In response to the crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, UNESCO and ICOM conducted two joint surveys of museums around the world to see how they were tackling the situation. The (essential) results of these reports are now available. Here is a summary.
1. For the UNESCO report
Beyond the figures already mentioned: 90% of museums closed during the crisis, 10% could never open, this report is valuable because it proposes :
- The current state of the world’s museums: 95,000 museums in 2020, 77% of them in Western and Eastern Europe and the USA, 8% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12% in Asia and the Pacific, with Africa and the Arab States accounting for less than 1% respectively. Since 2012, the number of museums worldwide has increased by almost 60%. Only fifteen (less than 8%) of the 193 member states have a network of over 1,000 museums.
- A breakdown of the types of digital response according to region (800 activities were listed). In summary: “All the museums used existing digital resources, the fruit of previous investments, to enhance their value. A much smaller number of establishments – mainly located in the Western Europe and Asia-Pacific regions – seem to have benefited from sufficient resources (infrastructure and personnel) to present digital versions of exhibitions or events in progress during the confinement”.
2. For the ICOM report
The report describes the impact of the crisis:
- On the situation of museum staff during confinement: 84% worked at home, 33% on site, 16% on compulsory paid leave and 6% on non-renewed contracts or laid off during confinement.
- On the economic front (regardless of public or private funding models): almost 83% expect to reduce their program, between 40 and 42% anticipate losses of private and public funding, and 12.8% risk closure (higher percentages in North America and the Pacific).
- In terms of digital investment: over 50% of museums spend less than 10% of their budget, and 55.7% have no full-time staff dedicated to these activities (note: 18.3% have no dedicated staff).
- Concerning digital activities during confinement: All digital activities considered increased or began after quarantine for at least 15% of participants.
- Lastly, the situation for professionals and self-employed workers in the museum sector, who are particularly hard hit, is alarming: 56% are planning to suspend their own salaries, 39% to reduce their workforce, and almost 20% anticipate bankruptcy or closure.
These two reports are truly essential if we are to begin to envisage a future for the museum sector, which, more than ever, will need to mutate and reinvent itself if it is to survive.
