A democratic organisation
Tony Butler is Executive Director at Derby Museums. In this case study on the theme of ‘civic engagement & social relevance’ Tony shares how they have developed their vision of a local public museum, and become a democratic institution that puts participation at the heart of their work through a human-centred design methodology.
This case study was sourced by Culture24 as a resource for our conference, The art of leadership.
Derby Museums is for the thinker and maker in all of us. We have transformed our Derby Story by embedding public participation in everything we do. We believe museums should be for the head, the heart and the hands.
Derby has unique cultural assets. The Silk Mill is the site of the world’s first factory and is in the Derwent Valley UNESCO World Heritage site. Derby Museums has the world’s largest and most outstanding collection of work by Joseph Wright of Derby, the 18th century artist of scientific enquiry (Enlightenment) which is ‘designated’ by Arts Council England as a collection of national significance.
There are four ways in which we have better expressed the notion of the ‘local, public museum’. It’s one that is not an austere institution with all the answers, but an open, more democratic organisation which is constantly learning from its community.
1. Framing the ambitions of the city around its heritage
We have worked closely with Marketing Derby our inward investment agency and Derby City Council, to use the 300 year-old story of making to frame the city’s ambitions for the future. Major companies like Rolls Royce, Toyota and Bombardier are based in Derby – and there are more people employed in hi-tech industry here than in Cambridge. Derby Silk Mill is the site of the world’s first factory; scientists and artists such as Erasmus Darwin and Joseph Wright, and industrialists such as Richard Arkwright, all point to a spirit of innovation and curiosity; and show that the 300 year-old legacy is thriving today. The past is not static but inspires the future.
2. Our collections tell the story of participation
To make our museums more relevant to our citizens we have peeled away its’ layers by embedding participation in everything we do.
The work of Joseph Wright of Derby helps us frame our approach to a human centred design methodology in project development. This analysis foresees how users are likely to use a product. It also tests the validity of assumptions with regard to user behaviour in real world tests with actual users. It’s driven by the needs, desires, and context of the people for whom we design
This framework now governs all our creative activity (the Handbook can be downloaded here). All the way through we ensure that we understand the needs of our audiences – one way to do this is through the empathy mapping tool
- Define and understand: we identify the issue we are trying to solve or change and then we agree a set of guiding principles. We ask who is involved? What does success look like? What are the available resources/constraints?
- Think and imagine: what are our ideas – how far can we push them and what might we find if we are willing to take risks?
- Model and prototype: which ideas are strongest? Can we combine, expand and refine our ideas and make a prototype or pilot?
- Test and evaluate: how are we going to know it has worked? What improvements do we need to make? What did people think, feel, do?
- Produce and share: what resources do we need to make it happen? Who else needs to be part of it? Who should we be telling about what we are doing? How does this feed into our other work or areas or the work of others?
3. Making co-production a habit
In practice this means creating the space for iterative development like the creation of project labs before any major exhibition or redisplay. For example, the creation of a new natural history gallery Notice Nature Feel Joy, involved a phalanx of specialists and experts such as zoologists, entomologists, taxidermists, psychologists and musicians as well as a large group of public volunteers. The results were a beautiful melange of specimens, stories and details of the wonders of the natural world, enriched by the voices of many individuals. Never has the maxim ‘no one of us is smarter than all of us’ been so true.
At the start we set up ‘project labs’ in our galleries where we gathered user suggestions. Throughout the project, we tested ideas in an open gallery space, making the exhibition in full public view so that visitors would feel they could talk to staff and volunteers and offer views. We would imagine, prototype, test, evaluate, make and share.
Notice Nature Feel Joy was about connecting people to nature. A current major project Your Place in the World aims to connect people to each other. It is a timely reappraisal of our world cultures collection. It will explore notions of local, national and global citizenship, noting human connection with objects across the world. In our diverse city we’ll be working in areas of low participation, taking objects for a walk to places where people meet, such as barber shops, nail bars and boxing clubs!
This human centred co-produced methodology is characterising the £17 million development - at Derby Silk Mill - of the new Museum of Making. Co-creation happens habitually, it has led to a more engaged relationship with our audiences as we build the museum.
The Silk Mill’s public workshop is full of equipment which stimulates creativity and learning. During the development phase 2014-17, the public were able to learn new skills and make things using, Raspberry Pi, CNC routers, 3D printers and a laser-cutter alongside more traditional tools. Volunteers have made museum display cases, furniture, designed a mobile kitchen and told new stories about Derby’s cultural heritage. They have encouraged and looked out for each other as part of a collective enterprise.
4. Diversifying our organisation and audiences
To create the conditions for habitual participation we have to better understand our communities and people who don’t visit. Our audiences are still not as diverse as our communities. If we care about social justice we have to address the inequalities of the cultural capital of our communities. We have a higher number of visitors from lower income backgrounds than average.
In late 2016 we asked researchers Bluegrass to conduct some non-visitor research. They found people did not visit because
- “it is not the sort of thing people like us do.”
- it was not recommended by friends or a peer group
- “we do not have enough time.”
- “we do not hear about events.”
- museums were perceived as primarily educational experiences
A large percentage noted that whatever we did to make it more enticing, they were unlikely to come. However, interviewees did note that they were likely to spend their disposable income on leisure activities such as going to the cinema, eating out, going to commercial festivals and visiting theme parks.
Making museums habitual
We used to name these non-participants, ‘hard to reach’. This patronising moniker suggested that once people understood what we had to offer, they would be sure to come. Our experience shows non-users have much more agency and discernment. Their communities also have high levels of social capital; manifest in close family networks, use of community facilities such as mosques, temples and churches and use of local shops and cafes.
Our goal should be to increase the habitual usage of museums by everyone. We can only do that if we lift cultural barriers which sometimes are more perceived than real. There must be variety and diversity of human interaction, from that first greeting by front line staff, to the goodbye at the end of the visit; from the food that is served in the café to labelling and interpretation of exhibits.
This level of participation should help stimulate a new kind of civic institution. Most museums’ relationships with their visitors are transaction based. Customers pay an admission fee for an experience which is primarily didactic. If, as Jon Alexander from the New Citizenship Project contends, we see visitors not as consumers but citizens then the museums of the future will need to build mutual relationships with the public, be non-hierarchal and, be a platform for the free exchange of knowledge and creativity. We think this puts the ‘us’ in museums.
Making the change
The transformation was not ‘hard’. We restructured the team using agreed principles and Human Resources support. We created a clear vision and objectives and we stuck to it. We ensured that the Board were part of the change. There are simple values and principles.
We have increased the visibility and reputation of Derby Museums. We have increased visitor numbers and broadened our audiences. We have successfully raised £17 million in capital funding to create the UK’s first Museum of Making.
None of this success has spared us from public sector cuts. Our combined public sector revenue funding from Derby City Council and Arts Council England has reduced by 40% during 2014-18.
We will continue to embed participation further as we believe this is a pre-requisite in making our organisation relevant to our community and more financially resilient. However there is a balance to be struck as public sector funding reduces. More of our energies will be geared towards raising income from private sources and developing an endowment to secure our future. This may well detract from organisational-wide activities in the community as resources are allocated to fundraising.
Advice for colleagues
The only barriers to not placing participation at the heart of your museum is your own belief and values. Committed leadership, a clear vision and objectives are vital. Just get on with it.
