A presentation to the Serbian museum community as part of their 'Reshaping the Museum' project - addressing questions of the social purpose of museums, and the implications of new models for Collections Management.

1. See the world in a grain of sand:
Communicating through Objects and
Collections
Nick Poole, CEO, Collections Trust
Chair, ICOM UK

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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?

5. What kind of museum person are you?
What can museums do to change the world?
How is the world changing museums?

6. What kind of museum person are you?
What can museums do to change the world?
How is the world changing museums?

7. What kind of museum person are you?
Objects Experiences
Facts Narratives

8. What kind of museum person are you?
Objects “The first duties of the
Experiences
museum are to collect,
conserve and display material
culture, to protect the nation’s
treasures and to showcase the
high points of human
creativity”
Facts Narratives

9. What kind of museum person are you?
Objects Experiences
“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”
Facts Narratives

10. What kind of museum person are you?
“It is not the objects
Objects
themselves, but the Experiences
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” Facts Narratives

11. What kind of museum person are you?
“The first duty of the museum
Objects is to provide an authoritative
Experiences
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
Facts knowledge.”
Narratives

12. 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?

13. What constitutes success for you/your role/your museum?
A. More visitors
B. Happy visitors
C. Happy Director
D. Happy politicians
E. More money
F. More objects
G. Better objects
H. Don’t know/not sure
I. Other…

14. What kind of museum person are you?
What can museums do to change the world?
How is the world changing museums?

15. Some current projects….

16. Me in 3D, Science Museum, London

17. Down the Back of the Sofa, Derby Museum

18. Skin, Wellcome Collection, London

19. London Riots, Museum of London

20. Meditation flashmob, British Museum

21. Rethinking Disability, Leicester Museum

22. 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.

23. “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.”

24. History of the World in 100 Objects

25. 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…

26. 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.

27. What kind of museum person are you?
What can museums do to change the world?
How is the world changing museums?

28. How is the world changing museums?
The Activist Museum
The Democratic Museum
The Online Museum
The Economic Museum
The Sacred Museum

29. 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?

30. 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.
Mission Statement, World Museums Liverpool

31. Holocaust Exhibition, Imperial War Museum

32. 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?

34. 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.

35. 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?

36. Revisiting Collections

37. 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.

38. ‘Your Paintings’ tagger – Public Catalogue Foundation

39. 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?

40. 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?

41. Sand Painting, Horniman Museum, London

42. 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

43. Towards Strategic Collections Management
Users Politics Funding Culture External factors
Organisation’s Mission Statement Strategy
Collections Management Policy Policy
Care Use Learn Develop Activity
People Processes Systems Info Resources
Evaluation & improvement Evaluation
Rich, meaningful experiences for users Outcome

44. 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.

45. “A museum must serve a public purpose”

46. “A museum must be relevant”

47. “A museum must be unafraid”

48. Nick Poole
Chief Executive, Collections Trust
Chair, ICOM UK
Blog: http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk
Email: nick@collectionstrust.org.uk
Twitter: @NickPoole1

49. Workshop Question
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?