Recent posts on museum expertise (1, 2) have struck a chord with some readers. The TLDR is that traditional, discipline-specific expertise alone is no longer enough to support institutions or their communities today. Being an expert designer, communicator, educator, or knowledge worker is not enough. Those skills have to be coordinated in service of community outcomes — whether social, physical, intellectual, or personal — in order for an institution to survive and thrive in the 21st century.
Museum work has evolved beyond individual competencies toward something more challenging and essential.
As community member @Emily Oilar pointed out so eloquently on LinkedIn (emphasis mine):
Letting go of assumptions about what people should care about makes it easier to see what actually matters to them. Expertise still matters (without it, trust erodes) but it can’t stand on its own. “The work speaks for itself” doesn’t carry the same weight anymore, not because the work has lost value, but because communities are asking something different of their institutions.
The harder part is internal: helping staff see that what once built credibility may need to play a different role now. Not because those strengths don’t matter, but because they need to be used differently. It takes real care to make that shift without making staff feel like they’re being asked to let go of who they are. The goal is to carry that deep knowledge forward in ways that resonate with what the public needs now.
As a reminder, these are outcomes because they are results that matter to those who control resources. These are not:
“We put on a great exhibit” is not an outcome. Without definition, “great” often just means that other museum professionals would recognize and appreciate the output. Peer recognition, while personally gratifying, will do little to ensure your institution thrives in the 21st century. Instead, consider “We helped people connect with others whom they do not typically interact or connect with”, which is an outcome related to social capital. If you can achieve that outcome through an exhibit, more power to you, but the outcome is what matters.
"We rebranded, launched a new website, and won an award" is not an outcome. I’m always baffled by those inane awards where a bunch of other people who are a lot like you vote on what they think is cool — how are these not just distractions? Helping people "think about important issues and see things from new perspectives" is an outcome. If a new website will help you achieve an outcome like that, then go for it.
Through programs like MaP³ and The Community Goals Study, we help organizations understand which outcomes they’re uniquely positioned to support, the degree to which alternative solutions may more or less support those outcomes in their locale, and which outcomes to prioritize. Those elements — advantage, competitive landscape, choice — are critical in developing a good strategy.
Still, a strategy is a choice without consequence until it is enacted. It’s only when your team of experts begins to articulate the value of your museum in the terms defined by your strategy that you’re able to pressure test your decision; Only after they begin to create experiences do we see whether the outcomes you’ve decided to prioritize are, in fact, those that matter most to those who control resources (whether they big funders or individuals who may purchase a ticket to visit).
To support museums in these articulation and creation spaces, we’re hosting two quite different event series this fall.
The Value Articulation Intensive helps museum directors develop sophisticated frameworks for communicating institutional impact to stakeholders who measure success through community outcomes rather than cultural outputs. This intensive focuses on translating research-backed evidence of museum value — including measurable wellness, social connection, and cognitive benefits worth hundreds of dollars per visit — into compelling narratives for foundations, government officials, and board members whose primary interests extend beyond traditional cultural appreciation.
The six-week program combines strategic framework development with real-world testing. Directors engage in actual stakeholder conversations during the program, refining their approaches based on genuine responses rather than theoretical scenarios. By completion, participants have field-tested value communication strategies and developed institution-specific implementation plans for expanding funding relationships beyond traditional cultural philanthropy.
Kyle Bowen and John Falk will lead the program, which is limited to 12 participants. Nine seats remain.
Designing for Playful Engagement is an applied reading group that explores how museums can create experiences that drive participant outcomes like act in new ways/do new things and experience moments of creative inspiration and/or imagination. This series investigates how playful approaches can ensure visitors achieve these desired outcomes. Together, we’ll read Ed Rodley’s new book and apply principles from the book to real projects that participants are tackling in their museums.
The program is facilitated by Kyle Bowen and Author Ed Rodley. It is limited to 24 participants, and there are 15 seats remaining.
The fundamental question isn’t whether your museum possesses valuable expertise — it does. The question is whether that expertise can evolve to serve community progress in ways that create sustainable institutional futures. The evolution doesn’t require abandoning professional depth, but rather expanding how that depth connects to genuine human needs and aspirations.