'Museum sector buzzing with collaborative initiatives' but keen to keep doing it themselves

An enthusiastic press release in times of severe headwinds. It calls for further reflection. Last Friday, a survey on the state of cooperation in the Dutch museum world was presented. After all, cooperation should be from Minister Bussemaker and kind of the Council for Culture. So it's nice that things are already going ok. Can we get back to fun things.

What the press release does not tell you, but the research report makes clear, is that the museum sector is not doing so great at all. In terms of cooperation in the sense desired by the government, at least. The commission of enquiry notes, for example:

'There is very much knowledge and experience at museums, but sharing that knowledge, the most primary form of collaboration, is still too uncommon and not well organised.'

A little further on, we read:

'Administrative cooperation with full integration at the level of management, governance and supervision currently mainly occurs when subsidising governments impose it, usually in combination with austerity targets. Merging rarely happens wholeheartedly, as museums like to retain their own autonomy'

These observations nuance the image that the sector likes to put out, namely: we sometimes already buy a painting together, we have been organising collaborative exhibitions for years and we participate in international projects. Oh, and the folks from city marketing have our number too.

Of course, cost-cutting is hard at work, and that is where the usefulness of cooperation is seen. In Friesland, for example, four museums have made plans for a joint storage building for their artworks.

The report therefore aims primarily to 'good practices' to offer, for inspiration. And that, of course, is good, although it is notable that many of those good practices so obvious that one wonders why they have not already been implemented everywhere.

That two museums, which are in the same building, present it as news that they have taken a joint box office, switchboard and caretaker is one example.

In addition, here, as small independents, we have a problem with the following 'good' practice:

'A large potential of highly skilled people who cannot find paid work is emerging and are looking for meaningful ways to spend their time and gain work experience. Of course, there are also objections to using volunteers insofar as they displace paid work, but the trend is undeniable. Museums make use of them, also to get tasks done that otherwise could not be picked up.'

Enfin: highly educated people from the arts sector, made unemployed by the cuts in culture, can thus work as volunteers in a museum for absolutely free. This is indeed a cutback of sorts.

The fact remains that the museum sector is also reacting energetically here and there to the new reality of less money and less support from the government. And the signal is also clear that forced mergers are still not done are. The enquiry committee on that:

'It struck us that collaboration is mostly people work and that organising contact is perhaps the key - from simple things like a common staff canteen where you meet and have a cup of coffee together or organising joint conversations about work at all levels of the organisation to setting up teams, programme committees and cross-connections across organisations. Pressure from outside can help, but is never enough. the will and energy for cooperation has to come from within. And that's when the best things happen.'

The entire report can be found here:

Click to access report_trialsofpartnership.pdf