Strategic Documents in the Museum Sphere: International Experience

Abstract

In some European countries, strategic development documents have alredy been included in the official standard of museum work, and this is gradually becoming a mandatory element of the museum management in the Russian Federation as well. In this regard, there is an urgent need for at least a general description of the scenario for preparing and structuring such documents. As evidenced in practice, the issue of creating strategic planning documents is still relevant for the museum sphere in Russia. One of the ways to solve this problem is use modern international experience. The article analyzes the formats of strategic plans created by individual museums and museum associations in the museum sphere of the United Kingdom and the United States. There are reviewed nine such documents. The article focuses on their structure, i.e. the main semantic elements and presentation format. In the preparation of strategic documents of museums, the following points can be noted: there is an obvious tendency to reduce the documents and present the most important elements in their final text. The elements usually include the following sections: mission (and/or values), main goals/activities and tasks, image of the future. Much less often, they include principles and analysis of the major challenges. The analytical part is usually not allocated to a separate section, being either included in an appendix, or designed as insets to the corresponding parts of the text. There is paid much attention to the visual appearance of strategic documents and their impact on actual and potential stakeholders: both texts and design are primarily aimed at the external audience. As evidenced in practice, the modern museum strategy is becoming not just a tool for museum management, but also an extremely important tool for public relations.