Organized by the Direction des patrimoines, de la mémoire et des archives of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES]Our second Webinar took place on Thursday, November 26. The theme was “The health crisis: an opportunity to innovate the way we work? In this article, you’ll find all our discussions, with replays of the Webinar, a summary, additional resources and a graphic rendering by Emeline Parizel.
The French Ministry of the Armed Forces, via its Directorate of Heritage, Memory and Archives (DPMA), coordinates the network of museums and memorials of contemporary conflicts (RMMCC – to find out more, click HERE). This cycle of webinars is organized within the framework of this network.
This second event is part of a series of “Rencontres” which, in close collaboration with professionals from the museum and heritage world, aims to identify different avenues of innovation in the face of this crisis. As part of Public Innovation Month, these professionals are invited to take stock of the past year, and to draw out the dynamics of change for their cultural establishments:
- In the relationships that bind them to their audiences(see the REPLAY of the first Webinar);
- In their organizational models, and, potentially ;
- In their business models(see the REPLAY of the third Webinar).
To address the organizational changes brought about by this crisis, this Webinar featured contributions from Juliette Raoul-Duval (President, French National Committee of ICOM), Alice Charbonnier and Yu Zhang (respectively, Director of Audience Development and Marketing and Director of Communications and Digital, Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace), Rémy Hoche (Head of Communications and Patronage, Musée national de la Marine) and Ewa Maczek (Deputy Director, Ocim – Office de coopération et d’information muséales). Out of 411 registrants, 242 took part in the Webinar.
The event was introduced by Sylvain Mattiucci, Director of the DPMA. He presented the role and actions implemented by his department, and how it is part of a public innovation approach. The floor was then opened to presentations, with a preamble putting things into perspective.
1 – A preamble to put Antoine Roland’s Webinar into perspective.
See the replay
In this introduction, it seems necessary to review some figures concerning the role of digital technology in museums and the professionals in charge of it. In this respect, we mention the fact that more than 50% of all of museums spend less than 10% of their budget on digital activities (it remains to be seen exactly what this budget includes), and more than 55.7% have no full-time staff dedicated to these activities.
To go further, 2 resources are particularly interesting: the article published by Noémie Couillard on Les professionnel.l.e.s en charge du numérique dans les établissements patrimoniaux in the 2017 Culture et Recherche study on Les publics in situ et en ligne, and the ICOM and UNESCO reports on Les musées, professionnels des musées and COVID-19 (report updated at the end of November 2020 to be read on the ICOM website). To these studies, other suggestions were made in the chat such as Le cycle de Rencontres Muséocovid organized by Bretagne Musées, FEMS, La Fabrique des Patrimoines en Normandie, le réseau Musées Normandie and Université Rennes 2.
This introduction also takes a look at the confining situation that has brought communications and digital professions to the forefront. According to a study by the international network NEMO, while over 60% have increased their online presence, 13.4% have increased their budget dedicated to these activities.
Internally, in cultural institutions, teleworking practices have developed, as has the use of collaborative tools: video-conferencing, social networks, messaging tools, resource exchange tools…
As mentioned in the first Webinar of this cycle, a number of trends seem to be driving changes in audience relations, and will therefore have implications for workloads and the evolution of team skills, such as: increased online event marketing, the creation of digital content and communities, and the desire to develop a shared approach to content. In this respect, the interview with Mario d’Angelo published in the Gazette des communes, La durée de la crise va favoriser les innovations culturelles (in restricted access).
Once the scene was set, our speakers took the floor.
2 – Concrete feedback and avenues to explore.
Watch the replay of the speeches
- Juliette Raoul-Duval (ICOM France): the network’s strength in the face of this crisis: stimulating reflection and supporting museum professionals.
In this clip, Juliette shares the various actions implemented by ICOM France to mobilize museum professionals. These actions are rooted in the French National Committee of ICOM’s desire to create links between its 5,600 members, museum professionals and institutions, and in close collaboration with the 50,000 members of ICOM International.
The first confinement (March-April) brought a sudden halt to the (very dense) activity of cultural establishments in their drive to rapidly renew their exhibitions and develop their audiences. Faced with this situation of uncertainty and stupefaction, ICOM France decided to quickly reconnect with its network members. These members reacted quickly and resiliently, maintaining links with their audiences and thinking about the world beyond.
In the short term, ICOM France’s teams have set up a number of measures to support its members during this period of confinement and as they reopen:
- An active watch, launched as soon as the confinement beganby the ICOM France team to identify initiatives by museums that are institutional members of the Committee;
- Setting up discussion forums for network members;
- A set of recommendations to help museums resume their activities.
With a longer-term ambition in mind, ICOM France has decided to help cultural institutions project themselves into “the world after”. Faced with the desire of these establishments to adopt a sustainable approach, and with the certainty of being supported by the public authorities (in contrast to Anglo-Saxon museums), ICOM France has positioned itself at the service of its members to structure the implementation of a sustainable approach. the relationship between professionals. To this end, ICOM has :
- Publish the proceedings of a symposium held in March on the definition of a museum;
- Piloting a series of surveys during the first and second confinements to fuel the publication of studies which, among other things, highlighted the “structural weakness” of museums’ digital investment (the update of the May survey seems to show a recalibration of museums’ digital policy);
- Relay other studies mentioned in our introduction, such as the one carried out by NEMO (Network of European Museum Organisations).
- Launch a series of online Rencontres on May 14. This first series of Webinars (10 virtual debates) was launched between May and October . Reopenings, how far have you got? Watch all the videos on ICOM France’s Youtube channel. This cycle attracted a total of 1,245 participants, and the Youtube videos have been viewed over 2,000 times on the ICOM France channel.
This success seems to be explained by 3 factors: the very forward-looking angle adopted in these Webinars (with the desire to project into the future), the use of participative platforms (with each member having a say, whoever they may be) and a benevolent moderation style.
After such a success, a cycle of 10 debates is being relaunched on December 15, the day the museums reopen, with the theme of solidarity: Solidarity, what are we talking about?. It will run from December 2020 to September 2021.
Museum professionals were actively supported in their efforts during both closed and open seasons. In some museums, these periods were also an opportunity to launch new and original initiatives. Such was the case at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace.
- Maintaining and stimulating public relations: public development and communications departments at the forefront: Alice Charbonnier and Yu Zhang (Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace).
In this 2-voice speech, Alice and Yu highlighted the involvement of all the teams during the lockdown, by creating various challenges for the museum’s online audiences.
The first, the #ChallengeAirEspace, aimed to maintain links with the public during confinement, and to foster internal cohesion with the museum’s teams. On the eve of the lockdown, museum teams were mobilized to produce hand-crafted paper airplane-making tutorials. After launching this initiative, the Audience and Communications Departments maintained the link with the museum teams by :
- Hosting an in-house Skype group, open to every museum employee, to compile personal film and reading recommendations. These recommendations fed into the museum’s avgeek community on a daily basis for 2 months. In return, the members of this community also contributed informal and anecdotal content.
- Working with the cultural and educational service teams to bring educational activities and resources online in a more fun and interactive way. A partnership has been set up with Paris Mômes to develop activities for children.
- Launching the online media library, in close collaboration with the Resource Center, to promote the MAE’s exceptional holdings (a key project for which containment helped trigger the launch).
- Working with conservation and research departments to implement a partnership with Artips and ScienceTips.
The second, in the post-confinement period, entitled #DestinationAirEspace, was designed to reach out to the public and attract them back to the museum. At the heart of the project, museum staff were asked to talk about what they missed at the museum during the lockdown. These responses led to the launch of a communication campaign aimed at the museum’s loyal public, with a poster campaign in the Paris metro to reconnect with a more novice audience.
These different proposals demonstrate the strong commitment and internal cohesion of the museum’s teams in maintaining links with the public during this unprecedented period. The contribution of partners (Artips and Paris Mômes) and the mobilization of the museum’s community have fostered a particularly interesting relay. Although the reopening of the museum will not allow such a strong commitment from the teams in the coming months, a collaborative logic has been set in motion internally, with this community and the partners, which can encourage a better online presence at the service of the physical visit to the museum. Following the example of the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, during this period Musée national de la Marine put in place a range of tools and activities designed to improve communication both internally and with the museum’s visitors.
- Setting up an operation called “Rester à bord, la mer s’invite chez vous” to mobilize in-house teams: Rémy Hoche (Musée national de la Marine).
As an introduction to his talk, Rémy outlines some of the specific features of Musée national de la Marine that are crucial to the way you approach your online presence. A specific communications approach was required, given the museum’s multi-site nature (presence on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts in Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort and Toulon) and the closure of its Paris site for renovation until 2022. This organization, the recruitment of new teams and the creation of new departments as part of the renovation were all factors conducive to the launch of ambitious communication campaigns during the period of confinement.
Faced with a situation where few technical and financial resources could be mobilized, the museum’s wealth of resources (collections and multimedia resources), the commitment of its teams and their involvement enabled us to develop an ambitious operation: “Rester à bord, la mer s’invite chez vous”.
In this speech, Remy presents the main lines of the operation: regular programming on social networks with daily editorialized appointments (7 contents minimum per day) based on existing resources, adapted or created for the occasion around:
- The maritime world and history (such as Les coulisses de l’histoire or Notre équipage a du talent, mystery objects defined in close collaboration with coastal museums, video quizzes, a webseries with an evocative title in times of confinement: Traversée en solidaire…),
- Educational, entertaining and recreational content (such as La mer en famille) adapted to the confinement/deconfinement periods.
To produce such a programming grid, active collaboration was required between the communications and sponsorship team and all the museum’s staff: the coastal museums, the marketing department, the collections, the conservation, the museographic project, the mediation service and the library.
The program is also available on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, Youtube and Facebook Watch. A total of 595 publications were produced between mid-March and mid-May. Compared with the same period in 2019, subscriptions to the museum’s various social platforms have increased exponentially, and some twenty local and national press releases have been recorded: France Inter, Le Figaro, le JDD, France 3 Région…
Since the first containment, new initiatives have been launched in this vein, with, for example, the collaboration of Youtubeur Evan de Bretagne this summer in a webseries about coastal sites(see one of the videos created for the occasion).
This operation highlighted the key role played by the Communications and Patronage Department in mobilizing and valorizing all the museum’s scientific and non-scientific expertise, and in editorializing it. To gather and structure these various contributions, an in-house newsletter was proposed, and fed collaboratively by the staff. With a degree of agility and adaptability to an unprecedented situation, while anticipating an increased workload, new expertise has thus been brought to the fore, enabling the definition and editorialization of new content to be offered to the public in line with their expectations and the museum’s missions. With a view to the museum’s reopening in 2022, in addition to these highly engaging, agile actions, more technically sophisticated proposals will be made in the coming months. The particularly unprecedented period we’re living through (also) calls for monitoring and reflective analysis. This is what Ocim has been offering since March.
- Informing the thinking and actions of museums and networks of professionals in the field of scientific, technical and industrial heritage and culture: Ewa Maczek.
As a preamble to her talk, Ewa presents the Office de coopération et d’informations muséales (Ocim), its vocation and missions. Under the dual authority of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the University of Burgundy, Ocim serves museums and professionals in the fields of scientific, technical and industrial heritage and culture.
Ocim’s mission is to :
- Prioritize links with the field and research in an inter-professional, inter-trade and inter-statuarial approach;
- Create spaces for exchange and creativity;
- Observe professional practices and their changes.
Ocim’s actions in response to the health crisis are therefore in line with these missions:
- A Watch Focus to identify and organize news related to the health crisis on some twenty themes. This was a necessary first reaction to relay information in this unprecedented situation. It was also an opportunity to identify the initiatives taken by the various players for the general public, and the actions carried out for professionals by the various networks.
- From March to May, Distances, to collect the words, testimonies and written reflections of professionals, researchers and network leaders in France and Europe. These chronicles, distanced by the written word, put audiences at the heart of these publications, as well as questions about the place and role of museum cultural institutions in society (including the theme of inclusion).
- A series of podcasts, A l’écoute des savoirs. Launched in February, this platform of resources and podcasts on the theme of inclusion was designed to relay the word embodied in the voice and discourse of professionals through podcasts. The project, which began 2 years ago, fortuitously resonated with the unprecedented situation in which professionals were sharing living knowledge, embodied in their professions, convictions, doubts and values in the work they do. A series of podcasts will soon be available on the theme of emotion.
In addition to these proposals to support professionals in the face of this crisis, Ocim recently launched a survey between July and October on “Mediation in times of crisis”. Mediation in times of crisis “in partnership with the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. This survey will highlight the issues and tensions linked to professional mediation practices, the impact of the crisis and the prospects that may emerge. Faced with a certain precariousness of jobs at the interface with the public and at the heart of the institution (such as seasonal workers and guide-lecturers), mutual aid and solidarity are more than ever necessary to enter into a logic of resilience and reinvent these jobs together.
3 – In depth, a few questions raised in the chat.
Question replay
In connection with these speeches, various questions and reactions were shared in the chat by participants.
The idea of a shared platform to promote the online initiatives of cultural structures and, more broadly, those of the professionals serving them was suggested. This could enable the exchange of best practices, create synergies, co-create and imagine future strategies to be implemented.
The Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne region is currently considering the creation of a platform of this kind, bringing together some fifteen museums with the help of the DRAC to train professionals in animation and virtual meeting techniques.
Discussions also took place on the balance to be struck between digital and physical formats, as cultural venues reopen. As the various speakers mentioned, adaptation will be necessary. Some participants in the chat also mentioned the case of sites with small teams, where commitment is more complex to envisage in such online actions, at a time when priority is being given back to the physical.
As in the first meeting, questions were raised about the evaluative aspect of the approaches implemented by the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace and the Musée National de la Marine. In particular, has the development of dedicated programming enabled us to gain a better understanding of online communities?
4 – To conclude, a graphic presentation by Emeline Parizel.
Graphics replay
A particularly rich meeting, highlighting the role of professional networks in sharing practices and resources to support heritage sites in the face of this crisis. Solidarity, resilience and pooling will be essential as we face the challenges ahead when the cultural venues reopen on December 15.
Within museums, the ordeals associated with confinement have brought communication and mediation professions to the forefront. During this period, their role was particularly important in bridging the gap and guaranteeing internal cohesion between the various employees. Faced with the economic, social, societal and health challenges ahead, the coming months will be particularly decisive in consolidating this role within these cultural structures, thanks to greater institutional recognition and support in terms of training. In the face of these challenges, it will be vital to maintain, encourage and encourage the pooling of resources and solidarity between professionals and institutions that we have been discussing throughout the Rencontre.
A final session is scheduled this week, so register now: MEETING 3 (Thursday, December 3) – The health crisis, an opportunity to monetize digital activities
To find out more about the network of museums and memorials of contemporary conflicts (RMMCC), you can contact them via the following e-mail address(dpma-mmcc.anm.fct@intradef.gouv.fr) or consult the brochure presenting their activities.
