I will be interested in the results of your inquiry Michele. Having been in the museum field for fifty years I am always curious to know how museums define much less measure "success." Of course, the easiest on-going numerical metric is attendance. This is usually set forth in an annual number. However, such a statistic is misleading. There are many, many variables over which an individual museum will have no influence. These include location, museum topic, ease and method of access, and admission economics, to name obvious ones. For example, when I was a curator at the Museum of the City of New York in the 1970s and '80s, attendance was not robust. Even though it is on the same Avenue (5th) as the city's most popular museums, being at 103rd Street in East Harlem dampened people's sense of safety causing avoidance. Was the institution not successful? I certainly thought it was but my measure reflected its incredible collections, knowledgeable and devoted long-employed staff, stunning exhibition schedule, loyal public school attendance, creative interpretive programming, and secure financial health. Frankly I consider any museum that manages to survive a success given the fact that there is no practical reason for any of these novel places to exist. How does one measure the success of acquiring, keeping, conserving, studying, showing, housing and funding the cost of saving the tangible in service of the intangible for as long as most museums do and presumably will going forward? Getting back to the simplistic (in my mind) metric of determining success by attendance figures, this is largely driven by boards of trustees which are largely comprised of people from the corporate sector where everything is measured by bottom-line outcomes. Unfortunately, especially for museum directors, since museums themselves have become attractions along the lines of amusement parks, movie theaters, performance centers, etc., they are partially at fault for what is now self-inflicted attendance pressure. I would love to hear your report. Steven Miller
sh.miller2@verizon.net------------------------------
Steven Miller
Doylestown, PA
Executive Director Retired
Boscobel Restoration, Inc.
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-28-2022 11:58 AM
From: Michele Mandula
Subject: Assessing Succes: Challenges for Museums?
Hello community!
I am a current graduate student studying service design and its applications to museums. As such, I'm interested in understanding if/what the current process is for museums to assess their success and progress towards goals for small and mid-sized museums.
It doesn't seem to be standardized, though there are many recommendations of ways / methods to use (ACM Benchmark Calculator, SMART goals, Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma, etc.). Would standardization (or stronger recommendations around minimum metrics / KPIs to report) be helpful or useful? What are the current pain points you are facing trying to assess your institution's success? What is the process by which your organization(s) approach this? Does everyone get a say, or is the Assessment/Evaluation team the only one involved?
If you want to provide feedback, please do so through this anonymous form! If you want to chat further, there is an option to indicate that at the end of the form.
Thank you, and cheers!
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Michele Mandula
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah GA
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