International Work | Let's Share What We Know

In May 2012, the National Museums Directors’ Council (NMDC) published a short paper, World Collections, which illustrated the breadth and impact of our members’ international work [see image 1]. We wanted to show that working internationally has become business as usual for many museums, and that there is a huge variety and depth of engagement taking place. You might be aware of the high profile loans which attract headlines but there are hundreds of projects beyond those. There are scientists at the Natural History Museum (NHM) working with colleagues across the world to study specimens to learn more about disease-bearing insects. Teams from the British Museum spend weeks in Nigeria and Kenya providing training on how to pin coins, fold textiles and re-build storage facilities. At any time within the walls of UK museums there are worldwide visitors from museums, universities, arts organisations and specialist organisations (like archaeological societies), leading workshops, studying collections, giving lectures, assisting with exhibitions and community programmes and being trained in collections management. Similarly, people from UK museums are visiting colleagues across the world to take part in the same sort of activities.

Some of this I knew already.  Between 2008 and 2011 I was the International Manager at the British Museum and part of my job was to run the World Collections Programme. This was a £3m DCMS-funded project to developing long-term projects in Africa and Asia using six of the UK’s largest collections: the British Museum, British Library, Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), NHM and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

1. Science Museum re-developed its popular hands-on interactive gallery Launchpad in 2007, the exhibits were donated to the Unizul Science Centre in South Africa. Following the success of the Launchpad Outreach Programme in the UK, the Science Museum entered into a partnership with the Unizul Science Centre.

Image courtesy of NMDC World Collections publication.

At the British Museum I found that getting to know colleagues who were working on similar projects was crucial when working somewhere new or trying to do something particularly tricky. For example, when I was working on negotiating the loan for Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World I used the network created by the World Collections Programme to make contacts and pick the brains of those who had worked in Afghanistan [see image 2]. I met helpful British Embassy staff and found someone in the Afghan Embassy in London who could help me translate letters into Dari. It was a mutually beneficial group. For quite a while I knew exactly how much it cost for an Iraqi curator to get a UK visa (78 Jordanian dinar), the best flight route from Basra to London (via Amman) ad what to write in a letter to persuade the relevant Iraqi Ministry to let a museum director come to the UK. Unless these were likely to be the answers to my million pound question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, it was pointless keeping this information to myself. We would co-host visitors with the British Library – Iraqi, Kenyan and Ethiopian scholars and curators who we knew would be interested in each other’s collections. These sorts of experiences have influenced the second aspect of NMDC’s international project: to find ways to better share knowledge and experiences across the museum sector.

2. This object is one of the illicitly traded Begram Ivories which the British Museum helped repatriate to the National Museum of Afghanistan (they very recently have been shipped back to Kabul). 

The picture is "Begram Ivories: Duck Walking to the Left" from Begram, Afghanistan. 

Image courtesy of the National Museum of Afghanistan

International work is, by nature, complicated and any step that can be taken to make it less so is surely a good thing. So, in these straightened times, if a museum wants to develop a partnership in China or apply for EU funding, doesn’t it make sense to talk to someone who has already done it? If a museum spent 18 months being the first UK institution to mount a large touring exhibition to Indian venues (as the V&A has) then they are likely to have learnt a great deal about the most effective ways to negotiate, the best couriers for that environment and where the decent hotels are in Mumbai. Thankfully the V&A are keen to share the answers to these sorts of questions.

Developing international partnerships is no longer the preserve of the very largest London-based cultural institutions. There are hundreds of international partnerships involving museums of all sizes across the UK. For that reason, the V&A and NMDC are organising a session at this year’s Museums Association Conference (Thursday 8^th November, 12.20pm – 13.20pm) to discuss the practicalities of developing partnerships with museums in India. We have participants from the V&A, National Museum of Scotland, the British Library, Indian museums and the British Council, and the focus of the session is on sharing good practice and steering clear of trouble. Given the large Indian community in London, the opportunities for working with Indian museums and the wonderful Indian objects in London museum collections, we really hope it will be helpful to London museums whatever their size.

In the meantime and in the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d finish with a list of five things I learnt – some of it by luck rather than judgement:

• Sustainability - No-one likes to have a project done ‘to them’, so forming long-term partnerships in which you can invest will probably yield the greatest success;
• Do something achievable - Don’t start big – work up to something. Get to know people and how they work with something smaller;
• Ask for advice - The British Council is a great source of in-country guidance and there are many other organisations who work in specific countries or on different art forms and academic subjects. Look up from your project and think who else would be keen to know you are doing this;
• A little tip - Blue is a neutral colour for wrapping diplomatic gifts; books relating to your collection, museum or London make good gifts...
• Shopping - almost every delegation or visit I arranged wanted time off and directions to Primark. I decided this was one part of the trip they could do unaccompanied!

If you have any questions about international work, please see my offer on the Share London website.

Author: Katie Childs, Projects and Policy Officer, NMDC and LMG member.

London Museums | World Class Business Models

Sustainability | aspirations and actions

Katharine Ford laughing with Ronald Grant, Co-founder of The Cinema Museum
Photo: Julie Reynolds

I specialise in sustainable business models and practices and in this guise I was asked by The Cinema Museum in Lambeth to help them review their business model and buy their current home from the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.  I`d been prepared to have to win hearts and minds on the wider sustainability agenda but was stunned how much sustainability was already reflected in The Cinema Museum’s aspirations and actions.  At the time I wondered if this was rare museum practice but increasingly I am seeing that it is not!

Let’s consider financial sustainability.  A topical issue in these dire times, where competition for limited resources is high and trying to find innovative ways of working better than ever and at a fraction of the cost is nearly everyone’s focus.  One of the solutions offered to this problem is to `become a social enterprise’ but I get annoyed when museums are invited to think about this because most of them are already operating a social enterprise business model. And really well.  Let’s look at how and why.

Firstly, what is ‘social enterprise’?

The old definition of social enterprise was created in early 2001 by the Department of Trade & Industry and was based on the notion that a social enterprise was a socially beneficial organisation that derived in excess of 70% of its income from trading. The charitable/voluntary sector lobbied against this definition because it excluded and denied many organisations access to the large funding pools and support available to ‘social enterprises’ at the time.  This lobbying heralded a decade of ongoing renegotiation of the definition of ‘social enterprise’. The lobbying organisation’s purpose was to gain access to funding that was ring fenced for social enterprises and the politician’s purpose was to extricate themselves from the hot water their ever changing definitions kept dipping them into. However, the leaders of the social enterprise movement’s purpose was to direct all parties towards consensus around an accurate definition that worked in practice and was not ‘ever-changing’. It was and still is a political minefield and the debate trundles along albeit around a much looser definition.

There is nothing new about social enterprise.  Essentially social enterprises are organisations that engage in some commercial activity in the way in which they deliver social, environmental, educational or cultural benefit.  The profits of which are used to increase the level of benefit the organisation delivers rather than retained for personal gain. 

So, how is a museum a ‘social enterprise’?

Clearly the museum complies with the above definition. The evidence on the ground is powerful; museums demonstrate an impressive array of profitable income streams and cost saving measures that most ‘non-for-profit organisations’ can only dream of. Museums deliver on government contracts and generate income from shops, cafes, educational programmes, image loans, membership, hire of facilities and film shoots as well as being expert fundraisers. Museums are also expert in running on a shoe-string, working with volunteers, and collaborative working; they understand the environmental impacts of their activities and have done pioneering work on energy saving. 

Museums have a strong sense of why they exist.  They adapt to create activities and income streams that match their aims and comply with the core values of their public mission statement. The social capital that emerges from their work and the social benefit that they deliver epitomises financial, social and environmental sustainability. Many museums embrace sustainability in its wider context by working with local supply chains and developing environmental practices that parallel their strong ethical culture Museums engage warmly and well with the human spirit and deliver a finely balanced combination of financial, social, educational and cultural profits. This is complex product development and social enterprise brand management at its best. Indeed, it is clear that museums’ business models are characterised by the type of innovation, diversity and robustness that ensures financial sustainability and effective ‘social responsibility’. 

Museums as a business model of well-being and sustainability

At a time when people no longer trust high street banks, have lost faith with hollow commercial brands and are tiring of thin, poor quality public services a transactional gap is opening up between people`s time and money and what they reasonably and rightly want in return.  People don`t have this consumer frustration with the museum sector.  Museums are places where people find quality and a depth of experience where they are encouraged, respected and challenged. The museum experience is one of well-being and calm enrichment.  It is unique, improving and heart warming.  It offers value for money. Because of these factors the sector is trusted and its consumers confer respectability around its products, services and wider offerings.  The public’s affection towards museums is an extraordinary business phenomenon and one that few sectors enjoy with their customers.

The museum’s business model is based on sustainability and is a classic example of the successful early adoption of the 'social enterprise model'. So, my protective hackles rise when I hear people asking a museum if they have ‘thought about becoming a social enterprise’.  Museums are amongst the earliest pioneers! Indeed, if I were advising the museums sector at the moment I might be suggesting that they add 'social enterprise business advice' to their range of products and services.

Tips and hints

Learn the language of social enterprise so that you can enter the debate, access support offered to social enterprises and address business-planning questions.  You will get more value from advisors, consultants and board members if you can clearly articulate your business model and its relationship with sustainability and social enterprise.

Don’t be alarmed by terms that you may be unfamiliar with; they are often names for activities or models that you are already implementing.

Share offer

Are you the CEO of a museum?  Do you have any questions on the social enterprise business model and how it links to sustainability and museums? Please see my offer on Share London and I will be happy to answer any of your questions.

Author |  LMG Member Katharine Ford, GK Partners and consultant to The Cinema Museum, Lambeth.
With thanks to the Cinema Museum and Katharine Ford for in kind support by hosting LMG events.