Toolkits

Connecting to communities means above all to cooperate. This, for museums, is a means of opening up; of developing new audiences; of generating other types of relationships with its audiences; of exploring other ideas and taking advantage of new perspectives. To cooperate is to become a museum platform, which, by definition, brings together different individuals joined by their shared interests and their functions.

 

 

When re-considering the role of a museum in the larger creative economy, it is important to look for opportunities to demonstrate new values in a way that allows risk-taking and respects the institutional priorities and mission. This results in the creation of ‘adjacent museum contexts’; often called ‘labs’, ‘incubators’ or ‘makerspaces’, those are parts of the museum where the expectations are different, the consequences of failure are minimised or reversed, and decisions can be made quickly. In these ‘Spaces for Yes’ we say ‘yes’ to new ideas, ‘yes’ to new relationships, and ‘yes’ to innovation for the group.

 

 

Museums often look to re-invent their organisations by implementing more innovative methodologies and practices. New trends encourage museums to mix top-down political approaches with bottom-up citizen initiatives that lead to question and re-think their relationship to artists, to researchers, communities and audiences.

Diane Dubray of We Are Museums defines this new museum as ‘open to all, ever changing place, in the service of humanity, where curators share, experiment, inspire and immerse the users into their past, present and future self-development.’