Museums Outside-In
“Museums are in the midst of another transition … from the government/corporate sector to the realm of civil society.”
So says Gail Dexter Lord in her remarks to the second Stephen Weil Memorial Lecture on August 20, 2007 at the International Council of Museums General Conference in Vienna, Austria.
Over the past few decades there has been a slow stealthy transition of museums from the government to the civil society realm; and like most change in museums, it is not always by choice. This momentous change started with small cutbacks in government grant aid. On average, government subsidy to individual museums has declined by 20% to 50% over the past 30 years. However, it needs to be said that overall government subsidy to the sector may even have increased. But there are more museums and museums are more professional so they want to do more - selling even better quality services at below the cost of production!
But something very exciting is also going on. Because the museum must look outside for support -- not only financial but social – it becomes a more outward focussed organization with more links to the community. Good reviews are very important--not just for your professional standing--but because it is important that your museum is embraced by your community. The Deputy Director now needs to learn about the tourism industry and the Head of Education has to learn how to welcome learners of all ages and all ethnic groups exhibitions becomes more of a dialogue and less of a monologue and so a more vital type of museum has emerged. A more outside-in museum has emerged.
I would suggest that, whether or not a museum becomes de-linked from government, there is a tipping point in the proportion of government versus income from other sources at which the museum becomes de facto a civil society institution. Whether this tipping point occurs at 50% or 75% or 85% single source funding is relative to the local culture, politics and the size of museum. Does the museum director and his or her team have a different role before and after this tipping point has been reached?
Much of the recent business literature on this subject makes a big distinction between the two roles:
These texts say that Management is about “doing the thing right”.
But Leadership is about “doing the right thing”.
I question whether this distinction is valid for museums?
Gail Dexter Lord is the author of many other speeches as well as the co-author of The Manual of Museum Management (1997) and The Manual of Strategic Planning for Museums (2007), and co-editor of The Manual of Museum Planning (1991) and The Manual of Museum Exhibitions (2001), published by AltaMira Press. Visit http://www.lord.ca for more information.
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