Making museums count

COUNTING MUSEUMS

How many museums are there in New Zealand? What are their characteristics? Who needs to know and why? These are questions which participants in Museums Aotearoa’s recent New Zealand Sector Web Surveys are helping to answer.

For a country with a population of 4 million, New Zealand appears to be “museum-rich”, yet reliable statistics about New Zealand’s museums have been notoriously difficult to track down (see e.g. Abasa, 2003; Museums Aotearoa, 2005 pp 36-39). The New Zealand Official Yearbook 2004 reported “about 600 public museums and art galleries” (Statistics New Zealand, 2004, p. 223), then the 2006 edition lowers the estimate to “between 500 and 600” (Statistics New Zealand, 2007, p. 237). Meanwhile we hear of new museum developments proposed or in development, implying a growing sector. Problems in determining the scope of our sector and its activities arise from, among other factors, definitional issues, the variety of people and organisations who need information about museums, the uses for the information that they seek, and the willingness of museums to contribute key data.

WHAT IS A MUSEUM? ISSUES OF DEFINITION

One of the joys of museums is that their individual origins, collections, geographical locations, buildings, themes, activities, means of presentation and local communities combine to make each unique, so it should be no surprise that there is no single accepted definition of a museum. Equally idiosyncratic and complex are the governance and funding structures under which museums operate, adding to the difficulties developing a useful guiding definition.

As the industry body serving the museum sector, Museums Aotearoa (2007) has a very catholic, but not a comprehensive, membership. Its most recent Directory of New Zealand Museums and Art Galleries (Museums Aotearoa, 2007) collates the contact details for 461 museums, both members (162) and non-members (299). A glance at the 358 entries on the New Zealand Museums on-line website confirms the diversity of our “museums and related culture and heritage organisations” (http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz). While versions of the ICOM definition ( see box below ) may be preferred for many official purposes in New Zealand, e.g. the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, it is more inclusive than specific. Examples from overseas museum organisations ( see box below ) underline differing approaches to defining what museums are and do and who they are for.


Some formal museum definitions used in New Zealand 1. International Council of Museums (Article 3, Statutes as approved 27 August, 2007) A museum is anon-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and of itsdevelopment,open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches,communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible evidence ofhumanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study andenjoyment. www.icom.org Earlier versions are still in use in New Zealand. 2. Statistics New Zealand (1995) The collection, acquisition, registration, research into, conservation,communication and exhibition of the material evidence of people, theirculture and their environment, for the purposes of study, education andenjoyment by the general public and/or specialists. Included are theoperation of history, natural science, combined general science andhistory, applied science and technology, transport, maritime, militaryand other specialist museums, science centres, art museums, artgalleries and historical theme parks. Definition of “Museum Services” for cultural statistics purposes www.statistics.govt.nz 3. Museums Aotearoa (2005) A museum is an institution which is primarily engaged in collecting,caring for, developing or interesting the natural or cultural heritageof Aotearoa/New Zealand. For the avoidance of doubt the term includesmarae and exhibition galleries or centres, which are maintained on anongoing basis by other institutions. General definition www.museums-aotearoa.org.nz 4. Museums Aotearoa (2005) A museum helps people understand the world by using objects, ideasand art to interpret the past and present, and to explore possiblefutures. A museum preserves and researches collections of art, taonga,objects and information, which it holds in trust for society and makesaccessible in actual and virtual environments. Museums are establishedin the public interest as permanent, not-for-profit organisations thatcontribute long-term value to communities. Organisationsthat are referred to as museums include whare wananga, art galleries,whare taonga, tribal museums, cultural centres, marae, historic places,heritage sites, science centres, interpretive centres, open air museumsor exhibition centres, zoological and botanical gardens, aquaria andother entities that facilitate the recognition, preservation, andmanagement of heritage resources and the values that are attached tothem. Broader definition which guided the development for A Strategy for the Museum Sector in New Zealand , April 2005


SOME OVERSEAS DEFINITIONS See websites for amplification of these definitions. 1. MUSEUMS AUSTRALIA (2002) A museum helps people understand the world by using objects and ideas to interpret the past and present and explore the future. A museum preserves and researches collections, and makes objects and information accessible in actual and virtual environments. Museums are established in the public interest as permanent, not-for-profit organisations that contribute long-term value to communities. http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au 2. MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN (1998) Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society. www.museumsassociation.org 3. CANADIAN MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION (1995) A non-profit, permanent establishment, exempt from federal and provincial income taxes, open to the public at regular hours and administered in the public interest for the purpose of collecting and preserving, studying, interpreting, assembling and exhibiting to the public for its instruction and enjoyment, objects and specimens of cultural value, including artistic, scientific (whether animate or inanimate) historical and technological material. http://www.museums.ca 4. SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION (2000) Museums are dynamic and accountable public institutions which both shape and manifest the consciousness, identities and understanding of communities and individuals in relation to their natural, historical and cultural environments, through collection, documentation, conservation, research and education programmes that are responsive to the needs of society. http://www.samaweb.org.za/

How a museum characterises itself may also vary with circumstances, particularly for audience appeal. The word ‘museum’ may not feature in Highwic, Aratoi or Shantytown, but they each hold heritage collections which are interpreted for visitors. Maori involvement in the naming or renaming of museums, such as Pataka, Puke Ariki and Te Manawa, recognises the bicultural strengths of many collections and their staff and more culturally inclusive activities and audiences. There are a number of iwi-led cultural centres in the planning or development stages, which may, or may not, include elements or activities which align with functional definitions of museums. The balance of an organisation’s engagement with its communities of interest, mainstream museums, the education sector and the tourism scene often reflects its respective emphasis on collections or experiences for visitors at a particular point in time. While public perceptions may differ, if an organisation thinks it is a museum, then for most sector purposes, it probably is one.

SIZE MATTERS

While defining museums is problematic, eliciting analytically useful categories within the museum sector is equally challenging. The New Zealand Official Yearbook 2006 mentions “larger [museums] of which there are many” (p. 237) without providing an explanation of the size criteria used. Potential factors determining “size” might be: annual operating budget, number of paid staff, visitation figures. In theory, scale of collections and dimensions of museum building or site might be similarly valid. Findings from Museums Aotearoa’s initial New Zealand Museum Sector Web Survey (March 2007), suggest a practical approach to categorising museum “size” according to numbers of Full Time Equivalent paid staff (FTEs), as follows:

Micro museums 0
Small museums 1-5
Medium museums 6-20
Large museums over 20

The value of common descriptors in relation to museums cannot be emphasised enough – shared understandings of concepts such as “museum size”, “type”, the regions denoted etc. make museum data more useful for everyone ( figures 1 and 2 ).

For statistical purposes, the relatively small number of museums in New Zealand presents other practical considerations. The objective of the Surveys is to acquire a pool of national data which can be revisited over time and be looked at from differing perspectives. The various categories identified, and thus the choice of principal independent variables, also affect the ability to undertake meaningful analysis. It is also important as far as possible to avoid identifying individual institutions – a special challenge in a small sector in a small country.

WHO NEEDS DATA ABOUT OUR MUSEUMS AND WHY?

Data (as opposed to general information) about museums and their activities contribute to accurate knowledge of the sector on which policy and planning decisions canbe made. Individual museums themselves need to know where they fit within the museum scene for descriptive and comparative purposes as well as for planning and marketing. Museum sector data can assist in making the case for support to museum boards, local authorities, sponsors and funding sources. Identifying trends in, for example, visitation, educational activities, operational costs and staffing informs internal management decisions and financial planning. Tracking regional trends may suggest fruitful collaboration between museums for marketing purposes. Exhibition managers may reach new audiences elsewhere in New Zealand for their travelling exhibitions by locating regional venues with high visitation levels.

Nation-wide museum data are equally helpful to a range of public bodies. The Ministries of Culture and Heritage (MCH), Tourism (MOT) and Education (MoE) need to be aware of the full scope of the sector’s work and attributes in order to develop national policy and determine allocation of funds to museums to achieve Government goals. Local authorities, which remain the most common source of public funding for museums, can identify how museums can best assist Councils to meet their communities’ social, cultural, economic and environmental well-being outcomes. Regional tourism authorities can take stock of the contributions – actual and potential – of museums to the mix of visitor activities and foster their markets accordingly. Organisations which work across the sector, such as Museums Aotearoa, Te Papa’s National Services Te Paerangi and Local Government New Zealand, can tailor their activities and services to the sector, based on a realistic assessment.Museums Aotearoa can lobby for the sector effectively, knowing that its case is founded on sound information.

The availability of museum statistics also means that researchers and students can embark on the real business of their research without always having to start with a general survey of the sector. Museum directors and committee secretaries’ would welcome an end to the often weekly appearance in their mailboxes – both real and virtual – of requests to complete yet another questionnaire. Instead, researchers can select segments of the museum sector, focussing on new questions which will enable us collectively to advance our understandings of museum practice and effectiveness, and enhance the value of museums to their various constituencies.

LOCAL IDENTITY CRISIS? REGIONAL BOUNDARIES?

It makes sense to be able to organise the data according to users’ needs, and these are sometimes for regional data. This presents its own challenges; for example: what regional groupings make sense for users of museum statistics? We each have our own mental maps of New Zealand, which rarely coincide precisely with political, geographical or other boundaries. For some people, the old provinces remain their personal way of dividing up the country, while iwi distinguish the different rohe. Should our sector align its data with Regional Councils’ territories, or those of the Regional Tourism Organisations or those used by government agencies such as the Department of Conservation? The managers of MCH’s cultural activities website NZLive have even considered organising its entries by climate zones used by New Zealand’s meteorologists! For statistical purposes, the regional sub-groups should include an adequate sample of museums to allow for performing basic statistical tests.

COLLECTING THE DATA

Museums Aotearoa has taken the first step towards rectifying the gaps in our knowledge about the collective characteristics of the New Zealand museums sector. Both National Services Te Paerangi and Local Government New Zealand demonstrated their recognition of the need and public value of accurate, up-to-date museum statistics by contributing financial support. Willingness to provide the requested data increases with museum people’s awareness of the benefits to their own institutions and with them having the relevant information readily to hand. Making the survey process as easy as possible is the task of the research team: gleaning enough core data to be useful without making the task of survey completion into a burden.

The first of what is designed to be a regular series of annual surveys was distributed in February 2007, with the initial report appearing in March 2007, and further analysis published in a second summary in July 2007. The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI) at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has designed and managed the collection and analysis of the data for Museums Aotearoa. Using an established academic institution ensures that ethical research principles are scrupulously applied, as all research projects are sub-mitted for AUT’s Ethics Committee approval, and issues such as confidentiality and anonymity are addressed.

The intention is to build on the base-line data gatheredin the first Survey by repeating the questions about museums’ key characteristics, activities and funding in a regular annual survey to which will be added some further questions on specific topics determined by Museums Aotearoa. NZTRI uses participants’ feedback to improve the design and layout of succeeding surveys. The addition of supplementary thematic questions – in this case on museum staffing - was trialled in November 2007 and the results are currently being analysed.These latest findings will be presented at the Museums Aotearoa Conference in April 2008.

A web-based survey was chosen to simplify the process for respondents and to speed up the analysis. This approach assists the long-term retention of, and access to, the data. This also enables the research team to feed the information back to the sector quickly. The findings from 2007 and future years will serve the sector as a whole by tracking trends in museum characteristics and performance and signalling actual and potential issues. Like a barometer, the Survey findings allow us to see how the museum sector responds over the years to changing external pressures in the New Zealand operating environment. Individual museums can use the data to compare or benchmark aspects of their work against the wider sector.

GETTING THE PICTURE

Collecting key internal data not only support museums’ own operations, planning, monitoring and accountability, but also can feed more readily into the creation of a more accurate picture of the scope and health of the museum sector. As yet there is no standard way that those who manage museums in New Zealand collect or report their activities for accountability purposes (Legget, 2006), with the probable exception of financial data, which complies with formal accounting regulations. An intended outcome of the survey programme is to encourage museums to analyse their own performance. Visitation statistics are usually the most frequently reported non-financial data (Legget, 2006), but the approaches used inevitably vary considerably (NZTRI, 2007 p. 8), and a bald visit count tells us nothing about the qualitative aspects of the visit or the characteristics of the visitors. However, counting visits is a start, and if the 20% of museums responding to the first Survey who reported NOT recording visit figures (NZTRI, 2007, p. 7) now see the value in doing so, this will be a positive step for the sector as well as their own performance monitoring.

Just as a snapshot is better than no image at all, so an annual Museum Sector Web Survey offers a picture taken at one specific point in time. Collecting the basic data every year, together with additional data on selected areas of museum endeavour, will enable us to record the changing shape of the sector through a time series, discern trends and patterns and plan better for the sustainability of New Zealand’s museums. The greater the number of museums which participate, the clearer and more detailed the series of pictures will become. As they say, “you have to be in to win” – when every museum participates, there are both individual and collective winners.

COUNTING FOR SOMETHING

Consider how much more seriously the sector will be taken when museum representatives front up to a Select Committee, taking a position on the issues which impact on museums’ sustainability and national contribution and supporting their case with current, reliable data about our sector. Museums Aotearoa’s surveys will allow us all to understand more fully the sector in which we work, and they will also demonstrate that museums really count for something.


References Abasa, S.F.M. (2003). 'Cultural Statistics – Reflections on A Measure of Culture: Cultural experiences and cultural spending in New Zealand'. Te Ara – Journal of Museums Aotearoa 28 (2), 52-53. Legget, J (2006). Mapping what matters in New Zealand museums: Stakeholder perspectives on museum performance and accountability . A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management. Massey University, Albany, Auckland. Unpublished. Museums Aotearoa. (2005). A strategy for the Museum Sector in New Zealand , April 2005 . Wellington: Museums Aotearoa. Museums Aotearoa. (2007). Directory of New Zealand Museums and Art Galleries 2007 . Wellington: Museums Aotearoa. New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (2007). Museums Aotearoa New Zealand Museum Sector Web Survey . Wellington: Museums Aotearoa. New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (2007). Executive summary New Zealand Museum Sector Web Survey . Wellington: Museums Aotearoa. Statistics New Zealand. (2004). New Zealand Official Yearbook 2004 Wellington: Statistics New Zealand Statistics New Zealand. (2006). New Zealand Official Yearbook 2006 Wellington: Statistics New Zealand. Websites Museums Aotearoa: http://www.museums-aotearoa.org.nz NZ Museums On-Line : http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz New Zealand Tourism Research Institute: http://www.nztri.org.nz