3rd Stakeholder Forum: MOI! Evaluation for Impact, May 2021

Nordic Stakeholder Forum, Monday 10th of May 2021

The MOI Stakeholder Forum for Nordic museum professionals was an opportunity to get to know this European co-operation project and the tool it is developing for museums better. The project aims to help museums to increase their impact by supporting them in evaluating and refocusing their work actively and according to their own strengths and strategies. The final result of the project will be a European self-evaluation framework based on the concept of developmental evaluation.  

This event, which marked the third open Stakeholder Forum of the project, was dedicated to the Nordic museum sector.  Event was organised by Finnish Heritage Agency and Finnish Museums Association. We wished to create an open exchange on what Nordic museum professionals consider crucial interfaces between museums and their impact in society. These views are important to help us build a strong, current, and agile development tool that best serves the museums in their capacity building and impact-oriented management. We are leveraging evaluation for impact.

The event programme (pdf) featured a short introduction to the MOI! Museums of Impact project and a presentation on the concept of developmental evaluation as a tool. These presentations provided further information on the project and the concept and purpose of the tool.

A round table discussion gathered experts to discuss the power of museums as changemakers in the society and the potential for impact that museums as institutions have today. Susanna Pettersson from Nationalmuseum in Stockholm moderated the discussion.  

In the afternoon, participants were  invited to give their own input on developing the self-evaluation framework in workshops facilitated by the project partners. The workshops discussed the different areas of impact museums can have, and the possibilities and challenges of using self-evaluation as a tool. This input from different stakeholder landscapes across Europe will provide valuable information for the development of the framework.

The event was held in English.
The event took place in ZOOM webinar. The event was recorded and will be available after the event on the project website.

PROGRAMME

PART 1 INTRODUCTION AND ROUND TABLE

11:00 - 11:15

Welcome and Introduction, Leena Tokila, Director of Training and Development, The Finnish Museums Association

Leena Tokila, Director of Training and Development from MOI project partner Finnish Museums Association opened the Forum by outlining the bigger picture of museums and societal impact, and the role and benefits that self-evaluation has in this context.

Presentation in YouTube

11:15 –11:30
MOI! Museums of Impact Project Presentation, Marianne Koski and Eeva Teräsvirta, Senior Advisors, Finnish Heritage Agency
MOI! project team members Marianne Koski and Eeva Teräsvirta work as Senior Advisors in Finnish Heritage Agency’s unit for Development of the Museum Sector. They are cultural heritage management and development experts and part of the team responsible for The Evaluation and Development Framework for Finnish museums. In their presentation they introduced the MOI! Museums of Impact project in a nutshell as well as briefly discussed the concept of impact and the aims of the project.

Presentation in YouTube
Presentation pdf


11:30 - 11:45
Developmental Evaluation, Petri Uusikylä, PhD, Frisky & Anjoy
Petri Uusikylä has worked with the Finnish Heritage Agency in developing the Evaluation and Development Framework for the Finnish museums. In his presentation, he addressed the questions related to the role of evaluation in the process of developing European museums. He believes that evaluation is needed to identify what works, for whom, in what respects, to what extent, in what contexts, and how. A new developmental and systems-driven evaluation approach is urgently needed for evaluating the effectiveness and impacts of museums in complex environments.

Presentation in Youtube

Presentation pdf

11:45 -12:00
Experiences in using an Evaluation Framework for Museums, Miikka Kumpulainen, Curator, The Museum of Central Finland
Miikka Kumpulainen works as a curator at the regional Museum of Central Finland. In his comment speech, he shared experiences and insights on the use of self-evaluation in museum work and the benefits of self-evaluation to museums.

Presentation in YouTube
Presentation pdf

12:00 –12:15 Break

12:15–13:15 Round table discussion: Museums as changemakers
Cultural heritage and cultural organisations represent great societal value. The closing of museums due to Covid-19 demonstrated the strong symbolic value that museums have in our societies. The panel discussed museums' role and impact as well as the biggest challenges and opportunities for the future. Are we doing the right things? What should we start doing differently?

Moderator:
Susanna Pettersson, Director General, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Round table speakers:
Olov Amelin, Director, Jamtli, Östersund
Guðbrandur Benediktsson, Director, Reykjavík City Museum, Reykjavík
Niklas Cserhalmi, Director, Arbetets museum (The Museum of Work), Norrköping

Presentation in YouTube


PART 2 WORKSHOP

14:00 15:45 Workshop Session

The workshops in the MOI stakeholder Forum were intended to provide an open space for museum professionals to discuss and reflect on museums as important actors and agents in achieving social, cultural and economic impact. The new developmental evaluation model needs these expert discussions to be able to focus on issues that are considered the most relevant and important in the interface between museums and their communities. The results of the discussions will influence the formation of the new development framework and help us to create a relevant tool for all museums with impact at its core. 

The participants were asked to join three smaller discussion groups to allow for engaged exchange of views. The groups  were led by a moderator who facilitated the discussion and reported key findings in the following plenary session. The participants were asked to reflect and express their views on e.g. what the key impacts that museums can have in society are, or how they see the museums' role in building e.g. resilience in society. They were further asked to assess the usefulness of the proposed tool in their everyday work, operations and strategic planning. 

14:00 – 14:10 Introduction (10 min)

14:10 – 14:55 Workshop Session 1 (45 min)
How do you see the museums’ role in society? How can museums build futures and act as changemakers?

14:55 – 15:05 Break (10 min)

15:05 – 15:45 Workshop Session 2 (40 min)
How do you see developmental evaluation as a tool for museums? What benefits and challenges do you see in using a self-evaluation tool?

PART 3 CLOSING SESSION

16:00 –16:45 Summary of Workshops and Closing Discussion

MOI Project Leader Pirjo Hamari from the Finnish Heritage Agency summarized the workshop discussions together with the workshop moderators.

Presentation in YouTube