Lord, Gail, and Barry Lord. 1999. The Manual of Museum Planning. Lanham, MD:AltaMira.
Missionstatements.com. 2011. Accessed September 14, 2014. http://www.missionstatements.com/fortune_500_mission_statements.html.
Murdin, Lynda. 1991. “All Change at Tyne and Wear Museums Service.” Museums Journal 91(10): 5.
Museum of Liverpool. 2013. Website. Accessed September 14, 2014. http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol.
Museums Association. 1995. Museum Briefing, 9: Advocacy for Museums. September. London: Museums Association.
Museums Association. 2014. “About.” Accessed September 14, 2014. http://www.museumsassociation.org/about/frequently-asked-questions.
National Museums Liverpool. 2010. Strategic Plan 2010–2011. July 23. Liverpool: National Museums Liverpool.
National Museums Liverpool. 2013. Website. Accessed September 14, 2014. www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.
Rainbow Centre, Singapore. 2011. “Vision, Mission and Core Values.” Accessed September 14, 2014. http://www.rainbowcentre.org.sg/index.php?id=21.
Rangan, V. K. 2004. “Lofty Missions, Down-to-Earth Plans.” Harvard Business Review 82(3). Accessed September 14, 2014. http://hbr.org/2004/03/lofty-missions-down-to-earth-plans/ar/1.
Scott, Cynthia D., Dennis T. Jaffe, and Glenn R. Tobe. 1993. Organisational Vision, Values and Mission. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications.
Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. 2011. Website. Accessed September 14, 2014. www.twmuseums.org.uk.
Tyne and Wear Museums Annual Reports. 1991/2–2000/1. Newcastle: Tyne and Wear Museums.
Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation. 2011. “Vision and Mission.” Accessed September 14, 2014. http://www.unladkabayan.org/vision-mission.html.
“Visitor Services Case Study: Tyne and Wear Museums.” 1998. Museum Practice. March 7:49–55.
Watson, Ian. 2012. “How Museums Can Make a Difference.” Museums Journal 112(4): 19.
Further Reading
Chamberlain, Gregory. 2009. “National Museum Liverpool: The Great Museum Experiment of our Time?” Museum Identity: Museums Galleries Heritage 1: 24–33.
Fleming, David. 1997. “The Regeneration Game.” Museums Journal 97(4): 32–33.
Fleming, David. 1999. “A Question of Perception.” Museums Journal 99(4): 29.
Janes, Robert R. 1997. Museums and the Paradox of Change: A Case Study in Urgent Adaptation. Calgary, AB: Glenbow Museum, University of Calgary Press.
Janes, Robert R., and Richard Sandell, eds. 2007. Museum Management and Marketing. London: Routledge.
Kotler, Neil, and Philip Kotler. 2004. “Can Museums Be All Things to All People? Missions, Goals and Marketing’s Role.” In Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift, edited by G. Anderson, 167–186. Walnut Creek, CA:AltaMira.
Kotler, Neil, Philip Kotler, and Wendy Kotler. 2008. Museum Marketing and Strategy: Designing Missions, Building Audiences, Generating Revenue and Resources. San Francisco:Jossey Bass.
David Fleming has been Director, National Museums Liverpool, since 2001. During his time there, he has completed major projects including the opening of the Slavery Museum, the Museum of Liverpool, and the project Into the Future, which involved the refurbishment of the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum. Before that he was Director, Tyne and Wear Museums for 11 years, and before that Principal Keeper at Hull Museums. David has spoken at many international conferences and published widely on museum management and leadership, city history museums, social inclusion, and human rights.
2
GOVERNANCE
Guiding the Museum in Trust
Barry Lord
Museums seem to be about objects, but they are really about people. Museums seem to be buildings with things in them, but they are really means of communication between people – people of all countries, people of the distant past, and the people of future generations. The three-dimensional objects in museum collections are the ways in which people of all times and places communicate with each other.
The governance of museums is therefore a trusteeship. Those who are given the honor and responsibility of governing our museum institutions hold the objects through which we communicate to each other over time and place in trust. The people of past generations and foreign countries must trust those who govern our museums to preserve the heritage held in them. Those museum governors are equally entrusted to hand down the legacy of the past and the present to future generations.
In order to fulfill this trusteeship, museum governors have a duty of loyalty and a duty of care. The duty of loyalty means that they put the interests of their institution ahead of any personal interests. The duty of care extends not only to the preservation of the heritage, but to its effective presentation and interpretation to museum users today. This trust is fiduciary, meaning that those charged with the responsibility should exercise the same care in managing its assets as a prudent person normally would for his or her own possessions.
Literature on governance
Most of the current literature about museum governance focuses on the role of boards and trustees (Fisher 1995). Marie Malaro’s 1994 text on mission, ethics, and policy, John Carver’s well-known book (1997), and the collections that Gail Anderson has edited (2000, 2004) are typical examples of studies that share this preoccupation. In fact, however, boards of trustees are by no means the most frequently encountered form of museum governance. Throughout most of the world, museums are line departments of national, state, provincial, county, or civic governments. Even where boards are operating, they may be advisory only, or may function only with a limited mandate established by the relevant government department. The contributions that my partner Gail Dexter Lord and I have made to the literature, such as our Manual of Museum Management (2009), while amply discussing the role of boards and trustees, have attempted to reflect this reality.
Modes
