Transformation: making a ruckus
Last night, the Administration issued a new Executive Order aimed at gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to supporting museums directly undermines the will of the people (96% of whom want to see federal funding maintained or increased for museums) and the critical roles museums and museum workers play in American society.
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Solidarity to our colleagues in the US.
We want to be successful. One of the aims to achieve success is to know our individual fans/users/customers better. Knowing their needs allows us to design and run better services. A good service is an effective service. From the many anonymous interactions we have every day, we want to shine light on those touchpoints to know as many of them as we can.
Instead of just using generic terms like “total visitors to site (online and in-person), website visits per quarter, google review score, Spend per head etc there is an opportunity to be better informed. With better insights we can make data-informed decisions that don’t treat everyone identically the same. Kevin Kelly wrote about the benefits of having 1000 true fans which in summary says within any large group of people are die hard fans who give you momentum (MVP adjacent).
Find them by building services that allow you to identify who they are across your services (opt-in of course). Use their data test assumptions about how our worldviews collide. Spot something that doesn’t work and fix it. Fix it for the fans and you’ll probably be fixing it for everyone.
Firstly, thanks to the good folks at Museum Connections for the invitation. I joined a great panel and 150 attendees to discuss how we’re trying to close the particapation gap at Birmingham Museums Trust. The headphones in the above photo were for the live translation not for the vibes!
My whole career to date has been about “helpful to people” so the focusing on those who visit vs those who don’t is a topic close to my heart.
Below is a mix of my thoughts and notes for the session. Hat tip to Sara and Mark O’Neill for their thoughts on the session in advance.
Over the past few years, the social role of cultural institutions has continued to evolve, adapting to contemporary challenges. Despite increasing pressure to generate revenue, cultural venues are redefining their social and solidarity efforts to meet current needs, moving beyond free admission alone. This panel discussion explores studies examining the real barriers that prevent people in precarious situations from visiting cultural institutions. We will focus on the role of these institutions in supporting ambitious, long-term inclusion programs and their funding. Additionally, we will address how cultural venues can raise awareness and advocate against exclusion, both internally and externally.
Who’s it for?
BMT runs 9 sites in Birmingham, UK which is in the middle of the country with only London having larger population. Population of 1.1m with 6m people in the region.
We reach up to 1m visitors per year at our physical sites plus several million online AND up to 10m via objects on loan around the world. Birmingham is nearly 50% people of colour and has a young population.
The City Council has gone bankrupt (s114) and we are operating within the impact ofthe deepest financial crisis.
What’s it for?
Culture is a basic human right and therefore should be universal. We think Museum audiences should be broadly representative of society. If we have barriers then we are failing people.
In the book Culture is Bad for you, they focus on failings over 40 years between both the creation and consumption of culture and how this highlights the inequality.
At BMT we’re working on being part of the solution. One element of this is a research Project called Addressing the museum attendance and benefit gap with University of Leicester.
Survey data on who visits museums and decades of research in cultural sociology internationally tell us that museum visiting reflects the socio-economic gradient, closely tracking inequalities in education, income, employment, mental health and other indicators of social wellbeing. Despite the scale of existing evidence, including evidence that the attendance and benefit gap may be increasing, government policy, professional guidance and research undertaken by museums themselves continue with little or no recognition of this wider context and macro data and, as a result, have failed to develop sustainable evidence-based solutions to address inequalities in museum attendance and benefit.
This Network explores the hypothesis that a deeper understanding within museums and museology of (1) the nature and experience of inequality and (2) how large-scale social and behaviour change is approached in other fields, such as health, would open up the capacity in museums and amongst museum scholars to understand, theorise, design, implement, evaluate and sustain practices which may address the attendance and benefit gap.
Together we are asking:
Our Museum visiting reflects the socio-economic gradient, closely tracking inequalities in education, income, employment, mental health and other indicators of social wellbeing.
The graph shows a gap of approx 25% between cohorts. Change is needed at “population level change” as small interventions don’t move the needle enough.
BMT has 9 sites. We oeprate both free and charging yet the types of people who visit are the same for both FREE and paid which shows that chargign isn’t the barrier in the way we often think it is.
Mark O’Neill, a key collaborator says: Museums that are interested in increasing access create more accessible displays, using Universal Design principles and storytelling. They increase the representation of the culture and heritage of previously excluded groups and above all they create a welcoming atmosphere for novice visitors and their families. They also have a range of engagement programmes, involving activities under headings like Wellbeing, creativity, social inclusion and social mobility. CO-production, greatly inspired by Nina Simon’s book on the Participatory Museum is often seen as the key to radically improved inclusion.
As an aside the book Universal Design Principles was a key text for me when I was studying Computing and a copy still sits by my desk!
Library example
Libraries promote literacy through provision of books and support.
Throughout 2024 BMT ran the UK Museums first citizen Jury.
28 people who represent the city at population level. 30 hours of delibration and produced 21 recommendations which we share from the 30th January.
Quick examples
Socioeconomic Gradient (SEG) covers
The seven principles of universal design
Books
in December 2024 new Research to understand and monetise the impact of engagement with culture and heritage on health and wellbeing.
Read the research https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675b166a348e10a16975a41a/rpt_-_Frontier_Health_and_Wellbeing_Final_Report_09_12_24_accessible_final.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/culture-and-heritage-capital-research-and-outputs
Tuesday 22nd October 2024
As far as I am aware BMAG hadn’t closed since the second world war (which my daughter asked as im old, if I was there).
We really hope this is the last time we fully close for 100yrs Since opening in 1885 (and no I wasn’t around for that kid)
Over 100 million people have visited the museums we care for and a chunk of that was people visiting here at BMAG.
Museums were never just vessels for staring at art. They are places for people. People to feel something. People just being people in all their glory. Where you may take your first steps, Where you take your first date, a place to see wonder, a place to discover something old and something new… a place for a wee and free wifi.
We proudly have famous art, stuffed animals, vehicles of every type, old maps and even hats.
People who just like to wander the world in a gallery we got you.
You are amongst the first 500 people to breath life back into us.
We are most concerned with those who don’t have a voice.
We are attempting something that has never been done before. Both inside the organisation and with the public.
We need to work much harder for the public.
We need to be relatable and democratic and not be shy of continuous improvement
You are our heroes. the tiny sparks that are breathing life back into the museums lungs.
We need you.
The city needs you.
A hero can be anyone.
Heroes leave 5 star google reviews – I want 100 reviews by tomorrow!
If the museum could talk I think it would say:
Electrical wiring forced our closure but still i rise
Covid comes and knocks me down but still i rise
Global conflict and a cost of living crisis but still i rise
Section 114 declared our city bust but hey guess what, still i rise
AUDIENCE participation: After 3 shout “Still I rise”
As Mike Skinner [Birmingham born] from the streets said “ Let’s push things forward shall we?
A principle to live by.
Museums have been run successfully for over 100 years. However even museums need to move with the times. Being more useful to more people is a phase I say a lot here at BMT. One of my core principles is placing “user needs” at the heart of what we do.
In addition to the typical methods of asking existing visitors what they need from us we are experimenting with a Citizen Jury throughout the second half of 2024.
We have written about how The Citizens’ Jury works on our website.
In short the Citizens’ Jury are 25-30 representive people chosen from a lottery of 5000 people across the City. They will will deliberate our initial question:
“What does Birmingham need and want from its museums, now and in the future; and what should Birmingham Museums Trust do to make these things happen?”
Special thanks to NLHF for funding this activity.
Important reading at a critical time.
I get asked from time to time how we work across nine with people scattered across the world at any given time (hey I’m writing this over the Atlantic).
Here at BMT we use a tool called Basecamp to support our communication. It is a tried and trusted tool used by thousands of people. We use it because effective communication is critical yet very hard to do at scale. We use it for both internal communication and working with partners on our products and services.
You can read about it’s tools etc on their website so I won’t repeat it here. In short the reason we don’t just use email like everyone else is because email across 150+ people is asking for trouble. Instead we choose a different path.
Basecamp is purely for communicating.
We need to share announcements, proposals, decisions and such like to group’s or globally across our organisation via our HQ group which every person is part of. Using Basecamp makes it the go to place for this.
Over time Basecamp becomes a form of corporate memory. When did we decide X? Answer check Basecamp. Why did we decide Y? Answer check Basecamp. People may leave but their comments remain. Clever huh.
Doing effective meetings is difficult and time consuming. Often times people just want to know the outcome. Share your proposal to a group(s) and get their feedback. To make it sweeter, get their feedback or approval when they are ready. Why wait for a meeting in two weeks when you can make it a simple proposal and get approval. One of our strategic aims is to support working anywhere at any time and this underpins our ability to do so.
Get it on your desktop or mobile if you choose.
We can make as many groups as we need and share with external partners.
Does Basecamp work well? Yes very much so.
However getting us all to use it effectively is a game of patience!
If I had to pick the biggest gripe people have with the tool it is confusion around managing notifications. When you normally post a message by default the setting notifies everyone in the group. It is easy to change but isn’t a behaviour most use/understand is possible.
My personal experience too is that writing with clarity is the key and that’s a skill most of us need to continually hone.