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11. Financial management - exploitation - development of parallel actions

Financial management is linking accountability with transparency while making sure the various sources of renenue match costs incurred.

There are several issues intertwined but prove to be a major conflict once the Trustees decide to go for expansion by adding another building or even extending the premises of the museum to another location e.g. Guggenheim from New York to Bilbao or Centre Pompidou. This is no longer outsourcing but creating a distribution network which enhances the outreach of the museum while linking up with some original sources of inspiration e.g. Tate Modern branching out to include Liverpool and this in anticipation of Liverpool being European Capital of Culture in 2008.

But putting money into expansion of buildings is quite something else then building up a collection e.g. the Cultural Centre of Ryerson University wishes to upgrade the Black Star Collection of 300 000 photographed images to one 1 million images and this within three years. This means no longer to be inspired by an artistic idea but convinced the increase in value of the collection can only be done by going very big.

11.1 Financial management

The National Museum of New Zealand identifies the economy of the museum as a sector issue with financial management interrelated with diversification of income sources to sustain museum services over different time periods. [1]

SECTOR ISSUE: Resource development and management

Explanation


Implications for improving effectiveness

Income

Costs

Balancing Resources

Attendance

 

PR / advertising / web services

17%

Programs

 

Special hiring of staff, researchers, curators

23%

Membership

 

Ongoing contact with members / newsletters

16%

Gift shop / other

 

Development of special items / local products / digital products

25%

Grants / donations

 

Investments needed to repair or to upgrade infrastructure

19%[2]

Research

 

Collections, validation of information, background information, updating

 

Collection Valorization

 

Purchasing and linkage

 

Special exhibitions

 

Gaining in profile over time

 

Training of staff

 

Preparing guides and museum management

 

Community Services

 

Making available materials, providing space, participation in city events e.g. major publications, presentation

 

Int’l activities

 

Linkage to the international world through exchange of experiences and innovative practices

 

 

Ars Electronica in Linz

ARS Electronica does not support itself on just visitors but rather have four pillars:

  1. Festival for art, technology and society
  2. Prix Ars Electronica (international competition for cyber arts)
  3. Ars Electronic Center (Museum of the Future)
  4. Ars Electronica lab

See www.aec.at

 

-         general admission income / in terms of total attendance, a figure which will have to include also ‘free admission’ and attendance to museum compared to special exhibitions for which an extra fee may be charged

-         membership income / in terms of members-only attendance compared to membership fee

-         there is a further differentiation when it comes to group attendance (school classes, tourist groups, special study groups etc.). This must be linked not only to specific programs in the museum but also be matched to seasonal trends e.g. when schools begin but the teachers have not yet decided upon their visiting program throughout the year

-         funding and income generation

 

 

 

11.2 Exploitation

 

 

Making proper use of cultural and scientific resources – improve accessibility – at the same time sustain the museum while keeping abreast with latest developments.

 

Crucial is the value of the collections around which museums are usually build. There is the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions. Then, there is the possibility of purchasing, loaning etc. in order to revalue the collection. If some items are missing and the collection can be completed through new purchases, then the entire collection gains in value.

The point is that the financial value of an entire museum is not easy to be interpreted nor to be accounted for. There are many donations, sponsors, benevolent acts like gifts for heads of states that are on a temporary loan in the museum and some day these will be claimed by the owner and threatened to be sold if not bought by the museum. Often this is accompanied by a public outcry since the assumption was all along due to society’s identification with the object e.g. famous painting in the Castle Charlottenburg in Berlin. The externalization of the painting was prevented once public donations reached 2 Mill. DMs. The reason given by its owner was he needed money for the restoration of his own castle. The then mayor Richard von Weizsaecker, himself a member of the Aristocrat society in Germany, supported this public action as it was his overall policy to restore property values in Berlin.

 

Risk management:

 

Risk management – two categories

Security and Safety

 

Museum Decision Support System (San Marino)

This project aims to draw up a Risk Matrix for museum facilities, as a support tool both for a self-evaluation of the Index of Risk in the museum facility itself, and for an economical resource planning as regards RISK prevention.

 

The project has its main objective in the achievement of a quantitative instrument, on a trans-national basis, able to help the Director of museums in defining and putting into effect their own choices concerning resource allocation within the ambit of prevention and preservation of risks.

The Risk Management method is used. It aims to examine and get a specific Index of Risk concerning the following factors:

Such a Matrix of Index should come complete with a Decision Support System, which should be able to make a cost-effective valuation about the several Museum Directors’ choices.

 

This project is aimed at giving an operative tool to the Museum Directors, in order to allow them to self-evaluate the risk in Museum facilities, and to examine both the immediate incidence of management choices and the allocation of resources concerning prevention of risk inside the Museum.

 

Contact: Dr Luigi Pastorelli, SCHULTZ s.a.

T / F +378 549 942 750

E schultzsrl@omniway.sm

Overview The Information Systems Security Research Group (ISSRG) is part of the 5 star rated Information Systems Research Centre. The groups main areas of interest include:

 

Risikomanagement und Kultur

4. Internationale Herbstakademie

Kulturmanagement Hochschule für Musik, Weimar (Germany) http://www.herbstakademie-kulturmanagement-weimar.de/

 

 

a) Types of exhibitions: There has to be a risk management with a forward look into the future when it comes to planning exhibitions and events at the museum.

Anna Davies managed her gallery at the University of Manitoba in such a way that the staff was fully involved in 1/3 of risk taking actions, i.e. the bringing about of new exhibitions.

b) Purchases and adding to the collection:

-         there are different policy options depending on the character and size of the collection e.g. Dr. Rau’s collection of art paintings cover 5 centuries with promotion under the ownership of UNESCO being six to ten years on the road before entering a permanent building at Jardin du Luxembourg.

-         Starting new collection of living, relative unknown artists

-         Documenting developments e.g. Museum of the City

-         Substantiating on the combination of an important collection and loans new varieties of exhibitions (thematic explorations)

 

Purchases for the collection

There is a beautiful example Andre Malraux gives when faced with the decision as Minister of Culture for France and hence responsible for what the Louvre pur: the rug on which Alexander the Great died and none of the scientists could gurantee the authenticity of the rug. Only a fortune teller claimed to know that this is an authentic piece of evidence but when the Louvre decided to buy the carpet, it was too late. It had been sold already in Cairo. Something similar may now take place in Volos when experts attempt to verify the Argonaut mythology thanks to recent findings of gold pieces dating back to that time.

 

c)      building expansion

 

There is a saying in museum branches, no building is realistic if it does not foresee the need for new spaces and therefore to expansion possibilities. Any good museum will increase its original collection and therefore will want to add new spaces. Thus a building must be designed in a way that future expansion is a possibility. If this is not the case as is for example the New Acropolis Museum, its static expression will already limit its disposition to play an active role in future.

 

d) service extension

Museums producing extra services e.g. Planetarium / Eugenides Foundation in Athens publishes the theoretical handbook for those wishing to take their driving license. Quite a novel approach is taken by some American museums e.g. Art Museum of San Francisco which offers advise by ‘extremenetworks’ for security purposes. [3] There are certain reasons for this:

 

-         new technology means another concept of ‘networks’ based on computer and sophisticated soft- and hardware systems

-         for both museums and businesses but also schools, tourist operators, municipal administrations etc. these networks are essential

-         with innovations bringing about new sophistication so does the degree of complexity change, requiring new linkages between different types of management (management of information a crucial aspect if knowledge and data basis are updatable) and posing new organizational challenges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11.3 Development of parallel actions

Hospitality & Events

The text for the National Museums of Scotland reads as follows"

"The National Museums of Scotland offer a range of original and exciting venues, each with a unique and impressive atmosphere in which to hold your event. Whether it is a dinner or a concert, a reception or a fashion show, a lecture or a breakfast meeting a wedding or a ceilidh, we offer a professional service to ensure that your event is particularly memorable. However you choose to tailor your event, you are guaranteed a magical party in magnificent surroundings."

 

A Few Centuries Later, Philip IV Tours the Prado For the first time, the Prado Museum in Madrid has opened its galleries to theatrical performances. In a portrayal that is both tableau vivant and dramatic anthology, actors playing King Philip IV and his second wife, Mariana de Austria, right, as well as the Golden Age playwright Calderón de la Barca stroll past some of the Prado's greatest works. As they pause before masterpieces like Velázquez's "Surrender of Breda," two more actors perform scenes from Calderón's plays for the amusement of the royals (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/travel/28advprado.html

 

 

Economizing resources both in the museum and in / for the environment

„Wirtschaftlichkeit und Umweltbewusstsein für Natur und Mensch“ conference in Oldenburg 11. Oktober 2005

Environmental prizes for three museums of the city Oldenburg

"Umweltzertifizierung zur erfolgreichen Umsetzung des Umweltmanagements in Museen", - promoted by the German Foundation for the Environment

Deutschen Bundesstiftung Umwelt.

 

Introduction to environmental management in museums:

 

What constitutes a successful implementation of an operation that saves resources and does not harm the environment?

What costs need to be taken into consideration?

How big a savings are made by applying this type of management?

Within what time framework must environmental management be installed by a museum?

What sustainability can be attained with regards to the various criteria?

Target group: experts from museums, technical services, environmental consultants

Wirtschaftliche Effizienz und Umweltmanagement aus Sicht des Museumsverbandes Hans-Walter Keweloh, Museumsverbandes Niedersachsen und Bremen e. V.

I. economic efficiency and environmental management

Presentation of DBU-Project - "Demonstration on how to save resources and reduce costs to the environment in the realms of museums”

Dipl.-Ökonom Andreas Daum, Daum Unternehmensberatung

II. concrete practical examples

Reduction of heating costs in private and public buildings

Dipl- Ing. Anne Schenker, Firma Energiedienstleistung Boysen GmbH

Optimization of lighting steering systems in exhibition halls

Dipl- Ing. Torsten Wedler, Firma Schönes Licht, Oldenburg

Future Perspectives Prof. Dr. Mamoun Fansa, Regional musem Nature and Human Being / Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch Oldenburg

Contact:

Corinna Endlich M.A.

Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Archäologie, Redaktion Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch Damm 38-44

26135 Oldenburg

fon: 0441/9244-327

fax: 0441/9244-399

email corinna.endlich@web.de


References:

[1] www.tepapa.govt.nz

[2] These figures were obtained from Kingman Museum Strategic Plan, Appendix B: Benchmarks and Performance Statistics

[3] Security – advise by extremenetworks, Art Museum in San Francisco

http://www.extremenetworks.com/solutions/applications/security.asp

 

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