Wiedemann Lampe
Opinion

Museums and the cultural complacency trap

Benji Wiedemann, Executive Creative Director of Wiedemann Lampe, says museums need to think more about their cultural purpose and corresponding organisational culture to build audiences.
Museums and the cultural complacency trap

Museums - why do you exist? At Wiedemann Lampe we have found answering this question to be surprisingly challenging for some within the sector - and this cultural complacency is having a big impact on delivering meaningful audience interaction. The knock-on effect of this is significant: without a clear cultural purpose, museums risk becoming stagnant and even irrelevant in a rapidly changing and precarious cultural landscape.

It’s essential that museums adopt bold and transformative purpose-centric goals - ambitions like fostering genuine diversity, breaking down barriers to access, or creating meaningful connections with their cross-sectional communities. Institutions like Tate, whose mission is to inspire new perspectives through art, emphasise just how effectively a clear purpose can elevate visitor experience and numbers. 

Benji Wiedemann Portrait

Start thinking about what community you want to nurture to ensure your impact has longevity. Then you need to consider how to connect with people on a personal level – not only how to enrich their lives, but also how to reach them at every interaction and phase of their journey with you; and get them to come back.

— Benji Wiedemann, Executive Creative Director & Co-founder, Wiedemann Lampe

But for purpose to be impactful it must be matched with considered implementation. Without staff engagement and interventions to embed purpose into internal culture, museums risk failing to deliver on the potential of their brand. 

Ultimately, this is a challenge of ambition: for museums to move beyond being "collections of artifacts" and become spaces of distinct, transformative, and impactful cultural experiences. It’s only by doing this that they can truly justify their existence and cultural significance today.

Read the full article here.

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