The world is changing in quantum leaps — and museums must keep pace

Future Museum unites cultural leaders to understand change, compare realities, and apply cutting-edge know-how in their strategic decisions

Join phase iv

Museums everywhere face accelerating pressures — geopolitical, economic, social, and technological


Relevance is strained, resources are limited, and the expectations placed on cultural institutions grow faster than their capacity to respond

Future Museum is a global research community where museums, science centres, and cultural organisations work together to understand fast-changing realities and plan for the future


We combine strategic foresight, comparative benchmarking, and cross-sector intelligence to support evidence-based decisions

Methodology

The research project is organized in seven month research sprints.
Each sprint follows the same methodological arc:​

Understand

  • Collaborative scoping with project partners​

  • Identification of strategic challenges, day-to-day museum realities, and emerging tensions​

  • Desk research and literature mapping​

  • Formative interviews and trend harvesting​

Diverge

  • Wide-angle exploration through interviews, focus groups, and futures techniques ​

  • Gathering of diverse insights across regions and roles​

  • Early pattern recognition and insight clustering​

Converge

  • Structured synthesis using affinity mapping, thematic frameworks, and insight distillation​

  • Development of scenario drafts and strategy prompts​

  • Critical review and iteration in co-creation labs​

Validate

  • Resonance-check with partner institutions and external experts​

  • Finalisation of sprint outputs​

  • Guidance for implementation and institutional reflection​

Some of the outputs

Strategic foresight & participatory research​

An integrated report combining trend analysis with qualitative insights, workshop documentation, and stakeholder mapping, providing museums with a structured evidence base for long-term strategic development within the thematic domain.

Benchmarking

Comprehensive package comprising qualitative insight report, workshop documentation, and stakeholder mapping, capturing key insights, outcomes, and relationships to inform strategic development within the thematic field.

Case cards

Curated sets of cross-sector innovation examples designed to inspire museums with actionable ideas outside their traditional frameworks.​

Toolkits

A collection of adaptable strategic tools supporting museums in integrating foresight and innovation into their organisational planning.​

“We believed that joining Future Museum would have a tremendous impact on our ability to network globally and to share, learn from, and be inspired by how peer institutions are grappling with similar ambitions and challenges. And we were right!”

Julia Treumann and Lisa Key

Driehaus Museum

Stefan Isser

Swarowski Kristallwelten

“We find the global network of Future Museum intriguing from a variety of angles, particularly in regards to the ongoing evolution of the Crystal Worlds and the related experiences. Additionally, how we will organize and publicize exhibitions of our visitors. As a result, there is a lot to learn and grow from this platform”

“Future Museum offers insights from the larger panorama of diverse museums dealing with art, design, cultural history and some specific area of interest. This is enrichening.”

Mikko Myllykoski

Heureka

Some of our participants

Our evolving network
of research partners

Future Museum is financed collectively. Fees scale with institutional size, ensuring the cohort remains diverse and inclusive.

Find out more about
our research phases

Learn more

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