This period of confinement due to COVID-19 marks a media frenzy on web actions and social networks of museums. This situation has given rise to some excellent initiatives. However, it will take some time to assess the changes in online usage by museum visitors (of course, we’ll come back to this later). In the light of all this, it seems worthwhile to take a look at non-technological museum innovation from the opposite angle. There will come a time when the physical world will once again take its rightful place, and once again offer exciting extensions to museums’ web presence!
As a preamble, let’s return to the term innovation. According to Patrick Brézillon, it can be broadly understood as “the realization of a new idea that is appropriated by a public because it corresponds to their explicit or previously unsuspected needs or expectations”.
This appropriation by the public can be achieved by digital means (proof of this is the current success of online tours, resources and communications offered by cultural venues), but also by new proposals from museums, which contribute to renewing their mediation and cultural actions, simply by self-diagnosis or by opening up to new partners.
1. Renewing your cultural mediation and actions through self-diagnosis.
The relevance of regularly working on one’s “examination of conscience”.
There are two approaches to renewing your mediation policy: self-diagnosis and openness to new partnerships. Before attempting to draw inspiration from others, a self-examination of one’s own professional practices can be very instructive.
Often firmly anchored, the fruit of solid expertise, work habits can sometimes seem difficult to renegotiate. To carry out this type of analysis, a methodological approach is particularly important to “factualize” proposed changes, which may be experienced by teams as a challenge to their know-how, or even their skills.
To achieve this, involving everyone through interviews or workshops, and showing empathy by encouraging public observation and experimentation, can help mobilize everyone and contribute to building collective solutions that are often highly innovative.
The example of Musée du Louvre: some shared challenges.
By way of illustration, {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] worked with Musée du Louvre teams in 2019 to support the redesign of cultural offerings for the museum’s social, educational and disability partners.
With the opening of the Studio in 2020, a space for artistic practice and training in which these partners will be among the first beneficiaries, and the creation of a single department dedicated to education, democratization and accessibility, the museum wanted to carry out a study to :
- Define more coherent and personalized programming to meet the needs of these partners: lecture-visit cycles, adapted workshops, modules and resources for self-guided tours with access to speaking rights, invitations to the auditorium and museum events,
- Identify more effective ways of attracting new partners: print media, outreach activities, creation of or participation in dedicated events, communication via the web, social networks and press relations…
- Facilitate the monitoring and management of the museum’s actions to gain a better understanding of and strengthen links with these audiences.
The approach taken.
In order to carry out such a mission, {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] conducted a study with the museum’s teams in 3 phases:
- In June-July, we conducted a series of interviews with 4 of the museum’s program managers, to find out more about their partners and analyze the actions they have been involved in.
- In September-October, following this round of interviews, we ran a workshop with the Audience Development, Communications and Marketing teams to identify areas for improvement in terms of knowledge, recruitment and support for these partners.
- In November, at a management seminar, the findings and avenues identified by the teams were shared with all departments to build a roadmap of actions to be taken by 2020.
Sharing some results and thoughts.
Drawing on the expertise of the museum’s teams, this mission enabled them to share their challenges and find effective solutions for this year’s event.
This new approach will be based, first and foremost, on an in-depth understanding of these partners: who are they? what are their needs in terms of serving their audiences better? What do they expect from Musée du Louvre?
In parallel with this study, new recruitment initiatives will be developed by the communications department as part of off-site activities and specialized press relations. Lastly, in the2nd half of the year, our teams will be working to overhaul the mediation activities previously offered to these partners and their audiences.
To take a step back from this mission, the mobilization of in-house teams seems essential to guarantee operational solutions that are acceptable to all. Here, the role of external support is to provide a “neutral”, “reformulating” viewpoint to help establish the diagnosis, facilitate dialogue, and encourage the emergence and formalization of ideas.
In addition to this necessary (but not sufficient) diagnosis, the exchange of good ideas between cultural institutions can enrich the approach to their audiences. This article is therefore also an opportunity to share a fine initiative undertaken by the Expographie Muséographie Master’s program at the Université d’Artois and the L’Art de Muser association, in partnership with Proscitec (Patrimoines et mémoires des métiers en Hauts-de-France),Ocim (Observatoire des coopérations et d’informations muséales) and Fems (Fédération des écomusées et musées de société): the launch of a collaborative platform for museum mediation projects. To date, the platform has listed over 242 activities and some fascinating resources on mediation (books, articles, theses, reviews and webographies).
The museum mediation platform, a place for exchanging and sharing resources.
In line with this diagnostic approach, close collaboration with other cultural partners, or even co-production of projects, can help us dig a little deeper into the furrow of innovation.
2. Partnerships: a way of anchoring and enriching cultural actions and mediation practices.
“Others objectify me with myself.
It’s obvious, but it’s worth remembering that opening up to others can have many virtues. For museums, setting up partnerships can enable them to refine their institutional positioning, consolidate their territorial roots, share know-how and reach new audiences.
The self-diagnosis phase remains, however, a necessary prerequisite for clearly defining the objectives, the missions that could be carried out with other partners and the compensation that the museum might be in a position to grant.
In addition, we need to keep a close eye on who we can partner with. There are many possibilities: do you want to join forces with another cultural venue (museums, theaters, opera houses, cultural associations, etc.)? An educational establishment? A company? Local associations?
Such an approach can be anticipated for :
- Identify mediation and cultural activities that could be the subject of a partnership.
- Identify who to approach and how.
- Work to implement this partnership.
The example of 11 Conti Monnaie de Paris: some shared challenges.
Much mentioned in previous articles, 11 Conti-Monnaie de Paris has been an important partner (and one with a heart – given the remarkable museography implemented here) for {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES].
As such, In 2018 and 2019, we supported its teams to enrich the museum’s cultural and mediation policy through the mobilization of new partners. Following the reopening of its museum in 2017 Monnaie de Paris wanted to:
- Affirm its positioning and make its cultural offering more attractive and easier to understand,
- Enhance the tangible and intangible heritage of this magnificent monument, its collections, and the craft and industrial know-how of the “oldest factory in Paris”,
- Develop student and corporate audiences through emblematic partnerships.
Faced with these different challenges, 3 workshops were held with the museum’s teams:
- An initial workshop was held in November 2018 to take stock of the issues, analyze the museum’s activities and missions, and identify 11 Conti’s current partners. Based on this work, a typology of relevant partners to be mobilized to enrich the museum’s mediation actions was defined: schools/universities, companies in the tourism sector, innovation venues (innovative cultural venues, digital fabrication workshops, coworking spaces), innovation programs and platforms in the higher education sector.
- A second workshop was then prepared in February 2019, listing over forty partners. This second workshop therefore involved identifying possible projects, experiments or events to be carried out with these various players. The quid pro quos that 11 Conti might be able to offer as part of these partnerships were also discussed.
- Finally, a third workshop defined an approach for these different partners and a roadmap for 2019-2020.
Sharing some results and thoughts.
This collaboration has resulted in a number of projects:
- Leading a training course for Ministry of Culture employees at Monnaie de Paris on the evaluation of digital devices.
- Organization of the Rencontres IESA Innovations et patrimoines in June, which brought together some 300 professionals (cf. reports to be found on the Correspondances Compte Medium).
- A workshop on currency co-produced with the excellent Fablab Villette Makerz.
- Organization of a nocturne in January 2020, co-hosted by students from the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts, the Ecole du Louvre and IESA.
The 11 Conti-Monnaie de Paris teams were looking for “inspirational” support to broaden their thinking through access to other networks such as those in which {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] higher education and innovation.
Identifying new partners has therefore been essential to finding new ideas and fostering original collaborations that generate new ideas. In addition to these contributions, these various partnerships have helped to anchor 11 Conti-Monnaie de Paris with other museums (with the training course organized for Ministère de la culture and the IESA meetings) and students, as well as offering new proposals for family audiences.
In conclusion.
The times we live in are so unprecedented that revisiting these few simple notions of innovation through introspection or openness to others seems essential to avoid the contradictory injunctions with which museums are confronted in the same way as we simple individuals.
On the one hand, the need to take a step back, to prepare for the “after” (if possible by innovating) is invoked from all sides. On the other, the need to step back and prepare for the “after” (by innovating, if possible) is invoked by all sides, but is often underestimated, if not completely neglected.
How can you keep your wits about you when you’re subjected to a constant flow of information? When your loved ones are in danger or unfortunately affected by the virus? When you’re under pressure to adapt your institutional and professional practices? When you’re forced to go online even though your establishment, its organization and the resources at your disposal are not designed for such a situation?
Of course, there are some fine initiatives. In fact, the Club Innovation et Culture is doing a great job of monitoring best practices in this area. But how many museums find themselves in a state of digital atony in the face of this situation?
Fortunately, not all museums are destined to position themselves as online media. This situation is unprecedented, and we hope exceptional, so that the balance between in-house and online offerings remains subtle, and does not force cultural venues to succumb to the “race to the finish “*, the pace of which has increased as our lives have become increasingly confined.
* cf. Nina Simon’s edifying article on the subject, translated by Alexia Jacques Casanova.
