Strategic Issues Faced By Museum Of Contemporary Arts In Australia

Discussion

In this report strategic issue encountered by Museum of Contemporary arts that is situated in Australia has been identified and analysed with consideration of Porter’s generic strategy framework for better evaluation of issues. Also some recommendations are made for improvements which are also supported with strategic framework for understanding of their appropriateness. Hence the study is aimed to provide a broader understanding of different aspects of strategic concepts and practices.   

According to Zbuchea (2015) with growth in widespread interest and investments both at regional and international level, there seems to exist less skepticism situation on the rise of stimulated demand for museums specifically towards contemporary art forms and Museum of contemporary arts that is located in Australia. This enhancement in attention has been driven through different imperative initiatives and demand for heterogeneous arts that has generated and sustained audience growth. So in order to continue this rise in interest and demand from audiences and investors it is indeed very essential for everyone engaged within the Museum of Contemporary Arts (MCA) that is located in Australia and which includes different forms of stakeholders interest such as artists, curators and programmers, educators, marketers to develop experiences that fulfill both the learning curiosity and recreational expectations of new audiences. As per ownership model MCA is a nonprofit organization or a charitable foundation with aim to exhibit, collect and conserve art forms not only from Australia but from all over the world with a social cause to preserve and unfold immense cultural and historical relevance of these art works.  But before strategic initiatives for redesigning art for MCA are undertaken it is significant that major strategic issues that had been encountered at MCA are adequately identified and then analyzed, to design appropriate strategies that could match new needs.    

Strategic issues faced

The contemporary art world: the conventional art museum experiences of the past decades which were appealed due to their composure and contemplative magnitude have now transformed with change in audiences expectations and interests. The new age museums like Museum of Contemporary arts (MCA) have now emerged as places of substantial excitement, festivity and marvel.  However this comparatively swift radical change is not without its own risks that are accompanied along with change. Differences appear when the Museum of Contemporary arts (MCA) is enforced to control between its conventional roles as a curator of arts antiquity and the demand to enfold popular culture with its attachment on festivity and entertainment (Mann 2017).  This is due to the fact that in today’s business scenario the Museum of Contemporary arts is forced to hold its economic demands in place both on art exhibition and preservation through expansion of audiences needs and financial grants that support these museums from the community, as such they are bound to fulfil emerging change in audiences expectations to keep growing in future.

The role of the museum:  according to Kendall (2017) art museum is normally considered as communal spaces that unfold experiences of arts for artist, civic bodies and audiences. So they are in charged with serving the general public as well as are responsible as research bodies, moreover being liable to serve as treasury for valuable cultural materials. As such the Museum of Contemporary arts (MCA) is responsible to be an institution that not only represents the significant art collections but also demonstrate responsibility to preserve and sustain these cultural materials.  So the biggest strategic issue that is encountered at MCA is to maintain and execute an approach where the art museum can remain a space for both activism and cultural enrichment simultaneously without intervening each other’s interest and attractions. So the issue that is likely encountered at Museum of Contemporary arts (MCA) is to keep an effective equilibrium between vibrant, socially oriented programs and the proposition of contemporary artists, curatorial research and publications, educational discourses which is one of the vital objectives for Museum of Contemporary arts.

Strategic issues faced

Amongst the various issues that are encountered by Museum of Contemporary arts in today’s business scenario can be categorised into three core area which stand out, these are: (Holtorf 2017)

• A rapid shrink in supply of adequate capital and grants from government of Australia as well as the private enterprises towards lending a support for acquisition schemes.  Moreover the support from government of Australia, private and corporate collaborations are becoming largely difficult to find due to weak tax incentives. As such the maintenance of infrastructure of Museum of Contemporary arts within the global economy during the period of financial instability is largely becoming more difficult which needs urgent and compelling support from external agencies.
• Also with a rapid declining supply of arts materials from established old artists or established relevant work forms available for procurement the focus of Museum of contemporary arts is becoming far more contentious than ever before. As much of the best historical art work are out of the financial domain of Museum of Contemporary arts in the present condition so curatorial staffs of the museum work actively to recognise and purchase primary work of contemporary arts. Hence small museums in specific have become the new marketplace for contemporary art forms which have emerged sooner than it was expected for Museum of Contemporary arts. In today’s scenario the art works of contemporary artists are being procured so rapidly that it has intensified the competition for the latest works by elite and admirers. Today there is less time for reflective interpretation, research and study of the cultural and historical art creations that impacts the making and gathering of these new works.
• Art museums like Museum of Contemporary arts are under immense pressure in today’s scenario to provide a variety of entertaining and amazing programs offerings which has influenced in negative manner and has shortened the development time. Moreover cultural interpretation has become compressed and the unfolding of marginal, rare or visionary intricate art works has become largely difficult which is a matter of concern for MCA.    

Lack of information on contemporary materials: although there has been some vital progress in knowledge level of conservation staffs in MCA in context to material used in contemporary arts specifically modern paints but still there persist lack of information regarding materials and the manner they may change with age, storage, treatment or transit. This is severe concern at MCA which is impacting proper preservation of art works.

Inappropriate conservation treatments: according to Tanja, Ozretic-Dosen Durdana and Vatroslav (2017) the conservators at Museum of Contemporary arts commonly have to conduct treatment of art works with restricted arrangement of proper materials and treatment options. So this lack of conservation treatment along with lack of expected understanding of materials or procedure and/or long term outcomes of improper usage is another issue that affects MCA.  Two prime aspects hinder the development in this area i.e. absence of research that is focused on development of new and innovative conservative treatment and absence of adequate experience or case examples on which conservators can examine the long term success of earlier treatments that are normally carried out. In several instances this has led to unwillingness by conservators of MCA to carry out treatment works which in turn means that in future more conservators will have access to even less case examples over which they could set the success or failure of treatments.  

Ethical issues: according to Komarac (2014) several difficult decisions are encountered by conservators of Museum of contemporary art which exert complex, ethical dilemmas and in several instances there are clear debates within conservation staffs as well as among artists on the manner to solve differentiating values. Art history and preservation has conventionally held an opinion that each area of art form, has a meaning and understanding but this is now being re-examined when it comes in context to contemporary art works. Not only is there definite preservation indistinctness when it comes to material and meaning of contemporary works but also there is a natural resistance to putting down adapting possibilities for works that have not yet lived in the world. As such there seems to be a specific demand for more engaged integrative conversation with other area of art experts like historians, curators and for more scope for abstract research studies to be attempted to solve such ethical dilemmas. Some common issues that raised in past few years were a need to rethink and review conventional and rigid role definition of conservators, artists, curators, dealers, valuer and agents, recognising and communicating various set of values in work of contemporary arts in context to meaning, function and decisions and the manner these will be amended with time, establishing certain ethics for conservation of transitory art; assessing future implication of making replicas of art works specifically for those that have changed completely with time and developing proper forum for discussions of issues in cross-disciplinary channels.  

Lack of information on contemporary materials

Documentation: according to Carter (2016) at present a lot of time and resources are invested in collecting information on contemporary art for the purpose of documentation specifically for collections within museums such as MCA. However this generates its own issues in specific to the need to consider various new elements in work of contemporary art that must be documented beyond physical object like in context to relevance, value and meaning of material. As adequate methodologies are lacking so this creates issues in development of effective strategies for documentation of contemporary art works. As such it is essential to that a more standard nomenclature is developed to ensure documentation is conveniently shared and interpreted for contemporary arts.   

Particular issues that were noted included need to provide more description on decision related to treatment (or not) for art material, more information from artists, gaining access to other unpublished archives of conservators, developing a procedure to document web art, developing methodology to represent the patinas on bronze sculptures etc.   

Circulation and information sharing: although there exists professional networks like INCCA (The international network for the conservation of contemporary art), AMIEN (Art materials information and education network) etc but these are less put to use which is one of the issues at Museum of Contemporary Arts. Though such networks are compelling platforms for generating more effective forms of distribution and information sharing these are not utilised fully.

Education and training: according to Held (2014) it has been identified that training and awareness of more conservators in contemporary art is primary for progression in the area and majority of training sessions have already attempted to respond to this need. But there remains a considerable contradiction on the manner to most appropriately attain adequate training for conservators and on the manner to identify and respond to limitations of current educational archetypes. Moreover other level of awareness and training opportunities is also less available such as pre-program and mid career possibilities which is another issue at Museum of Contemporary arts. For instance it was observed at MCA that there is urgency to consider cross disciplinary tracking at training programs to move ahead of traditional material based learning’s, recognise new skills levels for contemporary art conservators, set possibilities for more research and conservation science works, set scope for sabbaticals or mid career exchange, develop public awareness on different issues and widen demographics of area to attract students from different background of education styles or subjects.   

It is suggested for MCA that in order to overcome the current identified strategic issues it can apply:

• Focus to reprogram their art museum by collaboration of well known and experienced curators, educators and artists who would work towards redefining the role of conservators as well as role of MCA towards research based conservation of art forms and simultaneous focus on entertainment value for audience attractions.  This partnership would help to develop compelling focused strategies that would differentiate the offering of MCA through differentiators focus outlook (Boutard 2016).  For instance MCA can look towards specific needs and new ways to display and promote contemporary art to offer a more effective and engaging viewer experiences.  This would broaden differentiation focus that may not be served by others. Moreover using technology to enhance viewer experiences with specialist knowledge of conservators would enhance interest of audiences. It would also improve MCA’s brand identity to build better customer loyalty due to focus on audiences.  
• Focus to expanding better communication technologies with interactive platforms of Internet of Thing (IoT) applications that would enhance and represent transcultural experiences within the museum. This focus would help to boost engagement with audiences so that valuable art forms of MCA that is represented in their collections are dissipated and useful knowledge reaches to audiences.     
• According to Brida, Dalle Nogare and Scuderi (2016) focus to engage a wider cross section of art experts such as historians, artists, conservators and collectors to enhance communication in various discussion of sharing of information more effectively on aspects of conservation, research and treatment decisions would help to address current issues of MCA. This is because of engaging more art experts and non art experts like structural engineers, technicians would help to widen the share of relevant advice and experiences on various issues and forms of artwork, thus building effective awareness within experts of cross section domain.  

In order to solve the identified strategic issues the recommendations provided are based on Generic Strategy Framework proposed by Porter. According to Johnson, Gerry et al. (2017) t’his framework suggests distinctiveness of strategies based on cost, differentiation and focus which are basic approaches that can lead business to attain competitive advantage.   The cost leadership approach includes attaining competitive advantage by becoming low cost provider in domain of business activity while differentiation includes offering unique aspects that are largely valued by customer to permit premium pricing. However focus strategy includes aiming to a specific domain of business activity and subsequently personalising the offering to meet needs of particular segment to the exclusion of others. It is further sub divided into cost and differentiation focus where cost focus is cost focused strategies and differentiators is focused on differentiation.

Inappropriate conservation treatments

The recommendations for improvement of strategic issues encountered by MCA are based on differentiation focus strategy which is appropriate as it concentrates on widening specific needs of audiences who visit museums through differentiator’s outlook that is specifically based on reinforcing and reprogramming approaches in collaboration with various cross section experts and research based archives. These would focus on improving technological integration to differentiate and build better viewer’s experiences with effective interactive techniques that would engage audiences. Also differentiation focus is suggested through specialist knowledge of conservators and employees at MCA which will make information dissipation better for audiences and they could connect with art forms that are exhibited.  So suggestion and evaluations are focused on specific segment and domain of activity which justifies the framework.

Conclusion

Thus it is evident from this study that Museum of Contemporary arts has specific strategic issues that are associated with role of contemporary arts against traditional art forms which are perceived to be more theoretically preservers of antiquity of art compared to contemporary forms. Also there is less clarity on role of museum as institution to conserve arts against entertainment value that is more stressed nowadays to keep with customer demands. Also lack of other issues such as awareness and training, ethical and documentation which have been identified as concerns of MCA can be improved further with better knowledge provisions for staffs and collaborative approaches for decisions to respond adequately to emerging needs. All suggestions and approaches are evidenced with generic strategy framework for better applicability of understanding.

References

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