Making sense of art and design industries

By wkandinsky

I recently spent a Sunday afternoon visiting the very last exhibition at the Munch museum in Tøyen. ‘Everything We Own’ shows four of their collections by Munch and other artists. Arguably the title was a bit misleading considering this clearly was not everything they own. It’s simply everything that remains in Tøyen while they’re moving into the building in Bjørvika.

The exhibition can’t exactly be described as a “blockbuster” where they aim for the highest level of attendance and income possible. The Munch Museum itself even describes the different collections as having little in common. With the exception of including a few iconic artworks such as ‘The Scream’, the product portfolio was rather underwhelming and did not live up to the expectations of being an internationally recognized museum. So how does this characterize good audience understanding and communication by the museum?

First, in the last decades there has been a shift from product focus to audience focus. In order for the museum to achieve their economic needs they have to focus on what matters most to the audience.

When Edvard Munch passed away, he gave all his artworks to the municipality of Oslo. It is a gift for the people, while the museum functions as a service of society. What I found unique about this experience is the honesty and vulnerability of the curation. The exhibition includes history about what went wrong when two of the paintings was stolen from the museum. As well as an insight on challenges regarding the current moving process. Thus, they are involving the audience in the process which gives a feeling of ownership to the product, as well as the local culture and heritage.

Secondly, museums need to rely more heavily on marketing. Marketing for nonprofit museums are hard for several reason but is an essential tool nevertheless. We can consider how Munch Museum relates to its audience through the 4 P’s in marketing; product; price; place; and promotion:

Product
One can choose between buying a single ticket or become a member with additional benefits. The latter can help the museum analyze audience and improve loyalty. In the exhibition there were playful elements children could engage with as well as several benches elderly people could use.

Price
They use price discrimination on tickets depending on whether one is a student, child and so on. This helps raise attendance by reaching audiences with different incomes.

Place
Munch Museum is a signature building including a café, dedicated children’s section and conference room.

Promotion
They advertise in several public spaces and also target audience through different channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

However underwhelming the collection was, I still left the exhibition with the feeling of relating to the institution I was visiting. The Munch Museum serves as a good example of how being true to their values through every stage of the project development can benefit the audience.

https://munchmuseet.no/utstillinger/alt-det-vi-eier
https://www.facebook.com/events/munchmuseet/utstillings%C3%A5pning-alt-det-vi-eier-%C3%A9n-finale-fire-samlinger/2367709643299962/