Instrumental museum and gallery policy: issues and opportunities

UK museum and art gallery policy can be described as being instrumental in nature. Since the 1980s museums and galleries, in common with the arts sector generally, have been used instrumentally by the UK government to attempt to attain objectives in social policy areas, such as resolving problems of social exclusion. This approach in the modern context has its origins in the introduction of the 'New Public Management' which was a response to fiscal pressures and an attempt by Government to manage the public sector by adopting principles and practices derived from the private sector. An interesting aspect of instrumental policy is that increasingly evidence is needed to demonstrate success in achieving policy objectives.

The policy response to the need to demonstrate impact has been the development of models that can be adopted by museum and gallery practitioners to measure impact, such as learning. The methodologies associated with these models have been difficult to implement, by practitioners, because of unresolved issues such as defining what learning is in a museum or gallery. While practitioners and policy makers recognise the difficulties associated with such an approach to policy practical solutions have yet to be identified. There is also a debate over how value can be described and increasing the concept of 'public value' is coming to the fore as a way of understanding how dialogue and engagement with users can guide policy construction.

The proposed workshops will bring together policy makers, practitioners and academic researchers to address these issues. This has not happened before, to any extent, as each of these sectors has their own methods of working and operates within a particular political environment. This means that the potential benefits of joint working, to all parties, have not been explored. Increasingly the possible benefits of such an approach are being recognised by, for example, the Museums, Libraries and Archive Council, the body that advises on and implements the development of museum and gallery policy in England. The workshops will also draw on the experience of the United States of America where museum and gallery policy is also largely instrumental in nature.

The workshops will result in a new collaboration between museum and gallery practitioners, policy makers and academic researchers to develop new partnerships and to share best practice. They will explore the impact of instrumental 'evidence-based' museum and gallery policy upon practice and develop possible new approaches to museum and gallery policy. They will also plan for future collaborative research that would involve all parties. The results of the workshops will be disseminated through publication, conference papers and a web-based resource. The group, once established, would address a range of other issues surrounding museum and gallery policy in the future.