Communicating the social impact of museums

PEOPLE working in museums believe in their ability to change lives, enrich communities and make cities better places to live. However, despite the positive social impact that museums make, staff still have a lot to do in sharing this aspect with the public.

From when a visitor walks through the front door, museums act like they are selling only an experience.

Museums show artefacts and artworks among others, but staff members ought to know that their work involves more than that. Shouldn’t a visitor to a museum feel that they are supporting an organisation with values that coincide with their own, a place that makes a meaningful difference to its community?

There is real value in museums framing what they do this way and communicating the meaningful work that they do within their communities.

This needs to be done, not in an annual report which only a handful of people will read, but more boldly. Museum workers should be able to display in the reception a dashboard of monthly activities that show what the institution is achieving beyond visitor figures.

Can museum workers hang banners outside the museum that highlight the impact that the institution has on its immediate community by working with, for example, people with dementia or at risk youths, rather than just talking about your exhibitions?

We need to use our skills as storytellers to communicate the wider work that museums do. While we might not like to admit it, some people think of museums as fetish places holding statues and archaic objects, but by talking about all these, museums can start to change that perception.

I think that museums are already engaged in an enormous amount of social good, and this seems to be a rising tide.

But it’s not enough to take social action; we need to shout about it.

• Jayeola is Principal Heritage Officer of the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan, Oyo State