Tools for increasing the social influence of a cultural institution

Thursday, 25. may 2023

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The Estonian National Museum participated in two international projects dealing with the needs and challenges of cultural institutions as they relate to the social impact of these institutions and their data-based decision-making. As a result of the cooperation, instruction material supporting the development of museums and cultural organisations were prepared and are now available in Estonian and English.

The activities of museums and other cultural institutions increasingly depend on their ability to communicate with communities and visitors. This starting point of focusing on the people should find its way into the institutions' development plans and self-evaluation models. At the same time, when analysing developments it is also necessary to understand the impact of the organisation on society.
As a result of the two projects, guidelines were put together that help cultural professionals understand how one or other activity affects society, as well as helping to and the data-based possibilities for an assess of the impact.
 
The MOI! Museums of Impact project has developed the MOI Framework to help museums discuss, evaluate, and choose development goals in order to increase their impact in society. The free-to-use framework and tools are currently fully available in English and Estonian. Finnish, German, Italian and Icelandic translations will soon be published.
The MOI Framework complements existing models of quality requirements and impact measurement by focusing on internal capacity development in museums, helping organisations take control of the impact they have. Based on the MOI Framework, it is good to have a development plan as you can rely on it if you need to set new goals, for example when there is a change of manager.
 
The Me-Mind: Museums, Events, Measuring Impact on Local Environment with Data Analytics project has designed and created the Impact Canvas, a tool that should suit cultural and creative organisations that are interested in creating value and generating impact, but also in developing new ways of working with the support of data. 
For example, when developing an exhibition, with the help of the guidelines the curator can take into account the exhibition’s social impact as well as collecting the data necessary to understand impact in the planning process.
 
Toolkits

• MOI self evaluation model: https://www.erm.ee/et/MOI and https://www.ne-mo.org/about-us/resources/moi-self-evaluation-tool.html
• Toolkits: Data and CCIs. Data collection methods for CCIs: Data-based Cultural and Creative Industry organisation https://www.memind.eu/illustrated-guidelines/
• Toolkit: Impact Canvas for Cultural and Creative Industries (https://www.memind.eu/impact-canvas-en/)