Center Audiences to Find Your Purpose
When thinking about their audiences, museums too often hyperfocus on what to provide for audiences or how to attract them. They think of exhibitions, programs, marketing efforts, and membership drives. However, before jumping to what the museum plans to do or how it will do it, it’s wiser and more helpful to take a step back and consider why doing it is important and who it is for. By thinking through both the “why” and the “who,” museums can locate their purpose and make deliberate decisions with their audiences in mind, rather than heading down a rabbit hole with no clear direction.
It’s no secret that “starting with why” is a powerful way for organizations to build a strong foundation based on purpose. Unfortunately, museums sometimes take their “why” for granted, assuming it’s obvious to all. Too often the why is articulated in a self-absorbed way: focused on the museum itself rather than the audience. For example, museum mission statements often focus first on what the museum does (e.g., collect, exhibit, interpret) rather than forefronting why those things matter for their audiences.
We live in a dramatically different world than we did 10, 20, 30 years ago, and museums need to examine their purpose in relation to the world and people around them. As Gail Anderson said in a recent webinar in the series Museums and Change, hosted by Avi Decter, museums must “go down to the studs” and “deconstruct the colonial museum model [to] recreate a more relevant and inclusive institution.” Questions for museums to interrogate their “why” include:
Why does your museum exist?
What difference does it make that your museum exists? Would the world be just fine without you?
What is the current-day social need that your museum is equipped to fill? Why you? What makes your museum well-suited to fill that need?
Implicit in all those questions of “why” is the “who.” I think we can all agree in 2024 that, as Stephen Weil wrote more than 20 years ago, museums exist for somebody, not just about something. But for whom exactly? Museums can no longer refer to a vague, ubiquitous “audience” or even to particular demographics or superficial characteristics. Those are outdated, limiting ways to think of audiences. Questions for museums to ask about their “who” include:
Who are the audiences that are most important to your museum at this moment in time? You can’t be all things to all people, so prioritize a limited number.
Who are they really? What are their interests, values, and needs, and do they align with what your museum has to offer?
Why should they want/need you? How can their lives be better because of you? What positive difference can you make in their lives?
What do they need to feel welcomed, included, and valued?
Taken together, your answers to “why” and “who” can provide you a compass in decision-making for your audiences and your museum. Once you know and embrace exactly why you exist and specifically who you exist for, then you can go about the work of developing programs and offerings that align. You will have a clearer path for creating experiences that resonate, making positive differences in people's lives, and fostering a sense of belonging at your museum.
