The Museums Libraries and Archives Council developed a Museum Action Plan one year ago to drive strategic development across the sector. The Leading Museums group is a key part of this: a small group of key leaders with experience of the sector who are focusing options for the way forward. A 12-month review was produced in July, and now a set of interim findings have been produced.
These findings emphasise the need for strategic leadership for the development of the sector, promoting innovation and sharing, and the need for continued central and local government support.
Five "arguments for the future" are highlighted:
- Museums need the tools to act as a fully fledged part of the cultural economy - the need for freedom, flexibility and confidence to meet audience needs.
- Museums should be primarily about social learning: conversations in shared spaces - an emphasis on learning as a result of interations between people in museum real and virtual spaces
- Institutions are innovative, but the sector as a whole less so - sharing innovation and rewarding excellence
- the sector needs a more strategic focus to developing and sharing skills
- collaborations and partnerships flourish, but not as much as they could or should
and there are various implications that are briefly explored.
For natural history, I think that this throws up some interesting issues - what does it mean to be a cultrural institution? what does social learning mean for an institution with a natural sciences emphasis? what should natural history partnerships look like across a network of museums with general remits?
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