Why people love museums

Nick Poole, CEOCollections Trust

“It’s marvellous. People will see. It’s not about us. It’s about another generation that will come, who are preparing a fertile ground for the generations to come. So that they can learn from this institution around them. Not going far away. This institution is not in town, but in front of their doorsteps.”

I want everyone to feel about every museum the way the people of New Brighton feel about the Red Location.

Why do you work in museums?

The same thing that inspired you to do this for a job is the thing that people love about your museum.

The way you feel when you walk into your museum in the morning, or take a stroll round the store during your break, or discover something in a drawer is the feeling your users are searching for.

We just need to let them share in it.

Things are sustainable when people protect and use them.

People protect and use things they love and value.

What kind of museum professional are you?

Objects Experiences

Facts Stories

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

“Our first duties are to collect, conserve and display material culture, to protect the nation’s treasures and to showcase the high points of human creativity”

Objects Experiences

Facts Stories

“Our first duty is to create an open, welcoming environment in which people can come and enjoy the experience of beautiful, inspiring things”

Objects Experiences

Facts Stories

“It is not the objects themselves, but the connections between them and the stories they can tell. Our duty is to weave stories and objects together to help people understand the world around them”

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

“Our first duty is to provide an authoritative record of the development of the natural and man-made world. We must collect and preserve type specimens and objects based on our authoritative and scientific knowledge.”

Objects Experiences

Facts Stories

People love museums not because we are one or the other of these – it is because they trust us to do all of them on equal terms

What is sustainability?

Only the finest handmade Buddhist temples for 1436 years (40 generations)

Apparently, the 29th oldest continuously-operational company in the world is Danish...

Sustainability is not something you can make – it is what happens when we do something people love and do it well.

We live in a connected age, and in a connected age, your value is not in what you contain, but what you share.

This is a fundamental part of user-centred design.

The ‘traditional’ museum...

Museum cultures can sometimes become ‘vertical’ silos

Education Management Collections Retail IT

The ‘user-centred’ museum...

Did you #MuseumSelfie?

From this...

To this...

And this...

And this...

And even this...

Not sharing is incompatible with our mission and values as cultural heritage organisations.

“As cultural institutions, we constantly find ourselves divided between two different objectives: On the one hand, we must honour society’s demands that require us to be relevant, useful and efficient[..]On the other, we have a duty to future generations, which means we are duty-bound to take a long-term sustainable view of things.”

Sharing is at the core of both of these missions.

Confidence, Influence, Evidence

Evidence without confidence or influence is pointless.

The more that people love what we do, and the more they tell people that they love what we do, the more confident we are and the more influence we have.

First the love, then the stats and then finally the money

The more we care about our users, the more we will share with them.

The more we share with them, the more they will care about us, and share our work with their friends.

The more they share, the more relevant, vibrant and sustainable our museums will be.

Come to OpenCulture 2014!

400 international delegates from 20+ countries

25-26 June 2014, Kia Oval, London

www.collectionslink.org.uk/openculture2014