Essay
Retooling for the Revolution: Framing the Future of Museum Management After COVID-19
Abstract
In March 2020, COVID-19 descended on American museums, exposing financial and operational fragility. It also exposed the limitations, harms and inequities of standard practices in museum management. The result was a widespread deaccessioning of staff, gutting departments that directly serve audiences and disproportionately impacting workers of color – a regressive step in a field moving toward decolonized and audience-centered practice. Despite the retrenchment, signs also indicate a revolution in progress. Key thinkers have argued that museums are making a long-term paradigm shift, from “being about something to being for somebody” (WEIL 1999). Responses to COVID-19 suggest that this shift has yet to penetrate the ‘deep structures’ of museum management. This article recognizes a museum “paradigm crisis” in which old and emerging systems coexist and conflict. Arguing that museums have neglected human-entered management strategies, it puts forward Bolman and Deal’s ‘Four Frames’ concept to build the managerial toolkit. Finally, it identifies priorities needed in an emerging paradigm: racial and cultural equity and diversity, compensation and wage equity, smarter work practices, and community care.
Keywords
2020 (2)
Museum - Politics - Management

Related Articles
Journal of Cultural Management 2016 (1)
Case Study
Journal of Cultural Management 2018 (2)
Research Article
Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy 2020 (1)
Essay
Wirkung und Qualität kombiniert
Ein Qualitätsmanagementsystem für TheaterJournal of Cultural Management 2017 (1)
Research Article
Der ‚Blick hinter die Fassade‘
Ansätze einer Tiefenanalyse von Evaluationen im MuseumssektorJournal of Cultural Management 2016 (2)
Research Article
Kann ich hier mitmachen?
Kulturproduktion und -rezeption im Kontext von ErwerbsarbeitsweltYearbook for Culture Management 2012
Essay
© 2023, Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Keywords
- aesthetics
- higher education
- cultural diplomacy
- career, professional role
- audience studies
- Business
- digitalization, digitization
- diversity
- empirical aesthetics
- entrepreneurship
- development, transformation
- ethics
- Evaluation
- festival
- film
- social change
- ideology
- staging
- communication
- Concert
- creativity
- culture
- arts organizations, cultural organizations
- fincancing the arts
- cultural history
- cultural economy
- cultural policy
- cultural sociology
- audience development, art education
- arts administration, arts management
- cultural industry
- cultural sciences
- art
- arts research
- curating
- artists
- leadership
- management
- marketing
- market
- media
- methods development
- museum
- music
- opera
- orchestra
- organization
- law
- community arts
- state
- urbanism
- dance
- theater
- theory development
- tourism
- civil society, third sector