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Two months ago, the escalation of the coronavirus crisis forced many museums and cultural institutions to close their doors to visitors. In response, many organizations shifted their efforts to engaging visitors through digital platforms, many making impressive pivots and accelerating their digital transformations. Now, as museums prepare to reopen and plan for the near and long term future, new concerns are seizing the attention of the entire cultural industry – what will the future hold? Will there be new business and engagement models? And what does the physically-distanced museum experience look like?

Last Wednesday, more than 3,600 people joined Brendan Ciecko (CEO and Founder @ Cuseum), Franklin Sirmans (Director @ Pérez Art Museum Miami), Karen Wong (Deputy Director @ New Museum) & Lath Carlson (Executive Director @ Museum of the Future) as they evaluated the profound impacts of coronavirus and offered insights about what the future will hold for museums.

Watch the full recording here.

Here are a few of the biggest takeaways from the conversation.

Digital Experiences and the “Distributed Museum”

For over a decade, the “distributed museum” has been a term that has been frequently mentioned in conjunction with digital innovation in the museum space. A “distributed museum” is a museum that is no longer located in a particular physical space - rather, it extends its presence through all sorts of virtual spaces on the web, as well as in transit spaces created through practices and technologies of mobility.

Now, more and more museums have embraced the idea of a “distributed museum” at an accelerated pace, due to the global pandemic. For example, many organizations have started utilizing mobile apps that visitors can explore on their own device for health information, audio and mixed media tours, and other educational content. Museums have also been leveraging digital content to engage their audiences virtually. Through creative social media campaigns, virtual tours, and virtual/artificial reality, new digital strategies have been emerging faster than ever.

Franklin Sirmans at the Perez Art Museum Miami, shared his experiences of going digital.

“The idea of the digital museum is something that I know for us has been embraced wholeheartedly and we've talked about it. We actually have been working very closely with the Knight Foundation, and have made good headway in the course of the last year. But what we've been able to do in the last two months with this concentrated focus on programming and on communication with our public and just the desire, to continue to do what it is we do best, which is to provide these experiences with art and to create places to have meaningful conversations that are triggered by the art has been absolutely phenomenal to watch.”
– Franklin Sirmans

Karen Wong at New Museum also shared how distributed museums create possibilities for partnerships with artists from around the world. Among their various initiatives, she highlighted that their IDEA CITY program tries to find partners from like minded cities and create learning experiences through collaboration. Also, in the virtual space, New Museum’s Rhizome initiative is “the leading art organization dedicated to born-digital art and culture.” It offers a forward thinking program that facilitates conversations between art and technology.

Foster a Shared Vision Among Your Staff and Community

As museums continue to navigate the pandemic, fostering and communicating a strong shared vision among your team will be more important than ever, especially as museums work to extend this shared vision to their communities. Franklin Sirmans noted that moving forward, museums should strive to be community-centric.

“It takes a different situation that challenges us, that shows us who we are and who we truly aspire to be. We aspire to be a community-centered institution. And I think we’re going to double down on that in the future.”
– Franklin Sirmans

Karen Wong also emphasized that looking towards your mission statement may be the best place to start in terms of developing a shared vision and determining what type of civic engagement makes sense. For the New Museum and their NEW INC initiative, they wanted to revolve their engagement around contemporary artists, expanding the notion of the word “artists” at this time. NEW INC has provided an incubator where people at the intersection of art, design, and technology can work together to create sustainable business models. During the pandemic, New Museum’s education departments have been taking the lead in terms of content design to continue engaging people with their creativity.

“There’s this moment right now, because people are slowing down, and that they have time to spend either being educated or doing these deeper dives. It’s very exciting where I feel New Museum’s education programming over the summer is really going to be highlighted because there’s demand and interest.”
– Karen Wong

This is an exciting time to rededicate yourself to your mission and your community and develop new initiatives that further your organization’s vision for the future.

Form Partnerships that Can Take You to New Heights

In a Harvard Business Review article, it stated that “innovation is as much about finding partners as building products.” The panelists agreed that partnerships, whether they are with other museums, government agencies, cities, corporations, or foundations, will continue to play a big role within the museum space.

“We’re developing these incredibly expansive, exhibiting environments with partners globally. So we’re working with artists, designers, and technologists truly around the planet everywhere. I think that the global network is really important and getting those perspectives from the rest of the world.”
– Lath Carlson

Franklin also observed that there is an incredible history of support from foundations for cultural institutions. However, he expressed his wish for a greater level of governmental support.

“We’re talking about providing something that we believe is vital for everyone and certainly the government should be a part of that conversation, perhaps in a more supportive way that it has been in the past, at least in this country.”
– Franklin Sirmans

As museums prepare to tackle upcoming challenges, now is an exciting time to forge new partnerships and to tap into new networks, both of which can be instrumental in a successful reopening.

Take Inspiration from Other Industries

As museums brace for new, unusual challenges, many are also turning to other industries to generate fresh ideas and solutions to problems. Even before coronavirus, Karen was already exploring the benefits of cross-disciplinary initiatives in museums. She shared her experiences co-founding NEW INC, the world’s first museum-led incubator for art, design, and technology. Through introducing new models into the museum space, this can inspire others to think outside the box and introduce new models.

Lath has taken a similar approach at the Museum of The Future, a new museum which is currently being built. To create a new type of institution, Lath has worked to combine elements of exhibition, immersive theater, and themed attractions to create more expansive exhibits.

“Our creative director has coined the term that we’re starting to introduce ‘expansive’ exhibits, as opposed to ‘immersive’ experiences. Because the idea is we are really trying to create environments that not only completely immerse people in a future experience, but also give them the opportunity to expand the thinking beyond what they see is the current possibilities and landscape for what the future might look like.”
–Lath Carlson

As more museums start to add immersive experiences using technology and other industries, this creative mindset can also apply to your organization and team.

At a time like this, you can never underestimate the creative potential of people working together and to figure out how to jumpstart museums, cultural tourism, and the creative economy at-large. Going forward, partnerships, digital innovation, and interdisciplinary thinking can lead to new opportunities and solutions to engage your community and further your organization’s mission. Now is the time to think about the future of your museum!

Looking for more information? Check out our Coronavirus Resources page.

Further Reading:

5 Things to Keep in Mind as You Prepare to Reopen your Museum