed? It is a universal question that every museum must answer.”