The future of the museum in the twenty-first century: recent clues from France

ABSTRACT

The vast majority of public funded museums are suffering severe and continuous declining resources. But we can wonder whether the economic crisis explanation is the sole credible culprit or if the current situation reveals a more fundamental disequilibrium. The traditional tripartite basis of the museum – the collection itself, its educational function, and the professionalisation of competences – is increasingly destabilised, and an increasing number of museums are asked to become ‘cultural centres’ and social capital producers. Considering the recent evolution of French museums, we describe three main economic models that can sometimes overlap. The ‘Branding Museum’: in this case museums are increasingly looking for new kinds of income-generating activities, such as the merchandising of by-products, publication of written or audio-visual materials, research and consulting services offering, and more broadly, exploiting their intellectual property rights. The ‘Event-driven museum’: such museums organise cultural events, exhibitions, concerts, conferences, and so on in the hope of attracting both faithful and new visitors, and thus remaining financially sustainable. The ‘Empowering local community museum’: resource-poor in tourism and funding, such museums are seen at best as public spaces for local meetings and debates, or as hosting places for art events of purely local interest, on the increasing basis of voluntary work.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial crisis
• structural crisis
• business model
• branding museum
• event-driven museum
• empowering local community museum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Xavier Greffe is Emeritus Professor at the University Paris Panthéon Sorbonne and associate professor at the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo. Recent books: Les mises en scène du patrimoine culturel (Presses Universitaires du Québec, 2014); The artist-enterprise in a digital age (Springer, 2016).

Anne Krebs heads the socio-economic studies and research division at the Louvre Museum. Her current research interests address notably the social and economic role of museums, digital cultural engagement and the social determinants of individual giving to support art and culture.

Sylvie Pflieger is Associate Professor in cultural economics. She notably published La culture: À quel prix? (Ellipes, 2011).

Notes

1 A summary of our research methodology is presented in Appendix 2.

2 The curators wrote to Garat on 2 August 1793, ’We take advantage of this occasion, citizen minister, to inform you that the funds which were entrusted to us for the incidental expenses of the Muséum have all been used up. Consequently we beg you to be kind enough to send us more; we believe that we need at least three thousand livres at this time to cover various ordinary and urgent expenditures. We need not mention that independently of this issue, the stipends for the last six months are due to the curators as well as to the two custodians of the Muséum.’ Paris, Archives Nationales, F17 1057, no. 6.

3 In 1922, the introduction of an entrance fee in French national museums was supplemented by a fee charged to visitors who wished to ‘paint, draw, or take photographs’.

4 The focus on France here is important, since the proportion of public funding of its museums is substantial, both from the national government and from local authorities: almost 80% of the officially recognised museums in France are under the control of municipalities and thus are supported primarily by subsidies from them.

5 A governmental measure introduced on April 4 2009.

6 On the basis of studies carried out by the Department of Studies, Forecast Research and Statistics of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.

7 Établissement Public de Coopération Intercommunale.

8 A French association for the development of cultural patronage by commerce and industry. It publishes an annual report on French businesses’ support of culture: www.admical.org

9 In France, an educational reform referred to as the ‘rythmes scolaires’, introduced by the government in 2013 for kindergartens and primary schools, seeks to restructure the teaching time-table and reduce the length of the school day, especially in order to enable schoolchildren to participate in sports and cultural or artistic activities.

10 French local authorities are in the habit of asking their museums to take on staff whose work or life situation is precarious, for instance local authority staff who have lost their jobs, or workers let go as a result of local business closings, as well as filling vacant positions in the museums by means of state-subsidised contracts.

11 The French definition is ‘assistant de conservation’. This figure mainly develops educational and cultural activities for the public, helps to manage and protect the collection and works in the documentation field of the museum, under a curator's supervision. Therefore, the ‘assistant’ cannot have managerial responsibilities. It differs from the ‘attaché de conservation’ and its corresponding missions, the ‘attaché’ being enrolled after an examination at a master degree level. He may assist the main curator (as deputy head) or even become the director of a small municipal museum.

12 Such as the Musée Mandet in Riom (Auvergne Region).