Best of the Decade for Museums

Written by Seema Rao

Last month, I shared some of my thoughts about the best of museums over the last decades. (I admit some of my best included a big of the worst side of the best). This week, I'm summarizing everyone else's ideas about the best trends of the decade. I'll mention now, Kate Livingston, listed Museum Twitter as one of the best things, and I definitely thought this as I read people's responses.

Many respondents talked about a fundamental shift in museums from them to us. We transformed from transmit to recieve. This changed attitude manifested in many different ways. For example, this change included sharing our collections online. As Aron mentioned, this shift required a fundamental intellectual shift.

the (still ongoing) paradigm shift towards museums realizing collections aren’t ”theirs”. Huge shift in online collections beginning with Flickr Commons and CC licenses back around 2008 but it will take another decade for everyone to get onboard :)

— Aron Ambrosiani (@AronAmbrosiani) December 2, 2019

And, when you make that kind of shift to shared ownership you're willing to share in an open, trusting manner, as Heidi mentioned.

Open access to online digital collections with high resolution images and video #musetech

— ✨Heidi Quicksilver✨ (@MissHQ) December 4, 2019

This shift to a more open mindset also created fundamental shifts in operations and programming. As Jeremy mentioned, many museums wanted to be social spaces and made changes to create that culture, and as Andrea mentioned, they created amenities to support this social use.

...adding public wifi.

— Andrea Ledesma (@am_ledesma) December 2, 2019

reducing/eliminating cost of admission and refocusing as a public space/hangout space/event space

— Jeremy aka General in the WMATA Posting Wars (@porchrates) December 4, 2019

Our physical transformation was also obvious in our galleries:

More interesting exhibit design! Fewer white boxes, more immersive experiences, multi-sensory, interactive elements (even in art museums), willingness not to take oneself too seriously. Sometimes means added accessibility, since there are multiple ways to engage with the topic.

— Meg Winikates (@mwinikates) December 2, 2019

Museums also looked for people where they are and how they are, rather than asking people to just receive what the museum wanted to offer. The programs and interpretation changed as a result. Rather than unidirectional from museums out, museums began co-creating with other people, transforming the traditional means of production and seat of power.

True Co-Creation with communities, especially those that have been oppressed in any way.

— Max Evjen (@cantus94) December 4, 2019

It also meant holding programs that were different from our usual MO. Rather than creating all for one content, museums starting looking at the particular needs for specific audiences. (Also, to know more about how you can be more inclusive listen to Beth's #MCNIgnite).

Acknowledging invisible challenges for visitors and starting to develop programs/hours/tools for them— autism, mental health.

— Beth Redmond-Jones (@bredmondjones) December 2, 2019

We admitted that our existing programs and hours don't work from most adults, who have full-time jobs and might not want to leave the office to sit in a dark lecture hall. After hours events, for example, required changing the way we did things. The transformation was worth it, as Molly mentioned.

A lot of museums here in the Bay Area hold entertaining after hours events. They make museums a part of the community which engages many aspects of the community on many levels. And they celebrate the nerdiness of thinking a museum is the coolest place to spend an evening!

— Molly Blue Horror of Dawn (@WhatMollySaid) December 6, 2019

But, these changes above required museums doing a better job of understanding their audiences and listening to them. As Matt mentioned:

deriving audience insights from actual data and research and beginning to make decisions from that baseline. Measuring the impact (even just nps or satisfaction scores) instead of "well-educated guesses" is the only way our missions can be impactful

— Matt Tarr (@matthewtarr) December 2, 2019

Overall, museums allowed ourselves to be vulnerable. Our openness was rewarded each time someone liked our tweets, someone mentioned our interesting programs at a dinner party, and someone brought a friend to our events. We, however, have plenty of room to grow. Next week, we'll discuss the worst trends from the decade. The worker, technology, and money will feature large next week.

(Please consider passing your ideas about big trends for the decade. Tag me so I can add your thoughts to this month’s summary post @artlust on twitter, @_art_lust_ on IG, & @brilliantideastudiollc on FB).