Working in the museums and cultural sector is the major reason why I started my consulting practice over two decades ago. I have a life-long interest in and deep commitment to this sector, particularly transport and technology museums. I believe our sector’s success reflects our society’s general health, sustainability and values, and I am intrigued by the challenges for museums in creating public value and the role of institutional empathy.
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Revelstoke Railway Museum. Jim Cullen photo.
Public Value
Museums often confuse the difference between their outputs—exhibits, programs, use of collections, learning—with the outcomes or impacts of their work for their communities. While many successful non-profit organizations now transparently report their outputs and measure their value, I find museums are less likely to measure their own performance in terms of outcomes and impacts.
In 2013, I developed one of the first “public value plans” for any Canadian museum and remain committed to making this approach more mainstream for our cultural institutions.
Transport and Technology Museums
My beginnings in the museum sector were with transport and technology museums, and they remain my ongoing passion. However, I have found they often miss their true relevance and public value potential, often lagging the museum sector in using standard museological processes and methods. This has important implications for the sustainability of many of our institutions—and for the transport museum sector as a whole.
With deep experience as a volunteer, board member, manager and consultant, I continue to work to build institutional sustainability in, and bring sound business and museological practices to, transport and technology museums.
Collections Significance
Significance assessment is critical in managing and making the most of our collections, especially in light of the many pressures faced by the museum sector. After extensive research, I wrote a dissertation on this topic and developed an evaluation framework for large transportation objects.
I look forward to helping museums effectively understand and manage significance to provide more meaning, relevance and public value.
The Empathetic Museum
I am proud to be a member emeritus of the Empathetic Museum group and the work we accomplished. I joined them in 2015 because their framework holistically addresses a variety of perennial museum challenges—community, inclusion, diversity and responsiveness.
I remain committed to building empathetic awareness, understanding and capability among museums.