The art museum as lab to re-calibrate values towards sustainable development

Abstract

Innovation and change have become major issues on the agenda of commercial, not-for-profit, government and local public organisations alike and are considered to be essential for our future. More recently companies have begun to recognize that current business models based on an abundance of natural resources are no longer sustainable and as yet unplanned but fundamental social system change is required. The implementation of such radical change requires combined efforts across a range of disciplines and fields of knowledge, including interpretative and expressive forms of cultural communication such as art. Indeed, culture is at the heart of system change because it directly influences individual behaviour. Museums, concert halls, opera houses and others present art as ways to explore how to stay meaningful in a world as both individuals and members of collectives or groups. Given the highly dynamic ICT driven environment and an increasing pluralistic culture at a global level, these institutions have the potential to play a crucial role in preparing for change, introducing new social desires and managing fear. At the same time as this growing recognition of the need for system change, the financial pressures on publicly funded cultural institutions are increasing due to stressed public budgets. A way needs to be found in which private companies and cultural institutions can develop mutually beneficial systems of support in order to promote sustainable social change across the board. This paper introduces a case study of a public cultural institution exploring its possible role inspiring and facilitating culture change towards sustainable development. It focuses on how an art museum can find ways to productively complement business innovation and sustainability agendas.Since 2004 the Van Abbemuseum, a publicly funded museum for contemporary art in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has performed a broad variety of experiments in artistic programming and public mediation aiming to deepen and renew its purpose and meaning. The focus of this case study will be on a business model innovation project that was executed in 2014, developing the idea of “art as tool – museum as lab” facilitating sustainable social innovation. It had four steps: (1) Value Proposition, (2) Value Creation, (3) Value Capture and (4) Lead User test. This business approach was deliberately chosen to create a “learning by doing” environment. The Van Abbemuseum staff aimed to develop a new value creation approach, to learn the language and understand the thinking logic to effectively engage with the new target audience: (business) leaders, decision makers and change facilitators.