Museums in Danger

Peter Giere, Curator at the Museum of Natural History Berlin and Head of the Berlin Emergency Alliance then took the floor and introduced us to the theme of Emergency Preparedness in Museums – the Benefit of Emergency Alliances. In a light-hearted and clear manner, he warned of the dangers museums face and introduced us to the concept of emergency alliances across museums. The Berlin Alliance was set up in 2018. He reviewed potential (natural) disasters that threaten us and how we can and should prepare for them. At first, he pointed out the early problems that often arise during the construction phase of a museum. Then, he emphasized on the central themes to be prepared for: What could possibly happen? Subsequently, plan security for all aspects of the danger(s) you identified. In a bigger side note, he emphasized that the new risk of cyber-attacks and ransomware such as at the British Library needs to be addressed by us. Peter’s concluding message was to start small, make emergency plans against known risks, build alliances and set up a response unit. Much information about these themes can be found on the web, but we can always contact Peter  with questions about this theme.

Next up was the Workshop. Three Streams of Danger for Museums. Environmental, Financial and Deterioration of Collections Due to Storage and Use. This was led by IATM Board Members Meredith Greiling, Sam Mullins and Stephen Quick. The group was split into three subgroups, below is the output from their discussions:

Deterioration of collections, led by Meredith Greiling, Acting Keeper of Science and Technology, National Museums Scotland: This group discussed the recent ICOM Collections in Storage Working Group paper “Collections Storage Around the World“ (May 2024).  Many in the group raised concerns about their own museum buildings, in particular their storage capacity and suitability. Others identified risks including fire, flood, theft, pests, undocumented collections, hazardous materials, collections stored outdoors, insufficiently trained staff, and a lack of conservation skills. It was agreed that in the long term, although not everything in our collections will survive, a new generation will add new things to the collection in the future.

Environmental Dangers, led by Sam Mullins OBE, Director Emeritus of London Transport Museum: The discussion ranged across the retail supply chain, exhibition upcycling, green steam, ESG data and sustainable travel. ESG stands for the environmental, social, and governance factors that are measured to gain an impression of an institution’s sustainability efforts. In summary, we recognized that our museums’ environmental policies and performance were of growing importance to public trust and organizational reputations. This demanded that our museums should seek to collect data and secure certification for all aspects of our environmental footprint and, equally important, that we should explain this journey to our visitors.

Financial Challenges, led by Stephen Quick: The following issues were discussed:

• lack of money during the “COVID-19 period“ resulted in insufficient reserves;
• Financial concerns beginning to affect curatorial and collection priorities;
• the costs of operating vintage vehicles are increasing;
• Changing laws for railroad traffic;
• Environmental concerns for running vintage vehicles and rail;
• new government with non-cultural mandate;
• No tax incentives for financial donors;
• The process of sustainability certification creating new pressures;
• Inflation and less useable income in the population to invest in cultural sector experiences;
• Increase in costs to support an attractive visitor experience through interactive environments increasing IT costs;
• Issue with next generation in finding new volunteers and less people retiring which leads to the need for more staff to sustain the experience;
• Building owner more interested in capitalizing on real estate values than supporting museum lease;
• Smaller local populations shift emphasis to reliance on tourism;
• Shifting geographical alliances affecting tourism;
• Increased cost of security;
• Taking on a national mandate with increased costs but not necessarily increased funding;
• a government that does not always understand the importance of culture for society.