WHAT SORT OF MUSEUM LEADER IS NEEDED RIGHT NOW? No. 2 of 6 Edited extract from: Managing Change in Museums and Galleries: A Practical Guide (original) (raw)
Related papers
Managing Change in Museums and Galleries
2021
As museums and galleries emerge from (multiple) lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, they will be faced with short-term and longer-term problems. The short-term ones are about re-opening, hygiene, social distancing, and whether visitors will turn up. The longer-term ones are about what sort of museum/gallery this will be in the future, whether it can survive at all, what level of service it can provide, and financial planning.
Managing Change in Museums and Galleries: A Practical Guide, 2021
Edited extract from Managing Change in Museums and Galleries: A Practical Guide (to be published by Routledge in 2021). As museums and galleries emerge from lockdown in summer 2020 and start the painful process of re-thinking the future, we hope this short series of extracts may be of help to you in your recovery from the pandemic. This first one is entitled Prepare for Change.
Museum Leadership - taking the puls 2021
Museum Leadership - taking the pulse 2021. Museum leaders speak: INTERCOM’s research into museum leadership worldwide, 2021
This global study of museum leadership, undertaken by INTERCOM, brings attention to global museum leadership. The project examines and highlights two main processes and one significant principle: (i) leadership and change, with a specific interest in leading in times of unprecedented crisis based on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; and (ii) strategic leadership. Its principle is diversity, as it covers multiple territories, multiple governance models, and a wide range of priorities. The purpose of this major study is to, for the first time ever, develop a global picture of museum leadership, to establish regional differences, to address the sector’s most pressing questions and issues, and to define support for museum leaders based on evidence of need.
Journal of Management Development, 2002
In recent years museums have changed from being predominantly custodial institutions to becoming increasingly focussed on audience attraction. New emphasis is placed on museum-audience interactions and relationships. This change in the purpose and priorities of museums has impacted upon the nature of museum management. The recognition of new roles for museum directors and the need to appeal to differentiated audiences has created new challenges for previously traditional, custodial directors. This paper presents a conceptual framework for managing museums, taking account of the museum service context and the delivery of the museum service product. It then examines two museums, one in Ireland and one in Australia, both of which have a similar cultural history. The paper considers the different management styles for museum directors and how these different styles illustrate the changes in professional perspective from the traditional (a focus on custodial preservation) to the more current (a focus on educating and entertaining the public).
Museum Magazine, 2018
Topic: The training and professional development of museum staff What are the essential qualities that make a good museum professional in present day museum world? The ideal (museum) professional is a devotee of his/hers (museum) specialization but with a strong sense of belonging to a wider whole. Are dermatologists, gynecologists or pulmonologists distinctive professions? No, they are occupations, specializations within the medical profession and exist by the arguments of medical science. So, I if you accept the comparison, I would say, that talented, noble and responsible curators can exist as the result of a happy coincidence, but no job let alone a profession can be founded upon such fortuity. But talent and devotion helped by seminars, symposia and practice, create however, many good professionals. They have a broad insight into their basic academic discipline and deep interest in understanding of the world around them. Only from that can they provide the users of their museums with a needed, correct, honest product. What are some changes compared with the past standard? Alas, there has never been an international standard, which is both, good and bad. Generally, the changes are great and beneficial: more and more future curators receive some kind of professional training but it has to become obligatory and,-good. Our conference in Dubrovnik is part of that collective effort in learning (at least) by the best examples (www.thebestinheritage.com). However, this partly spontaneous process is not what any profession would consider as strategy for its future. The disastrous fact is that probably 80% of curators working in museums have received only their specialist academic training and no specific education for the public service they run. What kind of young talent is most likely to shape the future of the museum? I am afraid that the future of museums will increasingly depend upon holders of power. But we have to master as much of our mission as possible. The young, talented, scientifically well trained, educated for the heritage profession and devoted to public good might assure us some chances. Privatization, commodification and commercialization are destroying professions. I hope some countries and cultures will know how to retain public services and prevent delivering the society unconditionally to the profit predators. We need to have young curators who will finally establish a profession. Societies thrive on professions and they have been created for that. A good memory on what values humanity is founded will be the condition for survival of the mankind when casino capitalism finally pushes the world into the abyss of artificial intelligence, cyborgs and hybrid human beings. We desperately need the memory of quality, of basic values and virtues of humanitas. We need those with a mission,-who want the world get better,-if that does not sound obsolete in this cynical and hypocritical world. The public can learn only from those whom it loves; on the other hand, to be loved one must love first.
Curatorship still lacks a professional ritual, a defined canon of knowledge and skills, and it derives no sense of assurance from a purely professional licensing authority with disciplinary powers . . . Why is it that curatorship still lacks that sense of corporate unity which is the enviable source of the confidence and independence enjoyed in other walks of life? Anthony Duggan The museum idea has had a long complicated history rooted in our collecting behaviours and prototype institutions-from royal collections to popular exhibitions-which came to fruition in the British museums legislation of 1845. Although this legislation did not create a national museum structure or system of support for museums-for that was to take another 100 years-it emerged from a long and substantial history of discussion about museums, their purpose and their activities. There was, then, using Tony Duggan's words in 1969, a substantial cultural tradition of museum work, but the field functioned as if there was none. The overwhelming belief of those working in museums was of isolation and lack of antecedents, as James Paton of Glasgow had testified in 1895:
Changes in museum management: A custodial or marketing emphasis?
Journal of Management Development, 2002
In recent years museums have changed from being predominantly custodial institutions to becoming increasingly focussed on audience attraction. New emphasis is placed on museum-audience interactions and relationships. This change in the purpose and priorities of museums has impacted upon the nature of museum management. The recognition of new roles for museum directors and the need to appeal to differentiated audiences has created new challenges for previously traditional, custodial directors. This paper presents a conceptual framework for managing museums, taking account of the museum service context and the delivery of the museum service product. It then examines two museums, one in Ireland and one in Australia, both of which have a similar cultural history. The paper considers the different management styles for museum directors and how these different styles illustrate the changes in professional perspective from the traditional (a focus on custodial preservation) to the more current (a focus on educating and entertaining the public).