A look ahead to 2014 for UK museums

2014 has arrived, and what better way to celebrate than with a look ahead to what this year might hold for the UK's thriving community of museums and galleries? We've put on our thinking caps, dusted off the crystal ball and put together a list of the 10 things we think 2014 will bring for museums - both inside the profession and more broadly in the world around us - in no particular order! Are we right? What have we missed? Let us know what you think in the comments!

 1. More Visitors!

2013/13 was a bumper year for museum visitors, both from overseas and through domestic tourism. The era of austerity and the 'staycation' saw the British population visiting museums in their droves according to the annual DCMS 'Taking Part' figures. And it's happening everywhere - the recent 'Museums - Temple of Delight' article in the Economist showcased not only the increase in visitor numbers, but the changing demographics of museum visitors all over the world. We see this trend continuing as more people rediscover the sheer range of experiences and exhibitions our museums have to offer. 

2. Changing funding models...

As we move closer to the 2015 General Election, we are likely to see increasing pressure from Local Authorities to cut culture budgets and promote transition into independent Trust status. While there have been some positive experiences of this transition, the short-term impact has been a loss of skills, people and even venues. Only time will tell what the long-term impact of this changing model will look like post-2015. Will we see the wholesale attrition of LA-funded museum services, or will we continue on a part-funded, part-independent basis? We don't know, but we do know that history shows what a resilient community the UK museum sector is so we hope that enough will be left on which to rebuild in the future. 

3. ...resulting in Collections selloffs

One of the most unpalatable trends of 2013 (which still comes a distant second to people losing their jobs and livelihoods) was the Council-inspired selloff. Although it started with a murmur, the volume of the rumour-mill has increased all year, with more and more Councils openly targeting the economic value of collections as part of their thinking about finance, austerity and frontline services. In amongst the spin, rumour-mongering and brinksmanship is a genuine attack on one of the fundamental principles on which the museum sector rests, and we think that this battle is likely to come out into the open in 2014.

4. Going Local (even hyper-local)

Museums are responding to these challenges by doing what they do best - building meaningful relationships with the people and communities they serve. Success in this climate is likely to depend more and more on winning the hearts and minds of the local community, welcoming them in and inspiring them to stand up for their museum services. Since 2010, we have seen less and less of the 'big national initiative' stuff and more and more highly targeted local relationships. We see this gaining momentum as more people turn to their local services for options, inspiration and entertainment.

5. The year of iconoclasm

2013 saw some interesting signs of a new punk element emerging in museums. As we compete more and more for attention, museums are getting creative and more confrontational in the themes they address. The Iconoclasm show at Tate Britain is an early sign of what we think we will be an emerging trend in 2014, with more and more museums using their buildings, collections and audiences to address big, challenging questions. A quick look at the fantastic forthcoming exhibitions listings from Culture24 highlights themes like 'ruination', radical nudes and Brutalism in 2014! 

6. War, what is it good for?

Exhibitions, it seems! 2014 marks 100 years since the start of the First World War. With the Imperial War Museum and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport leading the charge, 2014 will see an unprecedented level of activity commemorating the War and helping people to understand its historical context. The excellent http://www.1914.org website charts hundreds of commemorative events and exhibitions around the country, and there is even a phrase - 'metal fatigue' - coined for people who find themselves just a little exhausted by the whole thing!

7. Open for business

2013 saw some very big players - the RijksMuseum, British Museum and Tate for example - leading the way in making their collections openly available for people to download, re-use and create new things with. We think this is going to be one of the key trends for 2014 - our team have been privy to some really exciting forthcoming announcements from museums large and small around the UK. With the support of the Wikipedia GLAM-WIKI community, we think 2014 will be the year that UK museums embrace openness as a key part of raising their profile and building new revenue streams.

8. 3D is dead, long live 3D!

One of the big technology trends we see impacting UK museums in 2014 is that while 3D TV may well turn out to have been something of a fad, 3D printing, at home, at work, at school and in manufacturing has only just got started. The fantastic Smithsonian X 3D project has already showcased just a few of the applications of 3D printing for museums, and now that 3D printing is being piloted by the Government in schools this trend is likely to grow and grow (watch out for an exciting event on 3D for Museums from the Collections Trust in the first half of 2014!)

9. Philanthrobabble

Museums are great at securing support - financial and emotional - from their audiences, and 2013 saw some interesting advances in seed-funding philanthropic investment to make up the shortfall in public subsidies. However, examples from more openly commercial museum communities around the world tend to show that philanthropy only really scales where it is attached to tax breaks. Under the current political climate in the UK, we think we're unlikely to see the implementation of a tax regime that genuinely promotes private and corporate philanthropy at scale. Unfortunately, we don't see this changing before 2015, so there may well be a lot of talk about philanthropy (which we'll christen 'philanthrobabble') but relatively little movement on making this a viable long-term part of the UK museum funding picture. 

10. Putting Collections to work

Well, we had to really, didn't we! For our number 10 trend for 2014, we think we will see museums really putting collections to work - either by finding more creative ways of engaging people with them, by opening them up to different kinds of use and even by taking more proactive approaches to collections development. We think we'll continue to see rationalisations across the sector, as our overall capacity to manage collections changes, but equally there are some exciting initiatives around contemporary collecting and collective collecting through shared initiatives. A key theme for the Collections Trust in 2014 is going to be finding ways of engaging other industry sectors - from healthcare to finance - with museum and gallery collections.

So that's our round-up for 2014! Obviously, we reserve the right to be wrong, but we would love to hear from you about what you see as the big opportunities for your museum or collection in the coming 12 months. However accurate or otherwise this list, we'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of our networks, collaborators, partners, sponsors and funders a happy and prosperous 2014!

The Collections Trust team.
http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/blog/2131-a-look-ahead-to-2014-for-uk-museums