YOU may wonder what associations and museums have in common. For one, both have been adversely affected by the ongoing pandemic in terms of declining budgets and revenues, having postponed or cancelled events, going digital out of necessity, and re-imagining what they will be like in the future. Both, too, have shown remarkable resilience.
Below are excerpts from a recent post from The New York Times entitled, “10 Ways for Museums to Survive and Thrive in a Post-Covid World” by art and culture writer-critic Jason Farago. I culled six out of the 10, which I thought provides situational similarities between museums and associations:
1. One mission, many forms. “The post-Covid museum, if it is to have a life at all, has to boil down its purpose to an essence, and then put that mission in motion in a hundred different ways: hi-res and low, permanent and fleeting, academic and popular, all together,” wrote Farago. Similarly, associations need to stick to their purpose of being, align their member services to it, and execute these offerings in various formats to deliver exceptional value and member experience.
2. “Community” is more than a marketing term. Farago said: “During lockdown, one gallery was converted into a food bank, and local citizens showed up. It also hosted a Covid testing and a voter registration site. Want to matter to a local audience? Ask them what they need.” In like manner, it is in the best interest of associations to use “community” as a strategy—to organize their members into communities of practice or interest, let them learn from each other, and listen to their needs.
3. Education is for everyone. “In the post-Covid museum, education cannot be confined to a single department; it’s going to have to be everyone’s job. With cheaper and rougher digital tools—every exhibition should become a Zoom classroom, a podcast lecture, a Twitter thread,” Farago wrote. The same case applies to associations. Providing continuing education will continue to be one of their most relevant value propositions.
4. Join together and co-produce. “A post-Covid museum could distribute the burden of its largest undertakings and help itself by fashioning more on-going partnerships,” he added. Collaboration is the new currency that associations are using as one of their vital resources to scale up member services.
5. Everything is digital; not everything is hi-res. “First, museums can engage with an audience far beyond their hometowns if the tone and the timing are right. Second, online audiences don’t expect a simulation of a gallery visit on screen. They want a museum experience native to the web,” he wrote. Quite similar, associations have gone digital to serve their members and are poised to further enhance their members’ experience through innovations in their virtual offerings.
6. Reboot, remake, re-contextualize. Farago said: “A nimbler post-Covid museum should look both outward and inward, into its own history and out to a new age.” This is absolutely true with associations which are revamping internal processes and acquiring external talents for operational efficiency and service delivery excellence.
So, yes, associations can learn a thing or two from museums that are transforming themselves into the next normal.
The column contributor, Octavio “Bobby” Peralta, is Founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives and concurrently, President of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Association Organizations. The purpose of PCAAE—the “association of associations”—is to advance the association management profession and to make associations well-governed and sustainable. PCAAE enjoys the support of the Tourism Promotions Board, the Philippine International Convention Center and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific. E-mail: [email protected]
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