The future challenges within science communication lie in a 'grey area' where the frontiers between production and sharing of knowledge are blurred. An area in which we can satisfy at the same time and within the same activity the autonomous interests of researchers and those of other stakeholders, including lay publics. Settings are emerging, where we can provide real contribution to scientific research and at the same time facilitate the publics in their process of hacking scientific knowledge to serve autonomously defined and often unpredictable functions. Some are linked to research
I intend to begin my presentation by providing an overview of what, actually, is a business model, followed by a focus on one aspect of that model, business strategies. The following is excerpted from my forthcoming book on new business models for museums (AltaMira Press).
I hear a lot about how we need a new business model for museums or that the current business model is broken. We have business models; we just may need to evolve them.
For museums, continuing revenue comes from four sectors (Visitors and Program Customers, both earned revenues, and Public and Private Supporters, both support revenues), each with its own interests. This article focuses on earned revenue opportunities and how to think about them, particularly those available to children’s museums.
Are your supporters and audiences getting benefits that are different from the impacts your mission desires? I believe that museums are valued for a wealth of beneficial results beyond their focused missions, and that studying the alignment between a museum’s intentions and its results can improve a museum’s impact and performance.
This slide describes historical trends in museum funding, showing the changing shares of government, private, earned income, and investments in museum business models.
This article from Fortune explores business models for free art museums, and the tension between accessibility and the revenue needed for an operating budget.
This White Paper is based on proceedings from the National Living Laboratory Workshop: High School Research Experiences in Living Laboratory - a convening of professionals who wished to share resources and explore opportunities to involve high school students in the Living Laboratory model.
The Welcoming Guidelines Task Force was launched in 2014 to compile preferred practices for museums to use in working with LGBTQ professionals and communities. These practices are organized across functions and areas of professional practice with the goal to create a workable document that can be used by professionals and institutions of all kinds. The Guidelines are envisioned as a checklist/assessment that can be applied by individual LGTBQ museum professionals and our allies as a resource to effect change at institutions that serve LGBTQ persons and families and employ LGBTQ staff and
“Are museums perceived as experts – and are they trusted? To what extent?” These are the questions that I hoped to shine a light upon when I requested a topic-specific data cut on cultural organizations from the National Awareness, Attitudes, and Usage Study. The NAAU is an ongoing study regarding market perceptions of visitor-serving organizations and it currently quantifies feedback from over 108,000 respondents. The resulting data reveal important takeaways for museums today – and specifically underscore an important role that the market expects museums to play. As a heads-up, the data
This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing efforts of the museum sector to build a museum perspective of innovation. More specifically, the paper presents a new framework for innovation in museums called the Museum Innovation Model (MIM). The model emerged as a result of Ph.D. research that included a number of museums in the United States and the United Kingdom. The theoretical framework of the model is based on three concepts—open innovation, social enterprise, and social innovation—each of which, the research observed, are growing trends in the museum sector. The proposed paper offers an
This is an extended discussion of the question that appeared in the Viewpoints department of the May/June 2015 issue of Dimensions magazine. It presents perspectives from science center and museum professionals about the role of 3D printing in their institutions.