Since the 2000s, the links between public and private partners in the museum and heritage world have grown stronger. This phenomenon has increased under the dual impact of repeated economic crises and the desire of the State and local authorities to optimize their finances (see organic law on finance laws in 2001 and Révision générale des politiques publiques in 2007). Faced with such changes, national museums and monuments have acquired greater management autonomy, and have been faced with the need to create new, profitable economic activities, which are (often) entrusted to a private partner. As in the case of national facilities, local authorities have also transferred partial or total management of their cultural facilities to companies.
Numerous activities in the heritage sector have been delegated to private partners: activities with the public, functional management of their premises (surveillance, cleanliness, hygiene, green spaces) or ancillary activities (store, restaurant, accommodation). Such transfers of activities are intended to make management easier, to develop new economic resources, to use specialized service providers outside the core missions of a heritage site or, quite simply, to reduce operating costs. However, this desire to balance an economic model requires respect for the core missions of a public cultural establishment. Faced with these transfers, how can we maintain equitable access for as many people as possible? How can we promote cultural democratization and guarantee an efficient public service? How can we maintain the high standards and scientific rigor of a delegated activity?
Based on a number of case studies, this article highlights a number of examples of how these partnerships between public and private players have been used to welcome and develop the public.
1 – PROVIDING ACCESS TO TICKETING BETWEEN ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY AND THE MISSIONS OF A PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENT.
Many museums and monuments sell a quota of their tickets to online sales platforms such as TripAdvisor, Tiqets, Viator, Fnac, Get your guide, etc., in order to promote their tours and exhibitions more widely .
The vast majority of these platforms offer higher entrance fees than the museum or monument for which they are selling access rights. This includes their commissioning, but also, in some cases, other services such as guided tours, film-cutting, special events and other visits to cultural sites.
By combining other services with simple museum access, these platforms help to enrich the proposals made to visitors. However, the increase in prices that these combinations directly or indirectly entail calls into question the ease of access to a public heritage site and its cultural democratization missions. For example, admission to the Louvre rose from 7 euros in 2000 to 17 euros (online) in 2019, an increase of 142%.
Another undeniable advantage of these platforms is their marketing and communications power. They implement particularly active and effective distribution and marketing initiatives These include sponsoring publications on social networks, buying advertising space on the Web, occasional promotions, audience tracking and retargeting, and so on. These marketing practices promote broad, targeted dissemination that is inspiring for museums. If used to excess, however, these methods can also deprive cultural institutions of the data they need to gain a better understanding of their audiences, and “damage” visitors’ trust in museums through excessive commercialism, even though they are defined as a “permanent non-profit institution” (as defined by ICOM).
This particularly strong distribution capacity is reorienting the activities of certain platforms closer to the business of organizing and operating events and experiences. It’s with this in mind that, following a €35 million fund-raising round in 2019, the Fever recommendations platform has been a stakeholder in an escape game being developed at Monnaie de Paris in 2021(see the meet-up carried out with Monnaie de Paris and organized with Museum Connections). More recently, Fever has been involved in projects such as the Jam Capsule, a 360° immersive projection space in the south of Paris (Porte de Versailles) co-produced by Atelier Jam, Fever and Viparis. Soon, an immersive show produced in collaboration with Zurich-based Projektil will be on offer at various heritage sites in France, including the Palais de la Bourse in Marseille.
While these platforms make a real contribution to disseminating the offerings of cultural venues, there are also many challenges involved in maintaining a clear access policy that balances free access with the need to develop our own resources. In terms of outsourcing reception and mediation functions, other contributions and questions arise to guarantee hospitality and support for visitors.
2 – OUTSOURCING VISITOR RECEPTION AND MEDIATION ACTIVITIES TO OPTIMIZE COSTS AND MAINTAIN QUALITY OF SERVICE.
Outsourcing a museum’s reception and mediation functions is a particularly hot topic. It presupposes that a public place entrusts a private partner with functions that are an integral part of its mission.
Now, faced with substantial management costs, pressure from public authorities to reduce their operating costs, or, sometimes, the need to call on highly specialized professionals, museums or monuments have increasingly outsourced these activities. Faced with the development of these outsourcing logics, many articles such as the one published in 2016 on the Louvre pour tous, who are as concerned about the cost of this subcontracting as they are about its impact on employees’ working conditions.
Public establishments and companies offering this type of service to cultural venues (such as Marianne International, Musea, Cultival, Manatour, etc.) seem to be increasingly aware of these strategic issues in terms of image and hospitality. As a result, these companies seem to be working ever more closely with public establishments to define sustainable operating plans, as well as ensuring more virtuous recruitment and training processes for their staff.
This need is all the more pressing for guided tour activities. Regardless of their status (as employees of the cultural venue, a third-party structure or self-employed), the activities entrusted to tour guides require them to hold a professional card. In some places, it is even necessary to exercise a right of reservation (otherwise known as the right to speak) with the institution being visited. These various obligations guarantee the use of qualified people.
For some years now, companies have specialized in the delegated management of these visits, and regularly report to the delegating institution on the savings generated, recruitment management, training policy and communications implemented, as well as visitor attendance and reception. This is the case, for example, with Cultival and Manatour.
Building on its experience in managing corporate tours, Manatour has recently taken over the management of tours of the Opéra Garnier. 4 guided tours of the Opéra lasting around 1h30 are now available. In the autumn, these physical tours will be complemented by online tours. Manatour will also be in charge of the operation and distribution of these new tour offers, which will either complement or replace the physical tours.
These online visits, a potential impact of the health crisis (see the guide produced for the French Ministry of Culture to which we contributed) are now being offered on a paying basis by cultural institutions, and may be marketed by private companies. This is the case with Conferentia, which, in collaboration with the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, is now offering live 360° online tours of the Château de Pierrefonds.
Given the fierce competition in this sector, these different companies are increasingly differentiating themselves by the price of their services, or by their willingness to enrich the services they offer, for example, through more digital offerings, or even the creation of turnkey events.
3. HOST EVENTS OPERATED BY THIRD PARTIES IN CONJUNCTION WITH A VENUE’S CULTURAL PROGRAM.
These exceptional events can encourage the occupation of previously unused spaces (in a logic of intensification of uses) or the use of a place when it is usually closed. This type of project, lighter than a concession, is favored by the establishment of a temporary space occupation agreement. Under this agreement, a limited space is made available to an operator for a given period, in return for payment of a fee (fixed or from ticket sales) to the host establishment.
The operator is responsible for marketing the event, operating it (ticketing, reception, flow management, etc.) and bearing the economic risks. Event projects can also be scientifically validated by the host venue. Every summer since 2012, for example, a sound and light show has come to life in the Cour d’Honneur at Les Invalides, with 180-degree 3D images projected onto more than 250 meters of facade. It’s the Nuit aux Invalides, an event organized by French company Amaclio that over 650,000 visitors have discovered.
For museums and monuments, this type of project can enrich their programming with turnkey projects that can contribute to enhancing the value of previously unused spaces, or at new, low-risk times. This type of project can also encourage the development and diversification of audiences attracted by this programming and, possibly, contribute to increasing the host site’s own resources.
However, as mentioned in the report Inventing Museums for Tomorrow, this type of delegation “raises the question of the limits and scope of outsourcing, as well as that of public service delegation. It seems essential to control what you outsource: don’t outsource because you don’t know how to do it, at the risk of ultimately delegating entire areas of the establishment’s strategy”. This question, which is inherent in all outsourcing, can also be raised when it comes to entrusting ancillary activities to companies.
4. ENTRUST ANCILLARY ACTIVITIES, HELPING TO DEFINE THE OVERALL VISITOR EXPERIENCE.
In terms of ancillary services, store management and catering activities are less directly linked to the core mission of museums, and are therefore less the subject of debate.
However, these activities are increasingly seen as an integral part of the visitor experience. These topics were discussed at two meet-ups organized with Museum Connections. One, entitled La boutique de musée, vecteur de lien avec le public (The museum store, a means of connecting with the public ), focused on Arteum’s bookshop-boutique management activities. The other, on the integration of culinary experiences into a visitor’s itinerary. This second online meet-up showcased the way in which Paris Musées and the Cité du Vin de Bordeaux were working on their catering offer as an integral part of the museum experience.
These different forms of relationship between public and private players are particularly protean in terms of contractualization: grouped ticket sales, activity concessions, agreements authorizing the temporary occupation of public space, and so on. Over and above the choice of a purely contractual tool, these relationships need to take into account the stakes involved, in terms of profitability for the companies, public service missions, cost optimization and quality of service for the museums and monuments. The delegation of these activities must also be closely linked to the cultural programming and overall offering of a venue. On this last point, the challenge is particularly acute if management is entrusted entirely to a company. This is generally the choice made by many communes or départements, which are unable to carry out restoration work or bring a venue up to standard, or to recruit or delegate these tasks to their administrative staff. These are just some of the challenges that a close, fair partnership built on dialogue can meet.
