The Museum of the Future

15 Jun, 2020 • Strategy • 2900

Why some organizations respond well to crisis, even when they are unprepared

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, my favourite podcast did an episode with interviews with people around the world about the crisis. While the world was being paralyzed by lockdown restrictions, they produced a stellar story that brought people together.

Within days, schools and universities all over Europe moved all their education online, more than once at an exceptional level of quality. In the blink of an eye beer brewers, cosmetics companies and fashion labels began producing disinfectant, facemasks and other lifesavers. Some organizations and leaders transitioned into their new roles and responsibilities so fast that it felt like they had been preparing for this moment for ages.

Yet most of us, virtually all of us, were utterly unprepared for the COVID-19 crisis and its all-encompassing impact on our lives, our jobs and the world.

Over the past months, I’ve spoken to hundreds of professionals about how COVID-19 changed their life, individually and in sessions with Michael Peter Edson, Europeana and the We Are Museums network. The intent of these sessions is to help participants to make sense of what is happening — peer to peer coaching, so to speak. Yet they also raise and answer questions about our work and future. For instance, why some organizations and individuals responded so well to a situation we were all unprepared for.

Based on over 80 hours of (group) conversations, I distinguish at least three factors that allowed organizations and individuals to respond proactively and meaningfully to the COVID-19 pandemic: clarity of purpose within their context or community, a diverse and robust network, and the ability to create.
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17 Apr, 2020 • Technology • 3372

Building coronacollectie.nl, a participatory storytelling and collection platform
Recently, the team of VISSCH+STAM launched coronacollectie.nl, a participatory platform where everyone can contribute to the historiography of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative quickly gained traction, with exposure in the national press and hundreds of contributions to date. The contributions range from participatory songs to everyday observations and from diaries to billboards.

It’s been a while since I’ve been with my boots in the website-building mud. When Erik phoned me with the idea, however, and Robin provided the brand, I had no choice but to take the Pippy Longstocking can-do attitude. And honestly, it’s easier now than it has ever been to take an idea online.

Eight years ago, I wrote a much-read post about building a crowdfunding platform with spare cash and time. Here’s the 2020 update. Copy-paste, and make your idea happen:
1. Platform: WordPress
  There are countless drag-and-drop website builders nowadays, and some of them are great. Nonetheless, with over 15 years of experience with WordPress, it is my go-to CMS.
2. Template: Bridge (59 USD)
  As with WordPress, with my theme, I’m a creature of habit. I have used Qode’s Bridge theme for a wide range of websites, and I gladly pay the license fee. It takes some time to set up correctly, but it’s well documented and flexible. With the amount of traffic coronacollectie.nl gets, it is not the fastest theme, but there are plugins to address that to some extent.
3. Contributions: Typeform (0-70 EUR/month)
  Everybody needs to be able to contribute to coronacollectie.nl. I looked into many options to gather contributions, and Typeform stands out for me. It works smoothly, looks great, allows for complex forms and specials such as file uploads. Our users respond positively to it as well. We use the premium plan for our website.
4. Brand and logo: Robin Stam
5. Domain names and hosting: TransIP
  Or wherever you get your favourite dotsomething and VPS.
6. Social media presence: Twitter, Instagram
  We use these mostly to monitor the conversation and reach out to potential contributors.
7. Other WordPress plugins
  Bridge comes with a host of plugins. In addition, I use Hummingbird and Smush to optimize the website’s speed, Loco translate to edit some labels, a GDPR cookie and Open Graph plugin, Redirection to pimp some URLs, and Simple Share Buttons Adder for social sharing.
8. Coding
  To make Bridge work well with our design, I had to write about one page of CSS code. Although I didn’t really write it, but rather copy-pasted it from Qode’s help forum and adjusted some numbers. Anyone can do this.
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7 Apr, 2020 • Case studies, Inspiration • 3197

Collecting the story of a crisis

Earlier this week the team of VISSCH+STAM launched coronacollectie.nl. On this website, everyone can contribute to the historiography of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this effort, when the crisis is over, we will be able to supply Dutch museums and archives with as many personal stories and memories as possible. Collectively, these contributions tell the story of this important moment in our history. Not from an official standpoint, but from the point of view of the regular person.

The Corona crisis is the largest crisis in our country since the Second World War. The impact is enormous, both in healthcare as well as financially, economic and socially. The scope of the impact remains to be seen, but it is certain that our lives will be influenced by it for years to come.

Someday, however, the COVID-19 crisis is history. What stories will we tell about it then? Just like we can only deal with this crisis together, we must also record the stories about it together, preferably now. Together because there are many different personal perspectives on the crisis that all deserve a place in the common narrative. Now because the emotions and perception of the moment are most relevant for the understanding of this event. And it is exactly these aspects that may get lost in a torrent of analysis and contemplation when the crisis is over.

Every museum collection is a collection of stories. These stories tell us something about who we are, what we consider important and valuable, what we thought, think and imagine. What gives us joy, and what gives us sorrow. Museums and heritage institutions tell these stories through objects (material heritage) and intangible and living heritage, such as experiences, events, and emotions. We collect them all on coronacollectie.nl

For me personally, coronacollectie.nl brings together a couple of things. First of all, the strength of our team at VISSCH+STAM to go from an idea to fully functioning and well-designed cocreation platform in next to no time. Erik Schilp phoned me last Wednesday with the idea, we worked flat out on Thursday with Robin Stam and Anton Kos to make it happen, and soft-launched on Friday. It’s a pleasure to work in this way, remotely, using our creativity and accessible online tools to do the job. Secondly, it shows that our extensive experience helps in quickly setting up approaches to collectively tell stories that make a difference.
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17 Dec, 2019 • Inspiration • 5571

Claiming space for stories that make a difference

In a small museum in England, a group of volunteers carefully maintains a Victorian garden. Once, the vegetables they grow would have fed the ‘guests’ of the workhouse to which the gardens belong. Now, they use these vegetables in community events where people meet to learn about and discuss social justice, law and order, and the effects of poverty on people’s lives. The museum’s staff and volunteers believe that by understanding how we treated the poor in the past, we may learn to end poverty soon.

Recently I was invited to an enjoyable tour of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The tour guide told her story, while we fell in awe with the museum’s unbelievable collection. When we reached the galleries of the war of 1812 (Napoleon’s famous march to Moscow and consequent defeat), an off-handed remark caught my attention. It allowed me to chat with my Russian peers about different views on our shared history and different perspectives on our shared future. The tour guide’s story allowed me to understand the ideas and values of other people better.

At the first global #MuseumsForFuture late November, Mozart went on strike. More specifically, I should say a bust of Mozart went on #ArtStrike. Unbeknownst to the great composer, who never knew of a climate emergency, his face became a local (and thanks to Instagram, global) image of one of the great struggles of our time. With this act, the Viennese Mozart House tried to raise awareness for climate change and encourage people to take action.

In the cultural sector, we tell stories that make a difference. Our stories are not a distraction from a busy job, they are not mere entertainment for the weekends, they are not shallow. Instead, our best stories are timeless, urgent, relevant for future generations.

And yet our best stories are often told in a whisper.
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8 Nov, 2019 • Inspiration, People • 6835

#MuseumsForFuture

I always say I ended up in museums by accident. My background is in sustainable development. When a job in that area fell through, and I needed something to pay the rent, I thought a museum would be a fun place to learn some new skills. Ten years later, here we are.

Increasingly, fortunately, the dual worlds of culture and sustainable development are converging. Evermore people see culture, the arts, and heritage as a force for good in our societies. Following that trend, today, I am happy to announce and support #MuseumsForFuture, the global movement of museums that support climate action and the #FridaysForFuture campaign.

#MuseumsForFuture started in Austria during the last global climate strike in September, when a group of museums came together to support the strikes. They weren’t the only ones taking action, with many museums contributing to the parallel #ArtStrike movement and other initiatives as well.

Now, for the upcoming global climate strike on 29 November 2019, these initiatives and many others have joined forces in an international #MuseumsForFuture movement. The objective: to get thousands of museums contributing to the #FridaysForFuture movement and taking climate action. There are many ways to get involved. For this first time, we hope that as many museums as possible take decisive action on the 29 November.

To help you take action, #MuseumsForFuture suggests 10 simple actions. Copy-pasted straight from their website:
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