The Future of the Museum in the twenty-first century: recent clues from France

Xavier Greffe (), Krebs Anne and Sylvie Pflieger ()
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Xavier Greffe: CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Krebs Anne: Musée du Louvre
Sylvie Pflieger: CERLIS - UMR 8070 - Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 - UPD5 - Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: The vast majority of public funded museums are suffering severe and continuous declining resources. But we can wonder whether the economic crisis explanation is the sole credible culprit or if the current situation reveals a more fundamental disequilibrium. The traditional tripartite basis of the museum – the collection itself, its educational function, and the professionalisation of competences – is increasingly destabilised, and an increasing number of museums are asked to become ‘cultural centres' and social capital producers. Considering the recent evolution of French museums, we describe three main economic models that can sometimes overlap. The ‘Branding Museum': in this case museums are increasingly looking for new kinds of income-generating activities, such as the merchandising of by-products, publication of written or audio-visual materials, research and consulting services offering, and more broadly, exploiting their intellectual property rights. The ‘Event-driven museum': such museums organise cultural events, exhibitions, concerts, conferences, and so on in the hope of attracting both faithful and new visitors, and thus remaining financially sustainable. The ‘Empowering local community museum': resource-poor in tourism and funding, such museums are seen at best as public spaces for local meetings and debates, or as hosting places for art events of purely local interest, on the increasing basis of voluntary work.

Keywords: empowering local community museum.; event-driven museum; branding museum; business model; structural crisis; Financial crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, 2017, 32 (4), pp.319-334. ⟨10.1080/09647775.2017.1313126⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01516506

DOI: 10.1080/09647775.2017.1313126

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