[BCMA] Museum Benchmarking?

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Hi Chris

It does seem to be getting harder to access good data on museum operations in Canada.  Perhaps StatsCan is ratcheting back its work on museums.

I noticed that the data you are looking at is pretty interesting.  In the mid-2000s, I calculated the 'cost-per-visit' of operating the Art Gallery of Ontario - and it was over $78, which is pretty high.  Of course this figure includes all the behind the scenes work of museums, but still, with the current focus on museum performance measures being rooted in corporate trends of attendance and finance, it is important to shine a light on all of these numbers.  

One thing that continues to amaze me about the museum world is how the measures of success are not rooted in the living cultural issues and needs of community.  Instead, they are rooted in rather traditional metrics related to museums being a niche of the entertainment industry.  At the recent BCMA conference there were many conversations about how best to broaden the measurement focus of museums to include metrics that address the changing cultural issues of our day.  For example, how do museums become more involved in the forces that are re-shaping culture?  The museum in Kitimat is moving in this direction.  So too is The Reach in Abbotsford.  But the metrics are not well established.  There are no formulaic approaches to these metrics, although the 2010 version of the Critical Assessment Framework (CAF) that I spoke about at the BCMA conference (and which is available for download through my websites - douglasworts(dot)org and worldviewsconsulting(dot)org - may be helpful in generating relevant performance indicators). The CAF was developed by a group of us, know as the Canadian Working Group on Museums and Sustainable Communities, who worked together to develop tools and methods for museums to 'foster a culture of sustainability'.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers!

Douglas Worts
Culture and Sustainability Specialist, WorldViews Consulting
Associate, The AtKisson Group
Toronto, ON
<dcworts at douglasworts.org>

On 2013-11-07, at 11:25 AM, Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <bcma at lists.vvv.com> wrote:

> Hello all--
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions on where I might find some good Canadian museum attendance and financial performance data to benchmark against? I found information about the StatsCan Industry survey, but it only includes totals, not averages. Perhaps the CMA has something? The American Alliance of Museums has a useful-looking tool (http://www.aam-us.org/resources/assessment-programs/benchmarking), but I'd rather not pay for American data if Canadian info is instead available.
> 
> In particular, I'm looking for figures relating to things like average cost-per-visitor, revenue-per-visitor, attendance averages per type of heritage attraction, etc.
> 
> Thoughts, suggestions?
> 
> 
> Chris.
> 
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