Do you [really] know your mission?
Museums, we have a mission problem. Maybe plain language can help fix it.
From Argentina, to Mexico and New Zealand, governments are adopting the Plain Language, which requires officials to use simple, easily understood language when communicating with the public. Simple English is also mandatory for all government printed and digital materials in the UK for several years.
Plain language has several advantages: a more inclusive democracy, particularly for people with lower levels of education, people with disabilities, older adults, and those who need documents translated. It also saves money and time. Considering this, why do museums have such a hard time being simple?
It’s quite an international phenomenon: most of the time, museums speak their own museumesque language, as Maria Vlachou called it. Those institutions frequently use conceptual discourse, expert terms, and specific vocabulary or knowledge the visitor doesn’t necessarily have. We usually blame art museums, but science, history, and city museums are not innocent at all. When discussing writing in a more accessible way, professionals and institutions consider this as dumbing down content for the audience.
And we can see the reflection of this in the most recent Museums and Branding survey series (download the complete report). In the 2022 survey, we proposed two questions in a sequence to cross the data. The first is a straightforward YES/NO question: Do you know your museum’s mission statement by heart? Considering that it should be the one thing every staff member should know, the 63% claiming to know their museum’s mission was not much impressive. The other 37% spoke louder.
It followed with this question: What is the role of the mission statement in your museum? The results show that in only 44% of the museums, the mission statement guides everything the museum does. Furthermore, 21% understand the mission as too generic, with little impact on everyday decisions. In other cases, the statement is not shared, and staff has no idea what the mission is (14%). Other 9% of institutions have no mission at all. When we add them up, it’s clear that 40% of museums are dealing with some mission problem (generic, not shared, or no statement).
Not easy to keep it simple
The resistance to adopting simple and clear language may be behind that problem. When we ask teams about the museum’s mission or institutional presentation, we usually get some interpretation, a version, or a remix of random concepts. Rarely do we get every single word from different professionals in an institution.
Let’s take the example of the Luxembourg City Museum. It’s a 110-word statement with three sentences (35 words, 24 words, 52 words — when 20/25 words are the max recommended length):
Collect, preserve, document, exhibit and transmit continuously the cultural (tangible and intangible) heritage of the City of Luxembourg from the 10th century to the present, by situating it in a national, regional and European context. Treat socio-cultural subjects in a historical perspective by organising exhibitions and educational and cultural programmes that meet the current concerns of the different visitors. Help to develop the cultural identity of the capital and to strengthen its role as a pole of attraction in the region, thereby assuming a role as a protagonist for the sustainable development of the city by serving as a forum for an open discussion on the urban heritage and society issues.
Some museums like the Museu de Arte do Rio, for instance, seek to promote a transversal reading of the city’s history, its social fabric, its symbolic life, conflicts, contradictions, challenges and social expectations. It’s a beautiful museumesque language proposition when you look into it — no question about it. But could they rephrase it for a more comprehensive engagement, considering its role as a public museum? If museums are a public service they should comply with the simple language. Could they embrace a communication style that focuses on the audience’s needs?
One survey participant answered the question, What is the role of the mission statement in your museum?, with this: “It guides some of what the museum does.” That summarizes the issue. Museums are comfortable to be partially understood. Until we fix that, their mission statement will remain part of the problem.
Do you want to open this conversation in your community?
If you want to invite Cultivia for a presentation or workshop, please get in touch. We are also available for short/medium-term onsite immersions to help museums and other cultural organizations listen to their audiences, generate institutional transformations, and build public trust.
