This is a book for museum leaders, managers, trustees and staff, and all those who care about museums and are curious about how they work.
This new edition of the classic Manual that first appeared in 1997 is an exciting guide to managing museums in a time of sweeping changes. Renowned museum planner Gail Dexter Lord applies her international museum experience to create this comprehensive and detailed guide to the tools and strategies to successfully address today’s issues and opportunities, including climate change and social justice, repatriation, teamwork, technological innovations, community connections and building on the huge reservoir of public trust in museums.
With new case studies by 30 creative museum leaders from across the globe (half of whom are BIPOC), the Manual demonstrates the innovation and resilience of the museum sector today working toward multiple perspectives in learning, content and exhibitions and a non- colonial philosophy of management, creating a more human museum experience of caring empathy and equity for staff and visitors.
Key Features
- Tackles challenging issues like racial and social justice, climate crisis, repatriation, colonialism, unionization, working conditions and governance controversies.
- Shares an incisive analysis of sweeping changes in the museum sector.
- Presents practical hands-on advice on writing collection policy, security plans and budget process.
- Contains a detailed Glossary specific to current museum management terms.
- Offers a selection of mission, mandate vision and values statements from leading museums that can help museums write their own.
Q&A WITH GAIL
WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?
This is a book for museum leaders, managers, trustees and staff, and all those who care about museums and are curious about how they work. I touch on so many aspects of our work — like exhibitions, strategy, communications and technology. Museums are stable institutions, with enormous amounts of public trust, and museum staff are resilient. At Lord, we provide support and advice to museums and cultural organizations, and now they can now find it within these pages as well.
HOW IS THIS EDITION DIFFERENT?
Racial and social justice feature much more prominently, as does the climate crisis, and the need for clear values. Repatriation was previously referenced as a technical issue, not as a moral/ethical issue. Colonialism is very much in this book. There are also case studies on unionization, working conditions and governance controversies. And this edition really introduces the concept of teams in a huge way. Teamwork is the essence of museum management in our time.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
MMM3 features 30 case studies by diverse leaders from around the world, half of whom are BIPOC. This is a first, and a tremendous aspect of this book. Diverse viewpoints by people who are diverse is part of our philosophy at Lord. I love that this edition is bookended by two incredible contributions: John G. Hampton’s incredibly thoughtful and sensitive piece on “Decolonizing Museum Management” and Sandra Jackson-Dumont’s “How Museums can Matter More,” which is an amazing contribution that is beautifully written and so inspiring. I’m also so proud of the contributions made by our remarkable Lord team, who are so extraordinary at what they do.
WHAT CAN PEOPLE LEARN?
This book is designed to be very, very handy. We have so many clients who we help with collection policies, security plans, budget processes. We took all that great content out of the main body of the book and put it in the appendices, so the book can focus on storytelling, and the technical pieces live in their own section. A lot of that excellent content was written by my late husband Barry. And I love the Glossary, too. It’s very comprehensive and up-to-date. Lots of people ask, what's the difference between a feasibility study and a master plan? This will be so useful for them.
WHAT WILL PEOPLE TAKE AWAY?
A feeling of empowerment. We know we can’t create change overnight. We make change through good management, good professional practice, ethics and values.
About The Authors
Gail Dexter Lord is one of the world’s foremost cultural planners. She is also an art critic, public presenter, and co-author of six museum planning manuals and several books, including “Cities, Museums and Soft Power” (AAM Press 2015). Lord Cultural Resources was founded by Gail and Barry Lord in 1981 and grew to become the world’s leading cultural planning firm focused on museums, cultural districts, and the creative economy. With offices in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Madrid and Mumbai, Lord Cultural Resources has helped to create places, spaces and experiences in over 2,700 projects in 57 countries and 450 cities.
The Contributors
Joy Bailey-Bryant, President of the U.S. office and Managing Partner of Lord Cultural Resources • Frederic Bertley, Ph.D. President & CEO, the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) • Dr. Lisa R. Biagas is Chief Human Resources Officer at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts • Cheryl Blackman is the Director, Museum & Heritage Services, with the City of Toronto • Annemies Broekgaarden is Head Public & Education, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands • Kathleen Brown, Senior Practice Leader, Lord Cultural Resources • Karen Carter, President, Karen Carter & Assoc. Cultural Consulting • Muna Faisal Al Gurg, CEO of the Museums and Heritage Sector at Dubai Culture & Arts Authority • Dov Goldstein iManaging Partner, Lord Cultural Resources • Daniel Hammer, President and CEO, The Historic New Orleans Collection • John G. Hampton is the Executive Director & CEO of the MacKenzie Art Gallery • Ali Hossaini, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Engineering at King's College London and Associate of Lord Cultural Resources • Umbereen Inayet is a Multi Award Winning, TEDx Speaker, Curator, Artistic Director & Producer • Sandra Jackson-Dumont is a curator, author, educator, administrator, and public advocate for reimagining the role of art museums in society • Javier Jimenez Fernandez-Figares, Managing Partner, Lord Cultural Resources • Tim Johnson, Senior Advisor, Heritage and Legacy, Niagara Parks Commission; Senior Advisor, National Indigenous organization Plenty Canada; Indigenous Advisor, Lord Cultural Resources; Artistic Director • Mary Kershaw is the Executive Director and CEO of Museum of Northern Arizona • Judith Koke is a Senior Researcher and the Director of Professional Learning at the Institute for Learning Innovation • Cara Krmpotich is Director and Associate Professor, Museum Studies, at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto • Sri Anjani Kumar Singh is the Director General of Bihar Museum • Robert LaMarre, Vice President, Lord Cultural Resources • Natalie MacLean is a Senior Consultant on the Organization and Strategy Team at Lord Cultural Resources • Marc Mayer, a former Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada from 2009 to 2019, is a writer and independent curator based in New York • Gwendolyn Perry Davis is the Chief Operating Officer at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago • Terry Simioti Nyambe, Vice President, International Council of Museums (ICOM) • Sean Stanwick, B.Arch, M.E.Des (Arch), Director Facilities Planning, Lord Cultural Resources • Sarah Sutton and Elizabeth Wylie have been advocating and agitating for environmentally sustainable practices in the cultural sector for almost two decades • Yvonne Tang is Director, Visitor Experience at Lord Cultural Resources • Rosalia Vargas is the president of Ciência Viva, the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture in Portugal
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"I am delighted to announce the newest addition to the Lord library of books. Manual of Museum Management for Museums in Dynamic Change, the third edition of the classic, is an exciting guide in a time of sweeping changes."
Gail Dexter Lord
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"Being a museum Director is like being CEO of at least six different enterprises —education, research institute, facility management, hospitality, community organization and entertainment. Today we might add more areas of responsibility: social justice, economic revitalization, innovation and cultural diplomacy."
Chapter 1 - WHEN: Museum Management in Dynamic Change
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"The dynamic change museums are experiencing requires transparency, discussion, and dialogue."
Chapter 2 - WHY: Purposes of Museum Management and Governance
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"Museums are not isolated institutions, and in almost all cases they exist within a thriving ecosystem of people, communities, public and private agencies, learning and health organizations, work places, retail shops, food services, communications, networks, and other economic drivers."
Chapter 3 - WHAT: The Museum Ecosystem
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"We are in a long-term transition in which more activities will take place in augmented environments that blend physical and digital experiences. Museums should start planning to take advantage of information-rich, personalized digital channels."
Chapter 4 - WHERE: Location in the Digital World
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"Museums that preserve and display the culture of living societies must be particularly concerned to include members of the descendant
communities among their staff.
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Chapter 5 - WHO: Museum Staff
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"A common management deficiency is to create the appearance of consultation when all that was really intended was notification. It adds the injury of wasting time to the insult of not listening to people’s views and leads to cynicism among staff."
Chapter 6 - HOW: Tools of Museum Management
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"Museum Directors and staff need to develop programs to recalibrate donations and to reach out to a broader base of donors to achieve a more pluralist approach including non-profit social organizations and trade unions."
Chapter 7 - HOW: Managing Infrastructure
