Museums and the cultural complacency trap

In my daily work, it’s still surprising how many cultural organisations get stumped by the question: “Why do you exist?” “Well, we’re here because we’re here,” was one client’s notable response. We get many different answers to the question – varying according to which silo in the organisation we’re talking to.

Museums often fall into the trap of what we call cultural complacency. They believe, by their very existence, they’re “doing their bit” for culture. That complacency is based on a common misconception about what culture should mean for museums. That they are merely about curating and cataloguing artefacts while responding to cultural trends via programming and projects.

But museums could be more ambitious and look to convert and inspire, and to communicate a clear cultural point of view. They should embrace an altogether different definition of culture – as nurturing values and knowledge and handing over their unique perspective to the next generation.

There is a huge opportunity for museums of all sizes to transform from just “boxes with stuff in them”, to becoming spaces with a clear point of distinction and sense of how visitors can transformed between entry and exit. After all, the only strategy an audience sees is in the experience.

Knowing your cultural purpose

Some of the best museums in the world do this. The National Gallery in Prague, for example, was created in the 18th century to “elevate the nation’s spirit through works of art”. It’s a mission it carries on to this day, making art accessible to all.

Or take Tate in the UK. Its ‘Look again, think again’ brand platform recognises that, as an institution, it can help people understand and appreciate art – and think about it – in different ways. Introduced in 2000, that concept was so powerful, that it was kept as the guiding light even through a subsequent rebrand.

The key here is that these museums have a clear cultural purpose, not necessarily outward facing, but at the heart of everything they do. They need to define what differentiates them.

The change you want to make

For such a purpose to have real impact, however, you need to understand the change you want to make rather than just tapping into the cultural climate of the time. For example, is it about maintaining legacy, breaking down barriers, increasing diversity or engaging new audiences on a strategic level?

Start thinking about what community you want to nurture to ensure your impact has longevity. Then you need to consider how to connect with people on a personal level – not only how to enrich their lives, but also how to reach them at every interaction and phase of their journey with you; and get them to come back.

The Natural History Museum in London embraced a mindset shift “from passive catalogue to active catalyst” in its rebrand a few years ago. It wanted to use its collection to actively create ‘advocates for the planet’ – a forward-looking ambition for a long-standing institution that could so easily have been all about stuffy backward gazes.

When Wiedemann Lampe started working with Louvre Abu Dhabi, we faced the fundamental challenge of defining why the museum should exist. We worked in collaboration with them to define their vision, mission, values and brand narrative, uncovering its singular effect on visitors between entry and exit: the realisation that ‘we have more in common than we know’.

Under the brand platform of ‘Stories of Cultural Connections’, it’s a simple but meaningful concept. Drawn from the curatorial intent of showing different objects from different times and different cultures, and highlighting what they have in common, it went on to inform everything, from the visitor experience to the visual and verbal identity.

Driving internal adoption

Crucially though, that guiding purpose would have fallen flat if we hadn’t also been able to look at the organisation’s internal culture. Don’t even attempt to affect your visitor through a new brand platform, if the people in your organisation don’t completely understand it. They should be living and breathing what is at the heart of your DNA.

To get everyone in an organisation as complex as a museum pulling in the same direction can seem an impossible ask – and that’s putting it diplomatically. This is why defining that central cultural purpose is so important. It shouldn’t be just about writing a mission statement, but about galvanising people across all tiers of the organisation to align. You can’t just push your cultural purpose out as a message in a purely tactical move. It must be built strategically, over the long term.

You need to think about projects and initiatives that can help define your organisational culture and champion certain behaviour. It could be as simple asking people to sign a pledge to build their cultural purpose into their everyday work.

Or start by creating projects and teams that can deep dive into where you are today as a museum and where you want to be tomorrow. Who are you speaking to, and who are you not reaching? For example, the de Young Museum in San Francisco is increasingly looking to reach those who are not museum goers – its ground-breaking Kehinde Wiley exhibition was part of that ambition

The first step can be small and project-driven, exploring and rolling out your cultural purpose through trial and error. You just need to make that commitment to improve. If as an organisation you set yourself up to go in a certain direction, everything will start to move towards it.

So, look at your organisation – ask yourself why you exist. If you’re still getting three different answers, now is the time to do something about it.