See the world in a grain of sand: Communicating through Objects and CollectionsNick Poole, CEO, Collections TrustChair, ICOM UK

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. This is my first visit to Belgrade. It is a great honour to be here and I look forward to learning from you about your work.

I am sorry that I must present in English. Please do feel free to translate for your colleagues, and please do raise your hand if I use language that is not clear, or am speaking too quickly. I would much rather explain than waste your time!

Thank you for your attention

The Collections Trust

We work with museums, archives and libraries to help unlock the potential of their Collections.

We do this by:

• Providing know-how• Developing and promoting excellence• Challenging existing practices• Pioneering new ideas• Bringing experts together

Find out more at http://www.collectionslink.org.uk

To see a world in a grain of sand,And a heaven in a flower,Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,And eternity in an hour.

Museums are places of meaning and connection. We have an active role to play in a healthy and harmonious society, but what is that role and how can we make the most of it?

What kind of museum person are you?

What can museums do to change the world?

How is the world changing museums?

What kind of museum person are you?

What can museums do to change the world?

How is the world changing museums?

What kind of museum person are you?

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

What kind of museum person are you?

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

“The first duties of the museum are to collect, conserve and display material culture, to protect the nation’s treasures and to showcase the high points of human creativity”

What kind of museum person are you?

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

“The first duty of the museum is to create an open, welcoming environment in which people can come and enjoy the experience of beautiful, inspiring things”

What kind of museum person are you?

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

“It is not the objects themselves, but the connections between them and the stories they can tell. The duty of the museum is to weave narratives and objects together to help people understand the world around them”

What kind of museum person are you?

Objects Experiences

Facts Narratives

“The first duty of the museum is to provide an authoritative record of the development of the natural and man-made world. We must collect and preserve type specimens and objects based on our authoritative and scientific knowledge.”

All of these impulses (and many others) co-exist in museums. We are a tribe with many faiths and perspectives. The joyful thing about museums is that the idea of a ‘museum’ is broad enough to accommodate all of them.

Do you know what success looks like for your museum?

What constitutes success for you/your role/your museum?

A. More visitorsB. Happy visitorsC. Happy DirectorD. Happy politiciansE. More moneyF. More objectsG. Better objectsH. Don’t know/not sureI. Other…

What kind of museum person are you?

What can museums do to change the world?

How is the world changing museums?

Some current projects….

Me in 3D, Science Museum, London

Down the Back of the Sofa, Derby Museum

Skin, Wellcome Collection, London

London Riots, Museum of London

Meditation flashmob, British Museum

Rethinking Disability, Leicester Museum

All of these museums are working towards a social purpose – they are using the idea of the ‘museum’ in creative ways to provide experiences which help people examine current issues.

BUT this perspective is not universally welcome – all of these projects de-emphasise the object, the material culture.

“People come to museums because they want to see things that they couldn’t see anywhere else. They want them interpreted by expert Curators and presented for them to enjoy and learn from.

Collections Managers, Managers, Education specialists – these are all nice to have, but they’re not the heart of the museum. The Curator is the heart of the museum.”

History of the World in 100 Objects

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Beautiful things, selected by a world-leading expert, used to illustrate the defining social, creative, scientific and political moments in human history.

‘Seeing the world in a grain of sand’

Uniting the real world, the radio and the Internet

Interesting to explore the profile of the audience…

The pragmatic challenge…

“This is all well and good, and of course we want to make the world a better place. But you aren’t talking about the reality. The reality is not enough money, limited access to resources and fierce competition with other museums.”

When did your museum acquire the majority of its collections? In the UK, it’s likely to be between 1950 and 1980. With some significant exceptions, we stopped collecting 20-30 years ago.

If we are not confidently asserting our place in the future, very soon, we will be part of the past, a bubble of a particular historical moment. We will have failed.

What kind of museum person are you?

What can museums do to change the world?

How is the world changing museums?

How is the world changing museums?

The Activist Museum

The Democratic Museum

The Online Museum

The Economic Museum

The Sacred Museum

The Activist Museum’

Over the past decade, we have started to rewrite the social contract between museums and their users. It is no longer enough to be a good museum, our museums need to do good things.

Can a museum be an activist and a neutral bystander?

If we become activists, how do we avoid becoming propagandists?

Mission Statement, World Museums Liverpool

We change lives…We believe that museums are places for ideas and dialogue that use collections to inspire people.

We are a democratic museum service and we believe in the concept of social justice: we are funded by the whole of the public and in return we strive to provide an excellent service to the whole of the public.

We believe in the power of museums to help promote good and active citizenship, and to act as agents of social change.

Holocaust Exhibition, Imperial War Museum

The Democratic Museum

‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of their community’ – Art. 27 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Many museums were built to serve elites. If we accept that participatory culture is a right, then how can our organisations evolve to enable open, democratic participation?

If the foundations of our museums are built on trust and authority, then does a right of participation undermine the very essence of the museum?

Embodies special significance pertaining to the social, historical and cultural development of peoples in the nation's history and development of the nation's natural environment;

Testifies to crucial historical events and personalities and their activities in the nation's history;

Is a unique or rare representation of the human creativity of a certain time period or a unique example from natural history;

Exhibits exceptional artistic or aesthetic value.

Monuments of Great Cultural Importance

Embodies special significance pertaining to the social, historical and cultural development of peoples in the nation's history and development of the nation's natural environment;

Testifies to crucial historical events and personalities and their activities in the nation's history;

Is a unique or rare representation of the human creativity of a certain time period or a unique example from natural history;

Exhibits exceptional artistic or aesthetic value.

Who decides?

Monuments of Great Cultural Importance

Revisiting Collections

The Online Museum

The web solves the problems it is good at solving – distance, time, flexibility. But in itself, the web cannot solve the problems of meaning, value and relevance.

As the web evolves away from publishing and towards conversation, we can adapt some of the new rules of engagement (crowdsourcing, mass-participation) .

We can re-code our audiences’ understanding of the depth of interaction we can offer.

‘Your Paintings’ tagger – Public Catalogue Foundation

The Economic Museum

Analysed as a business, a museum makes very little sense.

Why do we duplicate functions such as conservation, documentation and interpretation in many places?

If a museum’s primary motivation is economic, then the basis of prioritisation will change – conservation, acquisition, presentation will all be driven by ‘what will sell’

Can we keep the economic and cultural instinct in balance?

The Sacred Museum

Museums contain objects of great cultural, social, aesthetic and religious significance, including physical remains

If we approach collections primarily from an art-historical idea, do we risk missing other perspectives?

If someone asked to pray to an object in your collection, would you let them?

Sand Painting, Horniman Museum, London

The New Collections Management

These roles must be powered by a new Collections Management

Systems that were built to publish facts now need to support conversations across multiple platforms

Knowledge previously held in silos must flow across the organisation

Policies for acquisition & disposal, as well as priorities for conservation & digitisation must reflect the democratic principle

Representation & relevance must become the business of all employees, from documentation to directorate

Organisation’s Mission Statement

Collections Management Policy

Care Use Learn Develop

Users Politics Funding Culture

People Processes Systems Info

Evaluation & improvement

Rich, meaningful experiences for users

External factors

Strategy

Policy

Activity

Resources

Evaluation

Outcome

Towards Strategic Collections Management

The museum is an endlessly adaptable canvas on which you can explore the full range of human, social, personal and emotional perspectives.

A museum is not neutral – collecting, interpretation, display are all political and directed acts.

The principle of free cultural expression is like freedom of speech. The curator must be like a journalist – pursuing objectivity and balance.

Our custodianship and management of the Collections must be open and fluid, able to adapt to the ever-changing role of our museums.

“A museum must serve a public purpose”

“A museum must be relevant”

“A museum must be unafraid”

Nick PooleChief Executive, Collections TrustChair, ICOM UK

Blog: http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk

Email: nick@collectionstrust.org.uk

Twitter: @NickPoole1

1. What is your museum’s Mission Statement?

2. What is the most important indicator of success for you/your museum? Are they the same?

3. How can you make your collections work harder across the whole organisation?

4. How would you improve your museum’s relationship with its audience?

Workshop Question