Only 3 words, Nice and Necessary, is so compact, it might sound like a slogan. In fact, it encapsulates a surprisingly rich and useful perspective on museums and their positions in their communities, Many museums work to be both nice and necessary. They work to accomplish community level change and also remain welcoming, compelling, and delightful places to visit.
Since first coming into currency in the last 5 years, the concept of nice to necessary has been useful across a range of planning and professional contexts. It has helped spark museums in considering their public value, in working to increase their impact in targeted areas, and in sharing their work with colleagues at conferences. For some museum leaders I have talked with, nice and necessary has produced a significant shift in perspective and in articulating museum strategy.
Since first coming into currency in the last 5 years, the concept of nice to necessary has been useful across a range of planning and professional contexts. It has helped spark museums in considering their public value, in working to increase their impact in targeted areas, and in sharing their work with colleagues at conferences. For some museum leaders I have talked with, nice and necessary has produced a significant shift in perspective and in articulating museum strategy.
Twists,
Traps and the Necessity of Nice
Regardless of a promising start in working with nice and necessary, the
need to probe its potential to advance museums’ value to their communities
became apparent. What first seemed straightforward hid some interesting,
frustrating, but eventually useful insights.
Linking words that are seemingly opposite or at least appear to be at
odds with one another is initially intriguing. Challenges inevitably surface in
determining how these ideas relate to one another. From nice to necessary, the phrase I recall hearing originally, generated
an image of a continuum with nice at
one end and necessary at the other. It
suggested a progression with necessary
in a decidedly superior position to nice.
Could being nice be something to
avoid?
In general it is easy for museums to be nice, while they want, of course, to matter and be necessary. But even organizations and
agencies, like the fire department, police, or the food shelf that are
decidedly necessary, want to be nice. The food shelf tries to be warm and
welcoming. The fire department enlivens parades with fire trucks and welcomes
kindergartners on firehouse field trips. Representatives from the police
department show up at National Night Out block parties. Nice
has a way of being necessary.
Shining a brighter light on the either/or implication of nice/necessary suggested that by
becoming nicer, a museum might
subtract from being necessary. Amping
up ways to welcome and delight–an added outdoor bubble area, a well-outfitted face
painting cart, and jugglers to entertain families standing in long lines–would seemingly
pull from the contribution of conducting research on informal learning, public
lectures, or a science career ladder for youth. An approach structured around from/to
and either/or would interfere with a museum moving the dial on being both
nice and necessary.
Fortunately, representation of the complementary–not either/or–nature
of nice and necessary came into focus. Imagining nice and necessary mapped
separately to show their individual strength along with their interaction opened
up new possibilities. Plot them on an x/y axis to capture a museum’s role as a
destination experience and as a recognized and valued resource. A museum can
focus on ways to contribute to a more robust regional infrastructure around
health and well-being as well as being the
best place for celebrating birthdays, making mudpies, or skating in socks. In fact, plotting where a museum
currently lands as nice and as necessary can be a useful exercise for a
board or staff during strategic planning; locating where it was 5 years ago and
hopes to be in 5 years invites valuable discussion.
Two
Sides of the Museum Coin
Nice and necessary serve as two valued and complementary lenses for viewing
a museum, the roles it plays in its community, and how it pursues its goals. Recently, in preparing
for a strategic planning retreat, I decided to look into how this is expressed
across different dimensions of a museum. I found 6 principles operating pretty solidly.
Nice
+ Necessary each express the museum’s mission. Each is a response to community priorities in
ways that advance the mission. A museum is nice
as a distinct place or set of experiences that promise special or memorable
times for children and adults, families and friends. It becomes necessary
by honing its relevance with targeted resources and expertise in ways that
complement other community resources to help a community, if not solve, then
manage its problems.
Nice
is stronger in the early years of a museum’s growth. Organizations move from self-interest in the
early years to an increased awareness of and commitment to the common good. Building
the capacity to consistently deliver a well-choreographed museum experience
takes time and capacity. This, however, becomes the platform for understanding and reaching
new audiences, cultivating long-term partners, and developing approaches to
address community issues from early literacy development to water quality to
workforce development to health and well-being.
Nice
provides credibility and brand recognition for Necessary. Being outstanding at
being nice–being safe, fun, convenient,
knowing children and families by name, and being mission-driven–provides the foundation–
the visibility, credibility and brand recognition–for being necessary. Educators,
funders, and policy makers are more likely to have confidence in a museum’s
capacity to reach teen moms, engage girls in science, or impact health outcomes
if it has a successful track record in other areas.
Nice
+ Necessary support complementary strategies. Nice
and necessary open up and connect
with different opportunities and strategies for growing and sustaining a strong
organization in, for instance, diversifying revenue, cultivating support, and
expanding audience. A community foundation is likely to be more interested in
supporting a youth development program for low-income teens while the CVB’s interests
might run to hosting a summer festival.
Necessary
has low visibility. Recognizing the special events, beautiful building, or FaceBook
photos that characterize nice is relatively easy. The visibility of
being necessary, however, is low as
well as hard to reveal. Closing gaps, changing conditions, and turning
communities around take time, resources, and sustained commitment. Highlighting
change as it does occur is a start with dynamic, engaging, and varied methods including
research, evaluation, documentation, and stories.
New
territory for both Nice + Necessary opens up. With time, experience, new partners, lessons from
peers, and changing community priorities, museums recognize and explore new
opportunities for being both nice and necessary. By being deliberate in
being nice and necessary and through building the capacity to be effective in both
realms, museums find themselves pursuing opportunities they would not have
recognized or have been capable of pursuing previously.
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