How can we create love for nature, science and art in museums?

Weekend Research: We are Museums Community

I'd like to share the research part of my weekend with you. Because it is about the #makdao project and about the huge challenge we are about to enter. I was invited into a discussion round of an organization called "We are Museums" that has created a Lab for Museums together with the Tezos #Blockchain. Very much in the spirit of #decentralization and community, I joined the We are Museums #Community on a very nice looking app called "Mighty". I joined Demo Day of the We are Museums Community Lab (WAC-Lab) and listened to the various Museum project presentations that promised improvement through the use of blockchain. Almost all of them talked about how artists should be onboarded to #web3 or how #NFTs of a virtual museum building would attract donors, by the #ownership of a piece of the building's digital twin. My thoughts on that: Interesting, how museums always seem to struggle with their value proposition.

Back in the We are Museums community app I wanted to look into the Lab's recorded sessions but a paywall asked me for an annual fee. (No comment on creative commons... oh museums, you have a long way to go yet.) However the app suggested joining another lab for free. It's title read: Museums facing extinction.

pic by Joyce Adams, Unsplash

Museums Facing Extinction

The title made me laugh. I thought, wow that's a critical approach. Museums discussing their looming extinction. But no, the article was about what museums could do to participate in the awareness campaign for climate change.
I couldn't let go of my interpretation: What if museums faced extinction?

The questions kept popping up:

What if the museum's funds were cut tomorrow?

What would the museum board do next? - Sell artefacts? - Raise ticket prices?

What is it that a museum possesses that is needed by a potential audience?

And to quote from a discussion I had last week: Who is the owner of these historical artefacts, and what is the museum's role?

What would an audience want a museum to do and show if it was asked to participate? (And I mean really participate, not the sort of gamification of entertainment that is discussed by so many museums: build an NFT, make people use it, give them a badge, send them a newsletter, make them win an annual ticket.)

Carl Auboeck II, Archive 1952, bottle stubble, MAK (c) Christian Mendez

The audience is the most important stakeholder of a museum.

Yet, it seems to be the most ignored group in terms of #integration. To me it seems museums avoid one of the core questions within a business model: that of the role(s) they fill for their audiences. Museums are much more than a series of exhibitions, they in general are a huge container of #knowledge. Unfortunately this knowledge is mostly too abstract for people.

All this despite the fact that education happens in museums. Yet, most people I know think that museums are old-fashioned and outdated. (And they are usually closed when people have finished work.)
All these beautiful buildings and places should be buzzing with people who are meeting to discuss the latest developments and changes in their environment.
How come people team up in cafés, meet in parks but never gather in museums?

In my opinion all these things are due to a high degree of abstraction that totally misses the audiences' needs. In business it is called a product market disconnect. Producing services and products that the company thinks are needed without checking the market needs.

So my question is not how to take action, my question is instead:

How can we create love for #nature, #science, #art and the constant changes in our #society using the resources of our museums?

And as a consequence: How can we offer comfort in the insecurities of life itself?

If you are ready to discuss this, please follow the link to MAK DAO's discord channel and meet me on Friday night June 7 at 6pm Central European time in the stream room. >> https://discord.gg/h8GksQKAHs